More scrutiny possible for county-government staff with second jobs | ARLnow.com

Employees of the Arlington County government may soon feel an additional set of eyes watching over any employment moonlighting they might be doing.

County Manager Mark Schwartz on Tuesday (Nov. 19) told County Board members he was considering beefing up oversight of rules related to outside jobs (or self-employment) among those in the county workforce.

Excepting the police department, “we don’t have regular compliance audits,” Schwartz told Board members. “I’m giving some thought of how we would do that.”

The county government’s employment policy requires that workers receive advance written approval from department directors before engaging in any secondary jobs. That approval must be confirmed annually.

Among the criteria, “outside work should not conflict with the employee’s responsibilities,” Schwartz said.

“That may seem obvious,” Schwartz said, but isn’t always.

The rules for those covered by collective-bargaining agreements in public-safety agencies are similar but have their own nuances. In the police department, for instance, beyond getting the approval of the chief, employees are prohibited from working as private security or in investigatory or bodyguard roles, owing to the potential for conflicts of interest.

County employees also must comply with rules handed down from the state government. One that can occasionally trip up local-government workers in Northern Virginia suburbs: there is a prohibition on moonlighting in federal-government positions.

If there is no specific auditing of whether employees are following the rules, how do county leaders learn about possible transgressions? Schwartz said in some cases it is employees turning in coworkers through the government’s waste/fraud/abuse hotline.

“I don’t want people to think there’s been more than a handful, but I think that is actually a very good resource,” Schwartz said.

Reports, which can be filed by phone or online, can involve conflicts of interest as well as falsification of records; misuse of county resources; procurement irregularities; bribes, kickbacks and illegal gratuities; embezzlement; and theft.

County Board member Takis Karantonis, who serves with colleague Maureen Coffey on the government’s Audit Committee, said residents should be reassured that the number of confirmed cases of malfeasance were “abysmally small.” Schwarz guesstimated the total figure at “low double digits” over the past few years, and said some employee-on-employee reporting proved to be unfounded.

“Sometimes one employee is annoyed by another” and puts in a complaint, he said.

The county manager said he would be following up with a more robust report later, but Board member Susan Cunningham said she was appreciative of the update.

Board members are “eager to make sure we had all those checks and balances in place,” Cunningham said.