Audit: Ruiz stole $2,817
By Zsombor Peter - Staff Writer

GALLUP — City officials can finally put the scandal that pressured former City Clerk Ruth Ruiz to resign last year behind them.

Staff were confident they had accounted for all the money she embezzled from the city over the course of five years, but insisted on waiting for the results of the annual city audit before putting the case to rest.

That closure has arrived. In his report to the City Council this week, Jack Emmons of the Accounting and Consulting Group quoted the same figure $2, 817 city staff came up with months ago.

"I don't think there's any more money to be collected," Emmons said. "No more was taken."

It was one of a half-dozen violations cited in Gallup's 2005 audit, approved by the City Council 4-0 in Bill Nechero's absence.

Emmons described them as relatively minor infractions. But in these post-Enron times, he said, even the minor infractions had to be reported.

"Today, almost anything we can find, no matter how minor it may be, is going to be in the report," he said.

According to the report, the city also failed to follow through on a 36-cents-per-hour raise it had awarded an employee some two years ago. The audit suspects that city staff accidentally overlooked the raise because the old and new wages $14.04 and $14.40, respectively look so similar.

Still, the oversight baffled Assistant City Manager Larry Binkley. He was a little surprised the mistake could have slipped by "three sets of eyes" the personnel department, payroll department and, finally, the employee herself for two years.

The oversight probably cost the employee some $1,500, according to Binkley. He said she was reimbursed as soon as the mistake was uncovered.

The audit also cites the city for not depositing Fitness Center revenues on time on one occasion and failing to obtain state certification before erasing the hard drives on a batch of computers it threw out. According to the report, the city was unaware of the state laws requiring it to obtain state approval before erasing government hard drives.

The audit goes on to cite the city for two groups it funnels federal money to but has no financial responsibility for.

It cites the Na'Nizhoozhi Center, Gallup's substance abuse treatment facility, for failing to make the quarterly reports required by the conditions of its grant, and the Gallup Housing Authority for a former employee who failed to maintain a proper tenant wait list.

The audit does not mention whether the Housing Authority employee actually affected anyone's housing, and Director Doug Thornton couldn't say either. Thornton said he was not aware of any applicant getting housed out of order, but did not rule out the possibility.

He could not say much about the employee's fate, either. The audit only describes her as a "former employee."

"Her employment with the Housing Authority was terminated," Thornton said. "I cannot go any further than that. I think you know how lawsuits can get started."

Speaking of lawsuits, the city never pressed charges against Ruiz, who, officials say, has fully reimbursed the city for what she stole. In hopes of preventing a repeat situation, the city now requires poll workers to provide mailing addresses and other personal information. It also forbids the city clerk from paying poll workers any longer. Starting with this week's referendum on liquor sales, they'll have their checks mailed to them.

After more than 23 years of public service in Gallup, Ruiz abruptly resigned last May when presented with evidence that she had embezzled $440 during municipal elections in 2003 and 2005. According to city officials, the former city clerk wrote out four checks for $110 each to poll workers who neither worked the polls nor received any money. Instead, all four checks were deposited into Ruiz' personal bank account.

Further investigation uncovered 13 more checks dating back to April of 2001, the largest of them worth $410.

Accounting and Consulting Group, incidentally, is the same company that audited Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital during the years that some $11 million in debt went unreported. But it's a different branch of the company that's doing the city's audit, according to Binkley, one specializing in government agencies.