MIN CHC 1999-09-08 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

overzealousness, they kind of commit the County's resources without knowing that we have a process, but then it's not fair to the vendors who get stuck, so we generally accept that it's a mistake that was done. Hopefully, it will not be repeated, and we try to cover it but still, this language, just `knowingly', makes some of us very uncomfortable. IRVINE: But what you're telling us is that they do it unknowingly. TAKAHASHI: Yes. Well, they do it unknowingly, but people who have to process the paper, at that point, knowingly have to process the paper, that some process has not been followed. RAY: In other words, they get caught into a situation. TAKAHASHI: We get caught because my staff, or the department staff - IRVINE: Oh, I see, okay. TAKAHASHI: This applies to government employees and it's not fair to them. It can be loosely construed that well, you knew and you still processed it. But there was no willful intention to do that. I'm not familiar with what kind of legalistic language would provide additional protections, but it's really not fair to some of the employees who have to deal with these processes. It's generally the clerks, the lower echelon, they just process paper, that would get caught, and it's not fair for them. It hasn't happened yet but, the way we see some of the challenges occurring, it could well occur. !RV!NF: By the time they're dealing with it, you haven't been able to bring it into compliance with the Charter. Is that what you're saying? TAKAHASHI: The Charter or - yes. The Charter requires that there be a duly made appropriation. iRV1NE: A which? TAKAHASHI: A duly made appropriation. IRVINE: Oh. T AKAHABHI: And there may be occasions where somebody just went out and said, we need the material, just bring it, not checking whether there's ample monies available or appropriations. RAY: I've been involved in a lot of those volunteer projects where we've 37