Top level worker placed on leave

A memo urging a closer audit of a former Pinellas contractor brings swift suspension.

By LISA GREENE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 21, 2002

Turmoil swirled Tuesday around another high level Pinellas County manager in one of the departments formerly run by fired manager Rick Dodge.

Kelly Brady, chief financial officer for the county's WorkNet Pinellas agency, was placed on paid administrative leave this week after sending a memo to county commissioners and County Administrator Steve Spratt.

Her memo calls on the county to do a detailed audit of how Lockheed Martin IMS handled welfare clients during its short-lived welfare services contract with the county. The company terminated the contract last year and the county is being sued by Lockheed.

"I believe that my job is in jeopardy because of my knowledge of these issues and my continual support of the need for a forensic audit," Brady wrote.

A forensic audit would look at each client's bills rather than reviewing a random sample.

Brady could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Dodge was a strong proponent of performing a forensic audit, and commissioners have said he clashed with Spratt over issues involving Lockheed Martin.

"I do think the timing is rather interesting," said County Commissioner Karen Seel. "I don't think there's any fear for her job."

Commissioner Ken Welch, a member of the WorkNet board, said he had never heard Brady mention the need for a forensic audit before her memo.

"I think it was inappropriate, given that we're in litigation," he said of her memo. "I found the whole incident unusual."

Other audits on the contract have been performed. An audit from KPMG told county officials that doing a more expensive forensic audit wasn't necessary because so many problems already had been found.

Spratt wouldn't discuss the memo and Bonnie Moore, director of WorkNet Pinellas, did not return calls. Moore wrote to Spratt on Tuesday, telling him she had put Brady on administrative leave with pay for insubordination.

"Providing the memo to you and others without my knowledge breaches the trust relationship between us," she said.

Brady joined the county in December 2000. Her most recent evaluation, in December 2001, gave her an "excellent" rating and a 7 percent raise to her $66,000 salary.

Brady's memo says she met with Spratt him, Moore and Dodge in January to discuss Lockheed Martin. At that time, she wrote this week, she told the group that Lockheed Martin could owe the county millions.

"All of us agreed that a forensic audit was needed, but eight months have passed without one being started," she wrote in the memo.

But Seel took a different view. Why hire an outside auditor, she said, when staff reviews and the completed audits already show the problems?

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