Centro San Antonio’s embezzlement scandal has gotten worse.
The amount of money allegedly stolen through a complicated fraud scheme has ballooned to $260,000.
The now-former employee who allegedly concocted the scheme never went through a background check.
She was a convicted felon.
This is unfathomable. A basic background check would have prevented all of this. If a background check had happened, the employee in question, Alicia Henderson, would never have been hired, much less been given open access to Centro’s books. Her bank fraud conviction, past charges of theft by check, and bankruptcy history would have been caught. Pat DiGiovanni would still be Centro’s president and CEO. And an important community organization focused on revitalizing downtown wouldn’t be swamped in an embarrassing scandal.
But a background check didn’t happen. DiGiovanni has been forced to resign, and Centro is regrouping.
A question to consider: With millions of public dollars flowing through Centro each year, how could the environment be so lax that a new hire, and an especially important hire, would not undergo a background check?
DiGiovanni has said he interviewed Henderson but didn’t make the hiring decision, according to Express-News reporter Richard Webner. That responsibility fell to Tony Piazzi, Centro’s chief operating and financial officer.
If so, Piazzi should be held accountable. But that doesn’t absolve DiGiovanni. As the organization’s leader, the buck stopped with him. It was his responsibility to ensure proper hiring practices were in place, including the very basic step of conducting a background check.
It was his decision to entrust Piazzi and others. This was a very poor decision.
Don Frost, Centro’s board chairman, has rightfully said as much. But what about Centro’s board? After all, it’s filled with top executive talent, and yet a financial scandal persisted for several years under its watch. Clearly, the board must be more involved — and critical — of operations.
That might mean a new board composition or a restructuring of duties. One obvious and needed change is the inclusion of a city official on the board’s finance committee.
While Centro is a nonprofit, it is also closely affiliated with the city of San Antonio. City Manager Sheryl Sculley and two other city officials serve on its board. But Assistant City Manager Lori Houston told Webner none of the city officials served on Centro’s finance board, meaning no one from the city was in a position to possibly catch any financial wrongdoing.
Maybe a city official would have caught the scheme. Maybe not. But this dynamic has to change.
While no public funds appear to have been stolen in the embezzlement scheme, Centro handles millions of city dollars each year to manage the Downtown Improvement District.
City officials should be overseeing how funds are spent to protect public dollars and to preserve the city’s image. Centro and the city are inextricably bound.
This scandal is particularly painful because it is self-inflicted and such a breach of public trust. But there is an opportunity here for Centro to emerge as a better organization. That better organization requires a board much more intimately involved in day-to-day operations — not micromanaging but providing better oversight.
This is just as important as hiring Centro’s next leader, who should offer a much-needed focused vision but also will have to repair the organization’s image.