SAN ANTONIO – A City of San Antonio audit described its Neighborhood & Housing Services Department as having an environment vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse, records obtained by KSAT Investigates show.
The 21-page audit, completed a year ago this week, stated that a lack of oversight within the agency caused ineffective and inefficient management of its home improvement programs.
The public document was included in a trove of records obtained by KSAT Investigates earlier this year.
Multiple investigations by the city also revealed questionable actions by employees of NHSD, which runs several renovation programs funded by taxpayers, housing bond money and federal grants.
Housing administrator signed work order in place of dead homeowner, causing confusion
In early 2024, a change order for additional work was filed for a home on Vickers Avenue undergoing city-funded minor repairs.
But the signature that appeared on the homeowner’s signature line was that of then-public housing administrator Ann Eaton.
The form notes that the home’s owner had died.
Eaton’s decision to sign in place of the deceased owner caused confusion within the city attorney’s office about who was financially responsible for the additional work: NHSD or the man’s heirs.
“Without any written approval from the heirs to the home, the heirs would be justified in arguing that they are not responsible for any additional contractual amount incurred via the change order as the change order was not previously approved by the original homeowner or the heirs to the estate,” a summary of the city’s subsequent investigation states.
Reached for comment via telephone, the son of the deceased homeowner told KSAT he was not consulted about the additional work and had not signed any paperwork for it.
Eaton did not respond to requests from KSAT seeking comment for this story.
She resigned from the city months after this incident, while under investigation for getting discounted foundation work on her personal residence from a city contractor.
During an interview with KSAT, NHSD Director Veronica Garcia declined to say whether Eaton is eligible for rehire.
Garcia answered questions about the audit’s findings and other investigations conducted by the city regarding NHSD staff, but she repeatedly declined to address whether disciplinary action resulted from those probes.
A city notary admitted notarizing a document without the pertinent records — recreating a page that contained his signature and notary stamp — during a minor home repair on a residence in the 2900 block of Michael Brian, files show.
“This decision was made because of time and wanting to push things through,” the notary wrote in a signed statement in July 2024 that was included in the city’s investigation of the incident.
“Additionally, under the direction of Ann (Eaton), I have also had to go to homeowner’s residences to obtain signatures after project is complete. This means that there was not a signature in place before a particular change order work was done at a home. This is not the policy we are expected to follow,” the notary wrote in the same signed statement.
After questions were raised about the paperwork for repairs done at a property in the 200 block of Mayfield Boulevard, an NHSD special projects manager admitted to altering dates on some records with the owners’ knowledge.
“Today, I would not do that because the records need to be accurate,” the manager wrote in a signed statement in July 2024.
The audit concluded that some NHSD home improvement projects were approved despite missing required eligibility documentation, denial letters were created during the audit and backdated, and work change orders were executed without obtaining prior approval.
“Many of these items were process related. Employees did not personally benefit from their actions, there was no financial harm to the city or to the homeowner from actions,” Garcia said.
She said after the audit results were released, NHSD moved to strengthen its policies and improve program oversight.
The agency instituted staff retraining and developed a quality assurance process, the audit states.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.
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