Austin officials are treating the firings of three former high-ranking city IT employees over undisclosed outside work as a personnel and ethics matter, even as Dallas police investigate two of the former employees over their simultaneous work for both cities.
The Austin City Auditor’s Office is conducting an internal investigation and expects to publish a report in August, Brian Molloy, the office’s chief of investigations, told the American-Statesman. Austin police are not currently investigating the matter criminally.
The case involves former Austin Chief Information Security Officer Brian Gardner and former Senior IT Enterprise Architects Hawre Sulaiman and William Snead, whom Austin fired in March after officials discovered undisclosed outside employment. City employees with direct knowledge of the situation previously told the Statesman that Sulaiman and Snead worked simultaneously for both Austin and Dallas in similar technology leadership roles, while Gardner operated a separate, undisclosed business.
The three employees did not respond to emails requesting comment. Gardner and Sulaiman previously declined to comment or identify their attorneys.
The Dallas Police Department previously confirmed it had an open criminal investigation into the matter but it did not respond to follow-up questions from the Statesman regarding the status of the probe or what charges might be filed.
Austin officials said the city has taken a different approach based on the “information available,” but they did not say what that information is.
“Based on the information available, this did not rise to the level of a criminal investigation,” city spokesperson Jenny LaCoste-Caputo said in a statement. “For the City of Austin, the matter was considered an ethics and integrity issue rather than a criminal matter and so was resolved as a personnel issue.”
If the auditor’s office determines that a criminal violation may have occurred, LaCoste-Caputo said, it will provide that information to the Travis County District Attorney’s Office and the Austin Police Department.
Molloy said his office has not made a criminal referral. Austin police could open an investigation later, he said, but proving a specific amount of stolen time or money could be difficult given the nature of the case.