Errors spotted in new Gary officials’ pay submissions

• Reprints

Updated: January 25, 2012 5:24PM

GARY — Two key new hires of Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson made simple reporting errors that, if undetected, may have sent them inappropriate paychecks.

The errors were discovered in a close look at the Jan. 24 claims that went before the Board of Public Works and Safety on Wednesday.

The board signed the claims that included the first payments for newly hired Communications Director Chelsea Whittington and Corporation Counsel Niquelle Allen, both of whom were awarded six-month, $47,000 contracts last week.

But, the paychecks would’ve been too big or too small depending on what dates they used on their reporting forms.

“It was a mathematical error we’re fixing now,” Whittington said. “It was a dollar amount that was incorrect, and I divided by the wrong number of pay periods, plus we didn’t take into account my late start date.”

In an e-mail statement last week, Freeman-Wilson said Whittington, Allen and Mary Cossey, head of the newly formed Office of Constituent Affairs, were hired on short contracts to use available funds, while the city would also seek help from “community corporate partners” to help pay the salaries going forward.

They don’t receive health insurance or other benefits, and there was no discrepancy in Cossey’s payment.

Calculating 13 pay periods, Whittington and Allen should receive payments of about $3,615 every two weeks, or about $1,807 a week.

Instead, Allen submitted to Chief of Staff B.R. Lane an invoice for $3,916.67 for the period Jan. 2-13, which would be a raise, while Whittington submitted an unsigned invoice for $1,958.33 for four days, from Jan. 6-20, according to the claims.

Because Lane apparently did not sign the claims, they would have been rejected when they reached the finance department, said Controller Celita Green, who, along with Allen and Deputy Mayor Delvert Cole, signed the claims after the board meeting Wednesday. Finding the reported errors brought earlier attention to the invoices.

“Neither (invoice) was signed by (Lane), or so I was told, but both of them will have to be redone and signed,” Green said.

A breakdown the bi-weekly payments to Whittington and Allen may have avoided any mistakes, but their contracts don’t itemize the payments that way, Green said.