Hutto Council voids 15 severance agreements with employees

The Hutto City Council has voided 15 severance agreements made with former employees from 2017 to 2019 because the agreements were never approved by the council as required.

Information about why the council never knew about the agreements was not available Thursday.

The council unanimously passed an ordinance voiding the agreements at a meeting on Thursday night. City Council Member Tanner Rose said during the meeting that the agreements were worth a total of about $400,000.

“For three years we basically gave away $400,000 for reasons unknown,” Rose said.

The agreements were approved by city officials other than the City Council but information about who signed them was not available Thursday. Information about the names of the former employees who are affected by the council’s decision was also not available.

The ordinance the council approved also releases the 15 former employees from any nondisclosure agreements they had to make.

“They will be able to talk and it may give them peace if they can share their experiences,” said Council Member Mike Snyder. “I think the public is going to be very happy that a dark part of our history is going to be potentially exposed.”

The council approved hiring a firm in June to conduct a forensic audit of how the city lost $2.8 million in reserves during the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

The audit was expected to take eight weeks.

When the forensic audit is complete it will provide advice on whether or not the council should seek repayment of any of the money already issued because of the 15 severance agreements, said City Attorney Dottie Palumbo on Thursday.