7news blew open the story of the car theft licensing at City Hall on Thursday and since then the administration and political directorate of the City Council, which had been hanging slack on the allegation of misconduct, sprung into action.
A disciplinary hearing was held on Friday and today the Council issued a hard-talking release disclosing a policy of "zero tolerance" to irregularities and abuse. The release says that at closed Council meeting this morning, it was decided that former Documentation Officer Kenyon Lord should be dismissed immediately. Too bad, because he quit on Friday.
Second, it says that a Council internal audit needs to continue its investigation and disciplinary hearings need to be held for two additional employees who have been implicated thus far.
Third – all files coming form the internal audit will be forwarded to police and the Director of Public Prosecutions for possible court action.
The call to righteousness would be inspiring if it weren't so terribly late, coming only after a news expose of what had been documented since October of 2009 and confirmed in a Council internal audit a month ago.
The council says it is upgrading the process for the registering of vehicles to make sure this doesn't happen again. And the system desperately needs upgrading because as Traffic Manager Kevon Jenkins has confirmed to us, the Department was used as a private hustle by employees working in tandem with stolen vehicle dealers.
On Thursday, he told us of one such case involving a stolen car that was pawned.
Jules Vasquez Reporting
" There's a vehicle that it appears was taken for a test drive but it was actually stolen and brought here to be illegitimately licensed. And then immediately pawned next door. Am I right?"
Kevon Jenkins, Manager, Traffic Department
" Totally correct. That was the information I received and I have the paperwork that proves that. And again, that vehicle was a vehicle from out-district that was licensed out-district and again one of my employees just printed out the registration, gave a license plate and automatically the person went and pawned out the vehicle."
Jules Vasquez,
"A vehicle that he was taking on a test drive."
Kevon Jenkins, Manager, Traffic Department
"On a test drive. Well, we found that out after the whole thing was busted. That was what happened with this specific vehicle."
Jenkins noted that the registration for that vehicle was not even found in the records of the Traffic Department and had to be forwarded to his attention form a third party who had been exposed in the vehicle theft.
