Holyoke City Council seeks answers about cash taken and then returned

An employee was fired and the entire $17,500 was returned to the city, officials said, but questions linger.

Holyoke City Councilor Todd A. McGee

HOLYOKE – The City Council wants reports from the Police and Law departments about a Council on Aging employee who was fired in March after money went missing.

The case involved meals provided to senior citizens at the War Memorial, 310 Appleton St., through the School Department lunch program in which officials learned that $17,500 in cash was gone, officials said.

All of the money was returned to the city, but some councilors Tuesday questioned why no criminal charges were filed.

Ward 6 Councilor Todd A. McGee, who filed the order, said the city getting the money back shouldn’t shift focus from the money having been taken to begin with.

“In the real world, if I took $17,000 from anyone in this room, would you be happy to be made whole? No, I’d be next door in court waiting for a hearing,” McGee said.

Ward 7 Councilor John J. O’Neill agreed. The city sends a bad message by letting an employee simply return money to the city after taking it without other consequences, he said.

“That’s the message the mayor has sent and it’s a shame,” O’Neill said.

But City Solicitor Lisa A. Ball said that the issue was hardly so simple and that the city’s reasoning for the decision was discussed with councilors weeks ago.

In discussions at the time with city police detectives, she said, it was determined the best course of action – since the employee admitted to responsibility and returned all the money – was against seeking a criminal complaint.

Ball, who has experience as a defense lawyer, said that because the money was all cash, it would have been difficult to trace and prove in court beyond doubt that it was taken.

“It’s amazing to me that, months later, they’re bringing this up. We did explain everything, to my satisfaction and to the councilors’ satisfaction,” Ball said.

One of the meetings in which the decision was explained was a few months ago at a session of the City Council-School Committee Subcommittee, attended by councilors Kevin A. Jourdain, Aaron M. Vega and O’Neill, Ball said.

“No one looked back at me and said, ‘You shouldn’t have done it this way,’” Ball said.

She declined to identify the Council on Aging employee who was fired.