The former mayoral aide at the center of the city's credit card scandal didn't leave empty-handed when she resigned in July.
Lisa Serna-Mayorga received a payout of $4,727.30 in unused vacation and holiday time, according to documents obtained by The Bee through a Public Records Act request.
Most of the money – $4,617 – was for 125 hours of vacation time Serna-Mayorga did not use. City spokeswoman Amy Williams said the city is required by law to pay out the unused vacation time.
Serna-Mayorga resigned after it was revealed she had allegedly used her city-issued credit card to make personal purchases. Sources have told The Bee she reimbursed the city $9,000 for the charges, which included a trip to Disneyland, gasoline and groceries.
Serna-Mayorga, who was the council operations manager before being named as Mayor Kevin Johnson's director of constituent affairs, is under criminal investigation.
To view a list of the 48,000 or so purchases made by workers using city-issued credit cards going back to 2007, go to www.sacbee.com/datacenter
City officials have cautioned not to jump to conclusions when examining the records, arguing that some purchases that look questionable – alcohol purchases, trips – have reasonable explanations.
Regardless, City Manager John Shirey acknowledged city workers have used the credit cards too much and that he plans to scale back the number of cards issued.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
• Read more articles by Ryan Lillis
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.