The arrest of a top city official on federal fraud charges has prompted La Crosse leaders to order an external audit of the information technology department.
The FBI on Jan. 28 arrested IT Director David Montealegre at City Hall on seven counts of concealing assets and one count of bankruptcy fraud. City officials since have expressed concern the fraud he's accused of in private life might have perforated his public office.
Human Resources Director Wendy Oestreich characterized the audit as a check on the city's "internal controls and vulnerability."
The indictment, some council members said, raised questions about management under Montealegre, who they worried had been given a blank check to run his department.
They'll vote in March on funding the audit, which would expose whether the IT boss misused public funds.
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"The opportunity was there. The way that department functioned was much more insulated from our regular checks and balances than any of the other departments," said council President Audrey Kader, who sponsored the resolution calling for the review.
"Any department that has the amount of freedom that was allowed within that department ... we have to be prudent," she said.
Mayor Matt Harter last month defended the city's internal safeguards, saying he was confident they would have rooted out any improprieties.
But he's since adopted a different tone.
"There was a lot that the former IT director was working on that nobody else was aware of," he said. "When we started looking into details, some people question the necessity of some of those purchases and projects that have been done. I'm not an IT expert, so I can't give a confirmation one way or another, but some of the stuff, after looking into it, it probably is a good idea to do our due diligence and make sure everything is accounted for."
Federal officials claimed Montealegre shifted assets between businesses, bank accounts, an ex-wife and a girlfriend and lied about his income in bankruptcy documents filed in 2004, according to the indictment.
He was hired as La Crosse IT director in 2005.
Each of the eight charges carries a maximum of five years in federal prison.
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Montealegre initially was on paid leave, but now is on unpaid administrative leave.
Copyright (c) 2010, La Crosse Tribune, Wis/Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
