Seattle Public Utilities worker in trouble for fixing bills
Mar 2, 2012, 6:52 AM | Updated: 12:19 pm
A former Seattle Public Utilities employee has been fined more than a thousand dollars for fixing her own bills with the agencies’ computers.
Carol Widhalm made unauthorized adjustments to her own utility bill 71 times between 2002 and 2010. Fifty of those were to tweak payment schedules, allowing her to defer the payments to avoid credit problems or service cut-offs.
The Seattle Times reports the 29-year SPU employee has been fined $1,500. Widhalm retired shortly after the changes were discovered, but she would have likely been fired anyway.
An SPU internal investigation continues to find workers who have made changes to their own accounts. So far, five have been fired and another disciplined.
