Development Department employee who was accused of misusing city resources to help a woman who bought the mayor’s home has agreed to violating city rules and agrees to pay the city restitution.
Development Director Steve Schoeny said on Friday that Bob Hsieh agreed to forfeit 63.1 hours of vacation time and agrees to serve an eight-day suspension. Part of the suspension will be served this year and part next year, Schoeny said.
The agreement marks the end of a city administrative investigation, officials said Thursday.
Hsieh was accused of helping Chinese national Dr. Jianhua Li, who bought Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s East Side home in December 2010. Li was looking to establish a medical supply business in Columbus.
The city’s administrative investigation looked into “why (Hsieh) acted beyond the scope of his employment on behalf of Dr. Li, and why,” Coleman said in a release on July 8.
The investigation was sparked after the FBI began asking questions about the sale of Coleman’s home to Li.
“The FBI is investigating Dr. Li and her businesses, and has informed the City that the department’s investigation will not interfere with the FBI inquiry,” Coleman’s spokesman at the time, Tyneisha Harden said.
City records obtained by a 10 Investigates request show that Hsieh wrote an email to Coleman’s administrative assistant, Kennetha Hardin, in June 2011 saying that Frankie Coleman requested “ a letter of invitation” for “potential business opportunities.”
Hsieh later helped arrange travel for Li and her two guests in 2011 and that information was copied to Hardin. A lunch meeting was later scheduled “prepare a more personalized and customized letter of invitation….Kennetha is also invited so that we can keep her posted at all time.”
The Coleman’s sold their home while they were going through a divorce and Frankie Coleman continued to live in the home for six months after the sale.
Records released Thursday mark the first look into that investigation – and the first time Hsieh statements have been heard. City managers documented Hsieh’s explanation of his involvement helping Li; those records were provided to 10 Investigates as part of a public records request.
When asked to explain how opening a bank account for Li and her associates, wiring funds, or arranging lawn care fell within his duties as a city employee, Hsieh said it had nothing to do with his job.
Hsieh reportedly explained his treatment of Dr. Li was to help keep her business interest in the city, but that effort to arrange banking, lawn care and ticket-payment and sightseeing was done “only as a friend.”
Hsieh is reported to say that Li complained that the city was not doing enough.
In one question of who authorized Hsieh to care for the lawn, Hsieh mentions a fellow development employee. Development Director Steve Schoeny said that employee was questioned but denied involvement.
Kennetha Hardin was not interviewed as part of the investigation. Schoeny said on Friday that city officials chose not to interview her because they did not view her testimony was relevant to their investigation.
Schoeny also said that the agreement marks an end to the city’s administrative investigation.
“Mr. Hsieh made clear in this investigation that no one in the Department of Development or the Mayor’s office, including the Mayor, directed or pressured Mr. Hsieh to assist Dr. Li beyond the scope of his duties,” Schoeny said in a release.
Hsieh declined to speak to 10 Investigates when approached early September. Li could not be reached for comment in China.
Mayor Coleman says there was nothing improper about the sale of his home and he had no knowledge of Hsieh’s actions.