Sacramento Auditor Wants Citywide Crackdown On Nepotism

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Sacramento's auditor is calling for a citywide nepotism policy to keep family favoritism out of family government.

The report from Sacramento City Auditor Jorge Oseguera shows that out of 537 full-time employees in the utilities department, 40 are related to at least one co-worker, or roughly 1 in 14 workers.

"It creates some risk that you could be susceptible to preferential treatment," he said. "I think you want to avoid nepotism all together if possible."

Bill Busath recently became the director of the department he's worked in for 20 years.

"When you look at it in those terms it seems high but having worked here all those years I was not all that aware of as an employee," he said.

He says only one of the staff members directly reports to a relative.

"One instance where we have staff reporting directly to a cousin, we're trying to rectify that situation," he said.

He says based on the audit, he's working to move relatives to other positions, but union issues make that challenging.

No citywide policy against nepotism exists.