Auditor: Rodriguez broke city ethics rules

Frank Rodriguez, a former top aide to Mayor Steve Adler, violated city ethics regulations both before he went to work for Adler and during the time he was a city employee, according to a complaint filed by a top official in the Office of the City Auditor. Deputy City Auditor Jason Hadavi filed the complaint with the Ethics Review Commission last week. Rodriguez was the founder and executive director of the Latino HealthCare Forum, and according to the complaint, he improperly received $37,000 while serving as chair of the Hispanic/Latino Quality of Life Resource Advisory Commission and as a senior adviser to Adler. The Austin American-Statesman, which had done an earlier investigation of Rodriguez, was first to report the complaint. The city hired an outside auditor, HSSK, to investigate conflict of interest allegations against Rodriguez, and the complaint filed by Hadavi was a result of that investigation. Adler told the Statesman he did not know about the payments.