Chambers official accused of making false cancer claim
A woman who served as Chambers County’s human resources director has been charged in federal court after falsely claiming to have cancer and duping the federal government of military benefits, according to a newly unsealed indictment and the county’s top prosecutor.
Toccara Greene, 39, of Wallisville, was charged with one count of false statements to obtain federal employees compensation and two counts of false statement, according to the indictment filed in federal court in Houston. She’s accused of receiving benefits of more than 240 hours of leave — valued at more than $17,000 — from the U.S. Department of the Army from May 2017 to September 2019.
A lawyer representing Greene said Friday that he had no comment on the charges. Attempts to contact Greene, who’s identified as a former Army employee in court documents, were unsuccessful on Friday. She pleaded not guilty to all federal charges at an arraignment, records show.
Greene also faces charges in Chambers County, where sheriff’s deputies arrested her last week and the Commissioners Court launched an independent audit of the department she was hired to lead in early 2020.
It remained unclear Friday
$40 million, forcing the city to sell bonds to cover the costs, officials said.
Some are appealing the extra fees and a few communities are even suing to try to reduce the bill. In Sealy, City Council members last month voted to dispute a third of their $2 million February bill, mostly additional penalties and fees.
Tomball unanimously agreed on March 20 to pay its hefty bill out of a reserve fund, as well as taking money budgeted for capital improvements.
“We had to put aside a couple of projects that didn’t have any contracts associated with them, so no funds encumbered yet,” Esquivel said. “We paid the rest of that bill with some of those funds, so that we can either back bill in future budgets or we could issue debt to do that, but we don’t anticipate having to do that.”
Other utilities weren’t as affected as the gas bill, he said, as the city’s electric bill is on a fixed rate contract which won’t end until 2024.
Despite the big gas bill for the city, Esquivel said this wouldn’t be passed down to residents. This is because the city charges a fixed flat rate of $11.75 per MCF.
“We’re not going to pass on the additional cost on the rate as far as a rate adjustment or a surcharge,” he said. “The customer will receive their rate and that’s it.”
CenterPoint Energy officials said in a statement that it is not profiting from the high bills, which were forced because they also had to buy natural gas at a high price.
”As customers begin receiving their natural gas bills, we continue to work with them directly. Also, CenterPoint Energy continues to review all available options and work closely with our regulators on a state-by-state basis, as well as with natural gas suppliers and pipelines, including reviewing the parties’ rights, remedies, and obligations under the applicable contracts, to lessen the bill impact to customers,” CenterPoint Energy officials said in a statement.