PILLAR OF THE COMMUNITY QUITS SCHOOL FOUNDATION AFTER HE ADMITS STEALING CLIENTS 'MONEYHere's a story from the OCR today about a pillar of the community who volunteered his time to serve on a public schools foundation.
Now he's admitted stealing $2.7 million from his clients in a case that is not related to the foundation.
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OVERSIGHT IS NEEDED WHEN PUBLIC MONEY IS INVOLVED
How many stories do citizens have to read about various pillars of the community being caught with their hands in the till to understand that proper oversight is needed and that "trust me" being said by respected pillars of the community who are near piles of citizen money is not enough?
Remember the case of Stephen A. Wagner the pillar of the community and chief finance officer of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District who stole $3.7 million from the district? That was OUR money that this crook put in his pocket to pay for his lavish life style.
Where was the oversight? Why wasn't somebody asking questions?
Be especially wary when some pillars of the community get upset and rude when you ask a few questions about public money.
It is your right to know that your money is being handled correctly and is being used for proper purposes. Don't let them blow you off because they think they're big shots.
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THE COSTA MESA SCHOOLS FOUNDATIONS
The CM PRESS continues to ask when the Costa Mesa High School Foundation will file its tax returns. The Foundation is two years behind and may face huge penalties from the IRS.
We also continue to ask when the Foundation will start filing its required annual reports with required independent audits--which it has never done.
As you may recall, it was the CM PRESS asking a few questions that led to the discovery that the Foundation wasn't doing the required paper work that would give transparency.
The City is supposedly now trying to get both this foundation and the other one at Estancia/Tewinkle up to speed on what needs to be done.
We'll have more to report on this later after we take a look at what the City has been doing relative to the foundations.
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THE SENIOR CENTER
Hmmmm. Is the City Council trying to run Latinos out of the city by setting up a committee to look at the Senior Center?
Sound absurd? Of course it is, but that's what some local crackpots trot out every time improvement minded citizens try to make our city nicer or when they try to get transparency from our institutions. So, don't be surprised if you hear that nonsense again.
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COAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
Here's a curiosity piquing story that popped up in the OCR today about the district's chancellor, Ken Yglesias, suddenly being sent home on administrative leave while investigators have been hired to look into unnamed allegations concerning Mr. Yglesias.
Sometimes it's just better to reveal in very general terms what the unnamed allegations might be. Do they relate of financial matters or something else?
All we can piece together at this time is that one of the investigators is big on computer forensics.
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Those are our opinions as we continue to do the job that local newspapers used to do. Thanks for reading them.
