California’s controller disclosed more financial problems Wednesday in the scandal-ridden city of Bell.
Controller John Chiang released audits of Bell’s Redevelopment Agency and gas tax funds, which found at least $1.2 million in inappropriate payments and management failures.
The controller said audits found that Bell inappropriately charged payroll and expenses to two of the funds controlled by its Redevelopment Agency and made thousands of dollars of impermissible payments to contractors from the city’s transportation funds.
Chiang also said the city’s low- and moderate-income housing fund was inappropriately used to pay for city cell phones, car washes and car batteries, landscaping, and uniforms.
The audit also found that $244,850 in salaries, vacation, retirement contributions, holiday time, and other compensation was inappropriately charged to the fund without any approval from the agency’s governing board.
In a September report, the controller’s office noted several irregularities in Bell’s bond financings. Despite the issuance of $50 million of general obligation bonds to finance a sports complex, there is no visible progress on the project, Chiang reported.
His office also found that the city had set an illegally high property tax rate to finance pension benefits, undercutting the tax-rate assumptions used to sell more than $9 million of pension obligation bonds in 2005.
The controller ordered Bell to fully reimburse $521,086 to Bell’s gas tax fund, or else his office may withhold future state highway users’ tax apportionments from the city.
