Reasons for Misappropriation:
Weak BOS, Controlling CAO
A former county employee in the social services department points to a weak Board of Supervisors and a controlling chief administrative officer as reasons behind the misappropriation of an estimated $20 million from the treasury.
“I don’t know why he had so much power,” pondered the employee in referring to retired CAO Mike Maxwell and speaking on the condition of anonymity because she was sworn to secrecy resulting from an out-of-court settlement with the county for wrongful termination.
“The Board of Supervisors had to give it to him,” she said, “but how did he get it from them? He couldn’t have manipulated me to crossing the street so he wasn’t such a good con man. But something was happening and I watched it. I watched him gain power over ever department.
“What would cause the department heads to abdicate? I never understood why he should be in charge of every department in the county, but the Board of Supervisors as a rule is not very educated.”
The former employee said the misappropriation of the treasury had been going on for some time before it was disclosed by former CAO Mark Charlton in early 2009.
“It goes way back, but it does not precede Maxwell,” she said, explaining that she worked for the county for 20 years before being fired over a child abuse case. “There was a lot of loose money that they used to redecorate offices and did what they apparently wanted. Everybody on some level was aware of it.
“They did not keep very good track of their money,” she said. “Maybe they still don’t. I saw the treasury reports, but it was such an antiquated system. They used long strips of green paper, it was real antique, and they cut them up in pieces. I can’t tell you what a fiasco it was. It was absolutely difficult to follow what was going on. No one could audit the departments without information.
“It was just kind of coffee shop talk, but everyone knew,” she said referring to the misappropriation of funds. “There was general knowledge floating around that something wasn’t right. The structure that had been in place kind of collapsed and Maxwell was in charge of everything. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.
“I don’t know how Maxwell got in charge,” she said. I have no idea how he gained the power he had. He was kind of nothing with no background and suddenly he was in charge of everything.
“The Board of Supervisors is a lot of work and anybody with any intellect wouldn’t want the job,” she said. ”Just looking at the pile of papers you would have to read and you don’t have any legal aid to sort out that garbage. Maxwell could have gotten power from that. They were not capable of doing it or didn’t want to do it.
“Maxwell had one hundred percent power over the Board of Supervisors and the Modoc Medical Center. He just got in charge of everything in the county.”
-- Ray A. March
33 comments:
I think it's pretty easy to see how Maxwell took over. Poor compensation for county supervisor does not encourage the best and most honest to take the job. That's no excuse for their conduct but it's the honest reason. Nobody can live on that pay so they have to have a full time job also, leaving not enough time to do the supervisor's job. We might get the occasional good one but usually we get the crooks, glory hounds and incompetents. Just go to a BOS meeting and you will see the glory hound and incompetant right out in the open. County supervisor is a lot more than just going to a meeting twice a month.
This former employee is right on! Absolute power does corrupt absolutely............Everyone was willing to give Maxwell that power as he talked a good game and was intimidating. Why is it that most Modocers look at 'outsiders' like Maxwell as being smarter than they are? Well, he obviously was, and guess what............he has walked away unscathed, along with the former auditor who jumped right on the ship with him!!!!
Well somebody had to take charge. None of the supervisors wanted to work hard, just wanted the title. Any one of them could have put a stop to the wild spending at any time. One is all it would have taken as proven by the honorable Mr. Charlton. An elected official would not be run out of town so easily. NO GUTS. No honesty. No self respect.
At least this bunch don't get along well so they're not likely to support each other in underhanded shennanigans.
I know this county employee she will retire very well compensated thru litigation. And she deserves it, she has been thru hell. It's too bad that the money dosent come from the people directly responsible tho!
I think I am beginning to understand a core misunderstanding amongst the people of this blog and probably the County as a whole.
This County has lots of open space, clean air, good water, and peace. We like it that way, but it is this way because there are only a few people in a large space. The low population is pretty much the reason we have open space, clean air, good water, etc.
But there is a down side. We do not have enough taxpayers making enough money to support all of the goodies that a big city can afford. We have to do for ourselves or do without.
Unfortunately many seem to expect big city services, big city salaries, and big city bureaucrats to blame.
We have limited County staff, volunteer firefighters, medical responders, fair workers, etc. because we cannot afford to pay for more. There is no one behind the tree to tax! Only us.
Greg Small
Fort Bidwell
It is the CAO's job to adhere to policies and make sure the checks and balances are in place for his/her and the employees protection. Leaders really need to divest themselves from their egos and do what is in the best interest of the people. Maxwell was not that bright and we don't know if he truly is unscathed yet, however the statute of limitations may be running out on charging him or Judi with anything. They did both know along with other folks.
Why would anyone want to take on a position with so much responsibility for so little money? - The best medical coverage in Modoc County? The glory of being a "leader"? The name recognition? The feeling of power? The inability to get a real job doing anything else?
We may get lucky ocasionaly and get a good representative for chicken feed but I wouldn't hold my breath. Until this county is willing to properly pay its highest elected officials a living wage it should expect no better than it has gotten in recent years. To expect otherwise is to believe in the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy.
Ron, your continued insistence that money equals quality belies all of the evidence around us.
We've had adequately paid public servants and elected officials, as well as those who are more or less volunteers over the years, and the preponderance of the evidence suggests that irrespective of compensation, the overarching problems that the taxpayers face now come from a lack of education and the inability to do the public's business openly and transparently.
Also not considered in your argument is the role of the local news media and taxpayers to affect change by electing (hiring) competent public officials in the first place, and then holding them accountable in the public arena as they do the taxpayers business.
This can be done only with those board members and public servants who honestly believe in the public's right to determine what is good for them to know.
They must then set the course openly and with adequate public input on an ongoing basis in order for the governmental organizations the taxpayers (not the elected or public officials) have created to properly do the taxpayers work.
It isn't pay that determines good public policy - Mr. Charlton's forced exit for doing the right thing is an example of our public servants ignorance and hubris that sabotaged what was best for the taxpayers.
So in the end, the current county mess occurred primarily because of too little public and very little local media scrutiny - this because the BOS and CAO Maxwell didn't allow the former, and the local newspaper these past ten years let them get away with the latter.
To 12:24 Post........Listen, do you hear me standing up clapping and cheering to your post! You are RIGHT on!!!
Didn't say money equals quality. I said lack of money equals poor quality. Your always lucky to get what you pay for but to expect more than you pay for is folley and history throughout the ages will attest to that.
What about integrity and EQUITY? The best folks I know will do the right thing in spite of what is popular and how much they are getting paid. Modoc has a lot of people like that however, they are not the run of the mill politician and will never run for public office. The problem is the I in TEAM. Modoc County needs to understand with the small, limited population they have, that they need to partner with other entities to get the biggest bang for their buck. The local "public lands" need to be utilized in the best interest of the citizens of Modoc County. The collaborative contracting that is now occurring is a step in the right direction as long as we get some power distributed with EQUITY, TRANSPARENCY and ACCOUNTABILITY. Without equity we get the same old people doing the same old thing. We need to assemble our true stakeholders and form a "game plan" that will have measurable outcomes for the best interest of the citizens.
Using our founding fathers as example, it is my opinion that those truly seeking fair government for the betterment of all will strive to that purpose and end regardless of what they are being paid. I county Betty Byrne among those following lead of this nation's forefathers.
Silence Dogood what cloud are you perched on? This is not 1770. How can anyone "strive to that purpose and end regardless of what they are being paid" without a way to pay living expenses such as rent and food. In 1770 a person could be and often was self sufficient and had little or no money. How about the idea of paying a person properly for the job they do? I'm not overly religious but even the Christion bible advises that a person should be paid for their labors. If what you say is true we should have plenty of terrific people in public office but we have what we have instead. The idea that a good person will always work for little compensation and do a great job is a fairy tale. You may as well wait for Jesus to walk down Main Street throwing out $100 bills. Modoc history proves you wrong. Where are all of these qualified people willing to work a full time job for less than starvation wages? Bring them forward to be elected. Ocasionaly someone of integrity and good intentions with necessary skills will work just for the good of the people but very few and we need five all at once. That's a bit like expecting a royal flush at a poker game with eight people. It aint gonna happen. At least one of the cards is bound to be a deuce. Mrs. Byrne may be one of those people able and willing to do a good job for little pay but still needs to demonstrate it. She, like the other four, allows BOS meetings to be poorly controled while she sits silent. Sometimes it's more like Supervisor Cantrall runs the meetings insted of Chairman Crabtree. If good pay isn't necessary to find good people we should offer some homeless people the job - they have learned how to live on little money. It's a fact that all five supervisors prior to the last election were rotten because any one of them could have stopped the wild illegal spending but chose to go along with it.
If what Silence says is true why are we paying our CAO so much money??? If there are so many people willing to do a great job for less than $2,000.00 a month we need to find them fast.
Guess some clarification is necessary.
Ron Rutledge ... obviously I am riding a cloud that is way over your head and ability to realize.
Anonymous 7:09 a.m. ... I have asked myself repeatedly why municipalities insist on trying to outspend one another when it comes to dept. head salaries/employee salaries. It is my reckoning that those truly capable and desiring of doing a good job for the public will be content with not necessarily a salary they feel they are deserving of, but one which the public agency can ACTUALLY afford. Think they used to be known as "team players." The economic climate now calls loudly for cooperation between all elements of government and the public in a survival mode. I've never believed that anything is impossible, but will concede that some people definitely are.
Is that $2,000 per month Gross, or Net? How many dept. heads only receive $2,000 per month?
What the CAO is being paid now is very reasonable, and you currently have one of my favorite Modocer's. What Walt Beck and Mark Charlton were paid with the real numbers of budgeting that we had, was not reasonable. Nor was the "headhunting fee" reasonable and yes, good honest people stepped up to the plate and offered solutions and were ignored at the time we could have helped. We were not of the right "ilk", thus I beat the drum of equity and do agree with Patrick Henry, if we are to go back to our "founding fathers". He saw what government was going to become with the ratification of the Constitution and championed the Bill of Rights, Thank God!!! America has become like a spoiled, whiny child, our founding fathers and the ancients would be disgusted with us on any given day. We haven't done real well with the "freedoms" we were given.
Wow! how can I get a great job like that. Work long uncommon hours. Everyone thinks I'm a crook. Receive very low pay. Be blamed for what the previous office holder did. Meet twice a month with four other well educated, dedicated individuals in front of an audience to fix all of the county's problems. Everyone wants a great job like that.
We truly need an investigation by a federal agency to get to the bottom of this and send the guilty to the can before the statute of limitations sets them free to sit around laughing about it. We all know who's guilty and there is evidence and those that will tell all but we have nobody willing to take care of business. Not a word from the new district attorney about it. There were crimes committed against the residents of Modoc. Where's the justice? The only argument put forth to try to justify what they did is they didn't know they were violating the law and received no personal gain.
How many of these revealing articles and interviews do we need to get some action by somebody.
It may be time to amp up the media blitz. Sacramento Bee time, San Francisco Chronicle, Radio Stations, Television Stations, etc. The pressure of the media may push this thing in the right direction. What does the State look like right now by not holding Modoc County accountable to the payback? I have been told by people in the know that it is in the hands of the State Attorney General. Get a petition, bombard his office, find a lawyer/LEGAL COUNSEL who will take this on. The current County Counsel is protecting himself, the BOS and his past cronies. Or we could just keep throwing rocks and stay in the dark ages. Unfortunately, all battles are now fought in the courtrooms, at a high cost and it comes down to who can generate the most confusing paperwork ever known to man and pay the highest price for a lawyer.
Ronald, thinking way back ... citizens in communities volunteered their time to serve on boards and committees. Later, nominal per-diem schedules of pay for each meeting attended, cost of meals and lodging "away", etc., were adopted. Seems to me it was sometime in the 1960's-1970's that public service on boards and committees, commissions, etc., was nosed into the "public job" sector, complete with "salaries" and all the benefits and perks public employees worked 8-hour shifts to earn. I personally have known persons who ran for office with their main objective being securing of public funded health insurance.
I am feeling the same frustration as yourself with regards to nothing being done with regard to all the wrongdoing. It is possible that if a group of citizens formed as proponents of a recall movement and went after every darned elected official not doing what they were elected to do ... well, then BIG media coverage and state interest could erupt. Remember what happened in Bell, Calif.? Health issues prevent me from initiating recall steps myself.
"thinking way back" and pretending we're still in that time and place is part of our problem. That was back when sex was dirty and the air was clean - a different world. We probably all know of elected officials in office who wouldn't be there if not for the health care benifits. So what's the point? Some do it just to get the salary, some do it for the title.
Recall is not what's needed. Prosecutions and consequences are what's needed or it will happen again. There is only one county supervisor left in office that was part of the money problems and I doubt if she will run for the office again.
Guess I must apologize to you Ronald. Apparently my message was not delivered in a way preventing it from flying over your head. If you can "prosecute" and apply "consequences" on your own, then please be my guest. No recall or action by community members must be necessary.
Shorty puts foot in mouth again! Item 10 on last Tuesday's agenda: In a discussion with Jordan Funk, Shorty admitted that he may be wrong but then said he wouldn't change his mind (decision) anyway. What the hell do we need this idiot for!? Anybody that will publicly admit they are wrong and then say "Im going to do it anyway" has no place in public office. Shorty, It's time for you to resign before you do some real damage to Modoc County with your "Hurray for me" attitude. The discussion was about more ways the BOS is wasting our money and Shorty just didn't care he's going to do it anyway. Somebody save us from this nice guy. Sorry Shorty but it's overdue for someone to say something honestly about your lack of ability to do the job. As a taxpayer I am apalled at your attitude. It seems whenever somebody outside the loop has a suggestion the BOS disregards it and you just continue the practice.
Ronald and et al Anonymous,
I am sure glad that all of you know who is guilty (and presumably of what) because I don't. For every theory of guilt, I can show a theory of not guilty.
In a country of laws guilt must be proven. It is not a matter of popular opinion. As I have said before, show me your proof. Where are the documents and the meeting minutes that show the smoking gun in someone's hand? They are all public records. Who is prepared to testify in open court?
We know something of what has happened, but who has put together the specifics that could be used to convict individuals? Apparently none of us.
Perhaps the Grand Jury does not have the courage to do so, although it is their duty, but apparently neither have any of you. Do any of you actually have relevant testimony or personal knowledge? If so, where is your signed statement giving the details?
Greg Small
Fort Bidwell
BOS continues to waste our money with no good reason. I listened to the recording of the last BOS meeting several times and still have trouble believing that they voted to keep the Fresno based law firm that furnishes our public defender. The representative admitted that they did not comply with the contract and only furnished one attormey while they were paid to furnish two attorneys. Four of our wonderful supervisors voted to keep the Fresno law firm without even considering a local attorney. Cantrall abstained from the vote. This is the kind of nonsense that should stop. This smells like a "special" deal made behind closed doors in secret. Why would they pay more for less unless some "special" deal was made. We've been sold out again!! We're broke and they keep sending our money out of the area by hiring non local people. Shorty summed it all up pretty good by admitting he didn't want to be confused by the facts, he already had his mind made up. What a bunch of cowpatty that is. We still have a bunch of self serving, spineless supervisors without the guts to stand up to this outrage. The representative admitted that they cheated us and they still got the contract. Everybody should listen to that recording.
Hey Greg. You're correct: Grand Jury doesn't have the will to do a complete disclosure of what was found. When I was on Grand Jury some of the panelists actually told some of the people involved "Don't worry, we're here to help you. What can we do to help." You're wrong about the lack of evidence: the lack of records is the evidence. They knowingly failed thier fiduciary duties. They were told more than once that they were violating laws by more than one person. The rule of knew or should have known is aplicable here.
The culpability and blameworthiness of our elected and hired public officials has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.
The audits themselves show that most were not providing reasonable due diligence to the taxpayers affairs.
How so? By the fact that they, both as individuals and collectively, made decisions that disregarded their fiduciary duties regarding the misspent public funds.
Criminal prosecution is not likely, and pointing fingers solves nothing - so in order to get some remedy the local taxpayers need to focus very hard on the insurance policy that was purchased to protect them from just such improprieties.
If concerned locals such as Mr. Rutledge and others (the local newspapers) let this insurance claim lapse without an adequate follow through, then your most likely form of recompense for their uneducated and unprofessional conduct will be lost.
Greg, the proof is all around you. The absence of adequate records (an audit trail) and inadequate meeting minutes (the decisions were made outside the public arena) for the past decade or so are themselves proof that our elected officials and hired county staff did not do their jobs as required by law.
They had a sworn duty to protect the taxpayer dollars, pass budgets that reflected reality, pay back borrowed funds in a timely manner, and most importantly, to do all of this in full view and with ongoing input from the public.
They did none of these things.
So in the end they unilaterally decided what the public could or should know (wittingly or not); they decided for us that borrowing funds and not cutting services was better for us (again, knowingly or not); and therefore the actions and the end results speak for themselves.
The notion that there are still some in this community that remain confused regarding how we got into this mess and cannot determine that it was because people did not do their jobs and as a result did things they were not supposed to do is really quite troubling.
There are many, many "smoking guns" littering the Modoc landscape...almost sixteen million at last count and still growing.
So Greg, the question isn't did these folks not do their jobs, but rather how does the taxpayer keep this from happening again?
I recall a T. Jefferson quote that goes something like, "The only thing required for evil to reign is for good men (and women) to do NOTHING" (but complain, I suppose). Remember the old sayings like "Talk is cheap" and "A stitch in time saves nine"? Beginner's typing exercise of "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country? Just exchange county for country and the phrase exemplifies present day Modoc. It is not necessary to live in the past, but it is foolish to not draw lessons from the past. P.S. Ron - Shorty apparently said he "MIGHT be wrong," which cannot be construed as Shorty saying he definitely knew he was wrong. Sorry.
Silence you're never going to get a cowboy any closer than that to admitting to outright wrong. The bad part is "I'm not gonna change my mind anyway".
Maybe Shorty needs another go around with the Sikhs to enlighten his soul and spirit. Folks, the fox is guarding the hen house and has been. The CAO would have the most ability to gather all the "damning" information to prove this case however, the BOS is not going to allow that to happen. The current legal counsel is part of the problem and is not going to gather and compile documentation to "damn" himself, Mike Maxwell or Judi Stevens. So we have the State Attorney General's Office who probably doesn't want to touch this case with a ten foot pole either. The Grand Jury's of the past have had their chance and somehow they remain hogtied too. The old fashioned traditions and values that make Modoc special are also what keeps Modoc stuck in the past and incapable of making positive progress. Why do you think they hired a competent CAO at the eleventh hour? Compilation of documents or discovery of missing documents should have been the duties of assistant staff this entire last year. The case and supporting documentation should already be in order and ready to go. Lawyers are only as good as the evidence or lack of, facts and information that they have to go into battle with.
Ron...I come from a long line of cowboys and none were/are hesitant to admit outright to behaving, speaking or thinking wrongly. You are a brave man to admit refusal by you to change your mind (no matter the facts, I surmise) is "The bad part..." of things.
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