Sanitation district administrator submits false financial report

April 27, 2017

OPINION by RON ARNOLDSEN

South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District’s Administrator Gerhardt Hubner recently submitted a financial report to his board that states an account it has at Rabobank contains $898.00. The account was set up last year when the district began collecting its own rates from Oceano customers when an agreement to have the Oceano CSD collect the funds fell apart.

Hubner’s report says, “As of March 31, 2017, the reconciled cash balance totaled $898.”

When a citizen noted that this report was in error and that the account had been closed, Hubner responded, “We believe the report is accurate based on past reporting spreadsheets we have in possession.” But then goes on to say, “we are aware of that closed account, it’s just a matter of where that money will be transferred to.” He further stated, “We’ve had a number of people look at it.”

He never identifies who “we” are, but as administrator, he is solely responsible for the accuracy of the report.

Arroyo Grande Mayor Hill suggested he had concerns with the report yet cautiously voted with the majority of the board to approve it qualifying his vote, “Based on the assurances of the administrator, yes.”

The county now collects the Oceano wastewater fees so there is no longer a need for a special account for this purpose; closed accounts are zeroed out.

If Hubner was indeed aware that the account was closed, why would his report cite a balance of $898?  Eight hundred and ninety eight dollars is not a tremendous amount of money in the scheme of the district’s annual budget, but does it indicate problems in the districts accounting. Hubner refuses to share his payroll data, and the 2015-16 audit is behind schedule.

Curiously, last month’s mid-year budget review showed year-to-date expenditures as of December were higher then than they are now. Is this fraud or incompetence?

This was the third time in recent weeks that Hubner has contradicted his own written reports during questioning by the board. On April 5 Hubner wrote that the digester cleaning had not been identified as a potential project during budget discussions, but when questioned by Mayor Hill, Hubner admitted that he had discussed the project with the plant superintendent.

Then in an April 19 report concerning the deleted audio tapes from the Wallace years, Hubner’s report suggests the district’s bookkeeper directed the webmaster, “unbeknown to myself, and unauthorized”, to not migrate the old audiotapes to the new website.

The public presented evidence that Hubner had provided signed authorization for the action and that Hubner had authorized the webmasters project notes.

Perhaps more alarming is the fact that the district’s board, who are in place to protect the financial welfare of the district, received these false reports as correct and filed them into the permanent record. This board has made a habit of ignoring Hubner’s incompetency thus exposing the district’s ratepayers to significantly increased expenses.

When will the board hold Hubner accountable?