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Former SLO County IWMA employee charged with embezzling public funds

August 5, 2021

Former IWMA employee Carolyn Goodrich and the late Adam Hill listen as IWMA legal counsel Ray Biering reports out of closed session.

By KAREN VELIE

Prosecutors charged the former board secretary of San Luis Obispo County’s waste disposal agency with 10 felonies on Tuesday — nine for embezzlement and one for destruction of public records.

Carolyn Goodrich allegedly used an agency credit card to pay her home phone bills, shop at a home improvement store, purchase software, and pay for online services such as Truthfinder and Peoplefinder. CalCoastNews reported the allegations exclusively in 2018. Goodrich faces a maximum of 31 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

William Worrell, former chief of the Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA), acquired the US Bank card in 2010 without the approval of the SLO County Auditor Controller’s Office. Goodrich signed as the authorizing agent in place of the agency’s legal counsel.

The card was used to charge a total of $537,607.

A nine-month investigation by Carl Knudson & Associates and CalCoastNews found that less than 20 percent of the IWMA credit card charges and payments to US Bank had been explained.

“Of the $537,607.68 payments made to US Bank, the IWMA could only provide backup for $92,529.94, a difference of $445,077.74,” Knudson, a former IRS special agent, reported in 2018.

The investigation showed that IWMA staff used the card for video rentals, online shopping, expensive meals and a business license in Georgia. Many of the transactions which appear to be personal expenditures and not agency business, are now past the statute of limitations.

For more than a year, CalCoastNews reporters filed Public Records Act requests for the IWMA’s monthly credit card statements — something government officials appeared to have tried to conceal. After months, the IWMA provided a small portion of the request.

In 2018, it was discovered that credit card receipts for 2012 through 2016 were at the home of IWMA board member and now Grover Beach Mayor Jeff Lee. Lee returned the records to the agency, according to staff.

For decades, Worrell ran the IWMA with virtually no supervision from its governing board or the SLO County Auditor Controller’s Office, which was responsible for financial oversight, according to the Knudson & Associates and CalCoastNews investigation.

The IWMA board responded with a vote to conduct a forensic audit of the IWMA’s handling of tax dollars entrusted to it. At that time, SLO County supervisors Bruce Gibson and the late Adam Hill argued against an audit.

“There is no need for an audit,” Gibson said. “There have been no improprieties.”

Shortly afterwards, in July 2018, the SLO County District Attorney’s Office announced it was investigating the IWMA for possible fraud, prompting the board to place Worrell on leave. Shortly afterwards Worrell retired and Goodrich resigned.

As part of the criminal probe, investigators asked for IWMA credit card statements and demanded staff not destroy records, according to an email from the district attorney’s office to the IWMA. Even so, before leaving the agency in 2018, Goodrich allegedly shredded many agency documents.

Prosecutors charged Goodrich with one count of stealing, destroying or removing public records.

When Dow contacted Worrell to request IWMA records, employees brought in a large shredder and destroyed hundreds, if not thousands, of financial and spending documents, according to former IWMA interim administrator Michael Giancola. Agency officials also authorized and carried out the deletion of voluminous computer records. Much, if not all, of the data was recovered by an outside computer expert.

The IWMA was created by a Joint Powers Agreement and has a 12-member board of directors comprised of five county supervisors, representatives of each of the county’s seven municipalities and one representative for the county’s community service districts.

The IWMA board of directors voted to give stipends to members of up to $100 in Sept. 2013 for each meeting attended. Board members who accepted stipends have a legal and fiduciary duty to steer the agency towards sound financial management practices, but failed to examine or question the agency’s spending.

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Through the blocking by the board of the IWMA, the acts of Mr. Bering and Mr. Worrell will be dismissed due to timing tactics of this IWMA board. The board, by delaying, is as guilty as the perpetrators. These delaying tactics must be stopped. Mr. Minery, who replaced Mr. Bering, had to have known the criminal acts that had occurred by Mrs. Goodrich, as well as Mr. Worrell and Mr. Bering. The fact that some of the board members removed records and files to their personal residence also seems, at the very least, to be collusion. Mr. Dow…where were you?


45

After years of defending herself against the wrath of ruthless and corrupt dirtbag politicians, it is now time for Karen Velie to go on the offensive. And go on the offensive she has. Do not stop until everyone of these pieces of garbage are behind bars or resigns their positions. This is SLO County, not a third world country. And as for The Liebune, New Slime, Tom Fulks, and the rest of AH’s tin foil hat wearing, hate-spewing bloggers, you should consider leaving town. Your vitriol and lies are no longer welcome here.


64

Please don’t leave the little basement dwelling mouthpiece Aaron Ochs off the list.


33

How much dirty money was paid to Aaron Ochs? The FBI knows.


21

Aaron Ochs defended Adam Hill with a criminal passion for years.

That speaks volumes.


7

BAM!!! Viely strikes again!

And once again Adam Hill’s name pops up in a corruption/theft of public funds story.

How much do you think he skimmed from the IWMA cash cow?

It’s past time to shut this bureaucratic boondoggle down, there will be one less rock for the government greedies to hide under.


83

Thank you, CCN and Karen, for your tireless efforts to uncover wrongdoing and corruption while other “news publications” turn a blind eye to the political shenanigans in SLO County. Don’t let the jokers and critics get you down, You’re doing an amazing job!


96

Not only do the New Times and Tribune turn a blind eye, they often claim the reporting as their own and never give credit. In their latest story, the New Times writes, according to the New Times, the Carl Knudson report became public.


CalCoastNews funded Knudson’s report. CalCoastNews did the detailed reporting on the credit cards. Reporters at both the Tribune and the New Times then attempted to support the criminals. It is time for a little integrity, give the reporters the credit for their hard work.


81

The New Crimes and Fibune are so far left, they can kiss their own a__es


18

It’s not about the left or the right… It’s about trust and integrity of which this group failed us all.


14

Talk about insulting the intelligence of citizens! Bloop-bloop! Uncle Sam never looks the other way when it comes to getting their cut! That’s the only way to bring light to this “local” corruption.


36

Can someone, anyone, please challenge Gibson and stop him from a 5th term? He’s corrupt and deserves to be held accountable for this!


115

I wonder if anyone will overdose this week. I suppose no one because at the rate the criminal cases move forward the next charges will be announced in 2025.


49

Just wondering if the FBI has some dirt left over from dirty Hill???


18

You know they do.


14

There is no way a Repub can win in that district.

Jeff Eckles is a conservative leaning independent from Morro Bay. He should try again.


12

Accolades to Karen and her team. They have endured so much from this community and have brought to light numerous, if not dozens of counts of gross violations of the public trust. She and her team have been victimized and terrorized by the criminals portraying themselves as upstanding members of the community. She has been figuratively raped by the corrupt system trying to suppress her stealer reporting. She has suffered so much at the hands of a corrupt system by the so-called leaders and shakers of this region, all because she has exposed government corruption and Ponzi schemes. I guess she should feel lucky, she is still alive. Again, accolades to Karen and her team.


112

@onlyinslo

Yes, I’d keep the lights down low and the shrubbery neat at my home in light of their reporting… Nicely done, CalCoastNews!!


40

What a surprise, Worrell, Temborg are friends with Dow, Adam Hill, and all the other cronies looting the community. They smile at you, say were all friends I’m only taking what I am entitled to. So either Worrell was an idiot or was in on it? How else could staff member steal a half million dollars without their boss knowing. Then there are all those checks and balances, the IWMA Management Committee that monthly reviewed the activities, including expenditures of the IWMA. Dow delayed looking into it to protect his friends. What a crock.


25

Are any of the crooks in jail? Government at its finest, right? WRONGGGGGGG


59

I hope you’re wrong JThomas, a few of them have to see the inside of a jail. However, on the other hand, SLO has a propensity to only slap the wrist of wrong doers and hope the public forgets. SLO is weak on crime.


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