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SLO County waste agency accused of misappropriation of funds, again

January 17, 2024

IWMA Executive Director Peter Cron

By KAREN VELIE

An employee of San Luis Obispo County’s waste agency resigned after she reported “gross misappropriation of public funds,” which agency staff then attempted to “sweep under the rug,” according to Ivonne Diaz’s Jan. 15 letter of resignation.

In her resignation, Diaz accuses Executive Director Peter Cron and Deputy Director Jordon Lane of misappropriation of public funds. In addition, Diaz alleges the IWMA’s legal counsel, Adamski Moroski Madden Cumberland & Green LLP, allowed Cron and Lane to have “signing authority pending the investigation.”

The specific allegation of misappropriation of funds is not public at this time.

Diaz’s resignation:

“As some of you have been expecting, I am announcing that my IWMA days have come to an end. It is very unfortunate that I exit in this manner as I truly enjoyed working with all of your jurisdictions and constituents and getting most of our county compliant with state regulations.

“The misappropriation of public funds by both the executive and deputy directors and the lack of accountability has forced me to resign my position. Additionally, once IWMA legal team was made aware of this problem, they failed to handle the issue accordingly.

“IWMA staff members notified legal at the time of discovery, and I am baffled that both Jordan and Peter were allowed to remain at the IWMA and were not removed of any signing authority pending the investigation. Instead, they were allowed to continue supervising the staff that pointed out the misappropriation and caused a toxic working environment for us, who played no role in the transactions, except for bringing them to light as was our responsibility as a public agency. From a constituent’s point of view, this would appear as if legal and management were attempting to diminish the magnitude of this problem, in efforts to avoid bad press.

“IWMA board members, I ask that you conduct a new, unbiased investigation from an outside source. Once the issue is known to the public, a light will be placed on the actions of the board and specifically the actions that were taken to rectify the gross misappropriation of public funds. Lastly, IWMA staff should be communicated with by you, for the sake of transparency as the situation has been kept in the shadows which appears as an attempt to ‘sweep it under the rug.’

“I truly valued my time at the IWMA and all that I have learned and grown in my time here. I am saddened to terminate my employment due to this looming situation.”

Executive Director Cron’s response

While Cron said he was limited in the amount of information he could provide because of employee confidentiality requirements, he told CalCoastNews there was no wrongdoing. In response to the allegations, the IWMA directed “legal counsel to conduct a thorough investigation,” Cron wrote in an email.

“The investigation found no policy violations and no evidence of alleged misappropriation of funds,” Cron wrote. “We did find that our outside contract payroll service allowed clerical errors resulting in overpayment, which were corrected. The IWMA Board followed all necessary steps to conclude the investigation and determined that there was no evidence in support of the allegations of intentional wrongdoing.”

IWMA Deputy Director Jordan Lane

During closed session on Jan. 10, the board discussed the employment of Deputy Director Jordon Lane. No action was taken.

Generally, when there are allegations of misappropriation of funds, the board is informed and an outside consultant is tasked with an investigation. In this case, board members were allegedly unaware of the allegations while the same attorney firm that found no wrong doing during previous incidents of misappropriation of funds conducted an investigation.

“It is unfortunate that the allegations were published without regard to the results of the investigation and respect for the employee privacy protections involved,” Cron wrote. “The IWMA remains committed to responsible use of the public funds with which it has been entrusted.

IWMA’s history of misappropriation of public funds

The IWMA hired Diaz in 2021, several months after prosecutors charged the former IWMA board secretary with 10 felonies — 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 exclusively reported the allegations in 2018.

William Worrell, a former IWMA executive director, 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.”

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, were past the statute of limitations when prosecutors began investigating the allegations.

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 former Grover Beach Mayor Jeff Lee.

In 2020, FBI agents raided Lee’s home, former Supervisor Adam Hill’s home, and his office in the SLO County Government Center and marijuana kingpin Helios Dayspring’s home. At that time, Lee said the raid of his home was related to allegations of corruption regarding cannabis.

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I can hear it now, in a few years the DA’s office will state “Many of the transactions, …, were past the statute of limitations when prosecutors began investigating the allegations” and thus nothing will happen. So, whatever happened to 5 finger Carolyn Goodrich who now lives in Tennessee on our dimes? Dan Dow’s office is great for seeking reasons to not do his job. They still could have prosecuted the mod squad before civilly on behalf of the residents of SLO County, but he chose not to, why?


24

Maybe SLO County needs to have it’s corporation revoked to be replaced with SLOTH, SLide Of The Hand, County.


15

I think the term is actually “sleight of hand.” Sleight having a more sneaky connotation than slide.


3

You guys need to read the whole article and not just the title. (that doesn’t mean there was no wrongdoing) The title misleads a bit. Past employees were caught, not current. An investigation was done and found no fault but payroll overages by a third-party payroll service, which were planned for and corrected.


Have a skeptical eye until all the facts come out. Sometimes, resignations come out in lieu of upcoming terminations. In fact, the way I read this is that they did go through an investigation recently, fixed the problems, and were transparent about it. Wait and see before throwing Soprano’s comparisons.


-28

Current IWMA employees are “accused” and not “caught” so the headline is not misleading. Your comments are pure bunk and you damn well know it.


30

Gee. What a surprise. This is the same agency that was almost dissolved but was saved by Adam Hill and Bruce Gibson after CalCoastNews’ reporting several years ago about its inbred corruption. IWMA attracts thieves like flies to s**t for its top jobs.


37

And no surprise one of Jimmy Paulding’s first task was to undo the countys previous decision to leave the IWMA.


33

The IWMA folks could be rolling wheelbarrows full of ratepayers’ cash out the door and DA Dan Dow would be looking the other way. Want justice? Better call the FBI.


27

Could be? They have been and no surprise DA Dow’s office has turned a blind eye, as they often do with white collar crime, Dow protects the chosen ones


13

As I remember Peter Cron worked for William Worrell and the others that headed up the IWMA when the former Secretary, Carolyn Goodrich who allegedly embezzled over $500,000. Even back then they asserted “there was no evidence in support of the allegations of intentional wrongdoing.” Evidence of “intentional wrongdoing” is a legal phrase that requires a smoking gun in the perpetrator’s hand or a handwritten confession. Like his former boss, Cron will never admit and will go down with the ship with our money claiming his innocence. That picture looks perfect for a mug shot of he and Jordan Lane. One has to ask where is the DA’s office in all of this? Oh, that is right the DA won’t prosecute one of their own. You could really see this coming, they hired a guy who worked at the IWMA when massive amounts of misconduct occurred there before, why, because he was willing to play ball.


14