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San Luis Obispo County administrator’s history of embezzlement

April 20, 2024

Matt Pontes

By KAREN VELIE

The man selected to serve as San Luis Obispo County’s administrative officer was previously found guilty of felony embezzlement, an approximately 30-year-old conviction.

Regardless, the SLO County Board of Supervisors is slated to officially appoint Matthew Pontes during Tuesday’s board meeting to head the county. Pontes is expected to be paid $419,969 in salary and benefits per year, according to a staff report.

After working as chief administrative officer for Shasta County for about a year and a half, in June 2022 he left after a county supervisor discovered Pontes had been convicted of several crimes in the 90s, including embezzlement. At the time, Pontes admitted his past transgressions.

In a statement posted by Action News in 2022, Pontes argues he committed a petty theft offense of $420. He then pleaded guilty to felony embezzlement. The charge was later expunged from his record.

SLO County’s public relations arm, Jeanette Trompeter, quickly responded to questions about Pontes’ history saying the county was fully aware of the conviction before selecting him.

“The Board is aware of a 30-year-old theft conviction for Mr. Pontes when he was 20 years old,” Trompeter write an email to members of the press. “Just as none of us would want to be punished for the mistakes of our youth for which we have made amends, the board is confident this was a one-time incident for which he paid the price and has since then offered 30 years of reputable public service.”

Pontes is in line to replace John Nilon, who was terminated in Nov. 2023 because of allegations of sexual misconduct. During his short tenure, multiple county employees and others accused Nilon of inappropriate touching.

Prior to Nilon’s appointment to the administrative officer position, Supervisor Debbie Arnold argued the  county had not properly vetted Nilon.

For years, federal investigators have looked into allegations of corruption in the county, primarily related to former Supervisor Adam Hill’s many pay-to-play schemes. Helios Dayspring pleaded guilty and was convicted of bribing Hill.

Late last year, Ryan Wright was arrested regarding allegations he and his partner attorney John Belsher bribed Hill while defrauding investors in local development projects.

 


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I would love to know how these salaries are determined. Both the Human Resources Officer and the new County Administrator will be paid more than the US Vice President, all members of Congress and all Cabinet members.


30

The Board of Supervisors approves these salaries. But in California it’s a huge scam because if you check http://www.transparentcalifornia.com, look up his name, you will find he’s moved from county to county each time getting a nice, fat increase in salary. This is done all the time with all sorts of public employment. That is why you should always vote for fiscal conservatives as Supervisors at the county level.


20

That’s the problem. Who is fiscally responsible?

Both “sides” are involved in taxpayer abuse. Each with its own set of public “servants”, with organized politically active employee groups. All are in on the take.

We need RADICAL fiscal responsibility.

That is why I suggest a countywide measure to cap public employee wage and salary at say $180,000.

“No public worker in the County o San Luis Obispo shall make more than $180,000 per year in wages and benefits.”

When I post this on this site, it does not show up.


22

Ultimately, citizen voters are responsible. Unfortunately, voters are rarely “wake” enough to realize how all of this goes down. It’s like a dirty secret that is practiced statewide and noticed by almost no one. I congratulate you for getting your post, posted on CCN. Good on them!

As to your idea of a 180K cap, it’s a damn fine idea and completely doable. It needs to be done statewide of course, but SLO County would be a good start. As you state, it’s collusion between public employee unions and politicians who keep this scam going. It’s high time to break that criminal connection.


8

All of the people in the room to decide salaries are themselves government employees. They know the more other government employees make the more they will make when it is their turn for a raise. Plus it’s not their money..


1

In San Luis Obispo the administration sees what “similar” cities are paying and then pays the same or more. Every time anyone gets a raise in these similar cities it ratchets up salaries here. There are also a dozen unions the city deals with, making it next to impossible to fire anyone.


2

Low wages plus all you can thieve is old school, now we just have the taxpayers fund high wages to avoid bad behavior. To be consistent we committed $95 Billion that we don’t have for foreign aid, to countries which ironically were money meccas, the next day our price for gasoline goes up. At all levels, just another slide of the hand.


2

Anyone who votes for this salary has LOST my, my family and my neighbors support.


23

Ok…this whole story stinks. He claims he committed petty theft of $420, which is a misdemeanor, yet he pled guilty to FELONY embezzlement??? Either he is not being honest still to this day, or he made one of the worst plea deals I’ve ever heard of…either way, it shows really poor decision making. I would demand he clears up this whole plea deal discrepancy, because his version is insane, or the article got the facts wrong. Very odd. But, what the heck, let’s pay him an even $500k, not like it matters anyway.


6

I think his sole transgression as a 20 year old should disqualify him for the job. This is San Luis Obispo County and we require more than one 30 year old incident. To meet our standards the applicant needs a minimum of five felony convictions including bribery and child molestation.


How much was he making at Shasta County? Who gets paid $420 K for anything? I question his honesty in allowing the County to pay him so much. He should have demanded a smaller salary,


35

And why is the County and PG&E obligated to provide huge-paying do-nothing jobs for ex-TV anchors at our expense? Jeanette Trumpeter, Tony Cipolla, Carina Corral.


24

The system runs itself, with or without $420,000/yr for this dildo to socialize with little Jimmy.


27

That’s America for you. The guy who is currently favored to become President of the United States next year is facing 88 felony charges and has already been convicted in civil court of sexual abuse and business fraud. I doubt many of the commenters on CCN think he’s unfit to be president because of legal issues and in fact, millions of Americans will vote for him, despite his past.


I think this guy deserves a break, although I admit I don’t agree with that salary. It seems a bit high though I suppose being in charge of over 2,800 employees carries plenty of responsibility.


-19

He’s not going to be “in charge of” or do anything other than to collect a ridiculous salary and suck up to little Jimmy.


26

I don’t see any mention of presidential politics in any of the comments or any of them objecting to his hiring based on a decades old irrelevant criminal conviction. The comments are about the ridiculous salary and whether he’ll fit in with the other bad actors.


-3

Birds of a feather flock together…


Adam Hill, Bruce Gibson, Heidi Harmon, Dawn Addis…and now, Matt Pontes!


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