In a report released last week, the State Controller’s Office concludes that the City of Industry continues to suffer from a lack of oversight and mismanagement resulting in significant financial losses and waste of taxpayer funds. But the city is now fighting back, claiming the critical audit is part of a “politically-motivated attack” carried out to assist well-connected individuals with an axe to grind against the city.
As the Los Angeles Times notes, Industry’s allegations — which essentially amount to claims of conspiracy — were buttressed by some questionable decisions on the part of State Controller Betty Yee.
Just days before her office announced a rare follow-up audit for the City of Industry in April, state Controller Betty Yee met privately with a Democratic donor embroiled in a dispute with the beleaguered San Gabriel Valley municipality.
Yee said she cut the meeting short with developer Bill Barkett after realizing there was a potential conflict: He was battling the City of Industry over a stalled solar energy project and was discussing a lawsuit seeking to strip city officials of their power. Her office was scrutinizing the city’s finances.
But after the meeting, the State Controller’s Office agreed to review a draft of that lawsuit — one that could benefit not only Barkett, but another well-known figure in the Democratic Party.
Yee’s office then made an unusual move for a public agency: It provided a supporting declaration for the lawsuit on its decision to scrutinize Industry’s finances again, backing up critics’ claims that the city needed new leadership.
Loyola Law School professor and government ethics expert Jessica Levinson called Yee’s move “strange” and questioned the benefit to taxpayers. Indeed, Industry City Manager Troy Helling is now pointing to Yee’s actions as evidence that Wednesday’s report was meant to help Barkett. Yee has called those accusations “baseless” and a “diversionary tactic” meant to deflect from the city’s poor stewardship of public dollars.
Wednesday’s report was a follow-up to a scathing 2016 audit which found widespread problems in Industry, including accounting controls that were “effectively non-existent.” The City insists it has already resolved many of the problems flagged in that initial report.
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