LA Times Reports on the Charter abuse ZD has been talking and blogging about. CITIZENS ALERT: IT'S TRUE!!!
Some BIG stories in today's LA Times that will hopefully gain me some "cred" with the talk show hosts that allow me to bring up the non-profit organizations and charter concerns that I have also been blogging about and mentioning to City Council on TV 35.
Charter schools official, Hesperia councilman indicted over a scandal involving misappropriation of funds at California Charter Academy.
By Maeve Reston and Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 4, 2007
A San Bernardino County grand jury today indicted the founder of a charter school network that once was the largest in California, charging him with grand theft and misappropriation of school funds. A Hesperia city councilman also was indicted.
C. Steven Cox, who built California Charter Academy into a statewide string of 60 campuses serving more than 10,000 students, was taken into custody today and charged with more than 100 counts of misappropriation of charter school funds and theft of nearly $5.5 million.
A 2005 state audit alleged that Cox misused millions of dollars in charter school funds to lavishly pay himself, friends and family and to buy luxuries such as spa services and concert tickets.
State auditors found in 2005 that Cox had illegally opened at least 15 schools outside the boundaries of the districts granting the charters, and illegally converted eight private schools to charters.
That meant California Charter was ineligible for $23 million in government funding it received, according to the state audit.
Auditors found there was "no functional separation" between the finances of the publicly funded charter school organization and Cox's for-profit company, Educational Administrative Services Corp.
Because of excessive spending, the for-profit company was often in the red, leading Cox to bail out the corporation by transferring money from funds intended for school operations, the audit found. Many of the criminal charges announced today relate to some 40 unauthorized and illegal transfers totaling $3.5 million from the charter school company to the private corporation.
Cox paid himself $1.1 million over a four-year period and used $1.2 million to employ family members, including retroactive salary increases, according to state auditors. Cox and Honeycutt, who was the for-profit company's vice president for corporate development, also spent lavishly on their corporate American Express cards.
Auditors also found that five board members who oversaw the charter schools "had potentially unlawful or unethical conflicts of interest."
[You gotta admit, this is EXACTLY the thing I have been warning about for over a year now since AB 1381 to last week's LAUSD board meeting. ALRIGHT PEOPLE...NOT TO SAY IT HAS HAPPENED IN ZD'S JURISDICTION...BUT LET'S JUST SAY THE PUEBLOS WILL BE WATCHING WITH A MICROSCOPE ON THIS ONE, AND I HOPE SOME OF MY LEGAL EXPERTS ARE READING THIS.
REMEMBER LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS AND ALL LOS ANGELES STAKEHOLDER: The City of Los Angeles' bond rating is tied to LAUSD's. So if they go bankrupt, it not only hurts the school system, it hurts the City's bond rating. (Hello, CM Parks!)
And by forcing LAUSD world-class leader, Superintendent David L. Brewer, III (that's ADMIRAL Brewer to you Yoli) to cut $35 million in a week's time for part time cafeteria worker health benefits, I'm not real optimistic as to the future of LA's bond rating. Especially since the City now admits they don't have the transportation dollars they need and we are not going to have enough infrastructure for all the traffic. (Bad for economy if the City is an unbearable gridlock.)
Entire LA Times article. MUST READ. HILARIOUS COMEDY & TRAGEDY [Imagine the numbers using LAUSD sized budget.]
PUBLIC NOTICE: Join ZD for Karaoke at Barney's Beanery @ 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica at tonight (Wed 9/5) at 10pm.
ZumaTimes.com: News BEFORE it happens. Aka: LA Times prequel
Charter schools official, Hesperia councilman indicted over a scandal involving misappropriation of funds at California Charter Academy.
By Maeve Reston and Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 4, 2007
A San Bernardino County grand jury today indicted the founder of a charter school network that once was the largest in California, charging him with grand theft and misappropriation of school funds. A Hesperia city councilman also was indicted.
C. Steven Cox, who built California Charter Academy into a statewide string of 60 campuses serving more than 10,000 students, was taken into custody today and charged with more than 100 counts of misappropriation of charter school funds and theft of nearly $5.5 million.
A 2005 state audit alleged that Cox misused millions of dollars in charter school funds to lavishly pay himself, friends and family and to buy luxuries such as spa services and concert tickets.
State auditors found in 2005 that Cox had illegally opened at least 15 schools outside the boundaries of the districts granting the charters, and illegally converted eight private schools to charters.
That meant California Charter was ineligible for $23 million in government funding it received, according to the state audit.
Auditors found there was "no functional separation" between the finances of the publicly funded charter school organization and Cox's for-profit company, Educational Administrative Services Corp.
Because of excessive spending, the for-profit company was often in the red, leading Cox to bail out the corporation by transferring money from funds intended for school operations, the audit found. Many of the criminal charges announced today relate to some 40 unauthorized and illegal transfers totaling $3.5 million from the charter school company to the private corporation.
Cox paid himself $1.1 million over a four-year period and used $1.2 million to employ family members, including retroactive salary increases, according to state auditors. Cox and Honeycutt, who was the for-profit company's vice president for corporate development, also spent lavishly on their corporate American Express cards.
Auditors also found that five board members who oversaw the charter schools "had potentially unlawful or unethical conflicts of interest."
[You gotta admit, this is EXACTLY the thing I have been warning about for over a year now since AB 1381 to last week's LAUSD board meeting. ALRIGHT PEOPLE...NOT TO SAY IT HAS HAPPENED IN ZD'S JURISDICTION...BUT LET'S JUST SAY THE PUEBLOS WILL BE WATCHING WITH A MICROSCOPE ON THIS ONE, AND I HOPE SOME OF MY LEGAL EXPERTS ARE READING THIS.
REMEMBER LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS AND ALL LOS ANGELES STAKEHOLDER: The City of Los Angeles' bond rating is tied to LAUSD's. So if they go bankrupt, it not only hurts the school system, it hurts the City's bond rating. (Hello, CM Parks!)
And by forcing LAUSD world-class leader, Superintendent David L. Brewer, III (that's ADMIRAL Brewer to you Yoli) to cut $35 million in a week's time for part time cafeteria worker health benefits, I'm not real optimistic as to the future of LA's bond rating. Especially since the City now admits they don't have the transportation dollars they need and we are not going to have enough infrastructure for all the traffic. (Bad for economy if the City is an unbearable gridlock.)
Entire LA Times article. MUST READ. HILARIOUS COMEDY & TRAGEDY [Imagine the numbers using LAUSD sized budget.]
PUBLIC NOTICE: Join ZD for Karaoke at Barney's Beanery @ 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica at tonight (Wed 9/5) at 10pm.
ZumaTimes.com: News BEFORE it happens. Aka: LA Times prequel
Posted by Zuma Dogg @ 9/04/2007 08:20:00 PM
1 Comments:
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Give credit where credit is due.
Zuma has indeed predicted this kind of non-profitable corruption.
Thanks.
We are paying attention.
Paying attention will deter future non-profit corruption.
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