In breaking news today it seems that for the first time in 32 years there is a hint of scandal in the trustee's office. According to today's paper the granddaughter of Trustee Pasti Stair Lomeli embezzled over $20,000 dollars between December of 2005 till early this year.
"Trustee Patsy Stair-Lomeli said Wednesday that her granddaughter, Deputy Trustee Katie P. Davis, took cash for property tax payments, pocketed the money and deleted computer records of receipts."It seems that she was able to do this because of a computer glitch that allowed her to delete property tax receipts. When Pasti became aware of the problem she gave her granddaughter a choice of paying back the money with penalty and interest or face criminal prosecution. Her granddaughter paid back the money, left her job and entered rehab for an addiction to pain killers.
It never ceases to amaze me that politicians of all stripes haven't learned that it is better to announce bad news when you become aware of it rather than wait and hope it never comes to light. If this had come to light when it first happened then this story would have had no legs. By not doing the right thing and revealing this when she first had knowledge it gives the impression of a cover up. Now she leaves office with this story as the first thing people will remember about her long and otherwise honorable service.
3 comments:
This is very sad for Patsy, who does not deserve the suspicion and contagious disgrace after such a long and honorable career.
Few could throw their own grandchild to the wolves, which may be the best reasoning against that practice.
I too feel bad for Patsy but I think I’m more disappointed in her attempt to keep this private rather than just face the music regardless of who was involved. This just proves it’s always better to announce bad news on your terms rather than react to it at a later date.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming weeks.
Seems to me it was covered up entirely for political reasons, dealing with her son. Thats the worst kind of nepotism, and I have no sympathy for it at all. Sure, its hard to DO THE RIGHT THING and turn a relative in for robbing the county of about the amount of money I make in a year, but not doing it is criminal. Or should be.
Point is, no sympathy.
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