By: Libi Uremovic| Original Article at Patch.com
Embezzlement 101
Since the first of the year there have been numerous automatic deposits listed on the City of Beaumont’s General Fund Bank Statements with the code: “HRTLAND PMT SYS TXNS/FEES”.
The Heartland deposits are being coded on the General Ledger under 01-0000-0210-0000 ‘ACCT REC REFUSE/SEWER’. There are two problems with these journal entries:
1) This account is to record the payment of sewer bills, not the collection of mitigation fees.
2) Not all of the deposits are being recorded.
The City does records sewer connection fees in the Sewer Fund 10-9100-8660-0000, but not the Heartland Sewer Fees.
From July to September the City of Beaumont has received a total of $494,947.89 in Mitigation Fees from Heartland, but only recorded $290,944.89 on the General Ledger. 75 out of 154 transactions totaling $204,944.89 were not recorded.
The City is stealing 40% of the mitigation fees right off the top and coding the rest of the money under sewer use payments instead of sewer connection mitigation fees, so all of the Sewer Mitigation Fees paid by Heartland do not appear in the Sewer Fund.
The Heartland Sewer Mitigation Fees have been received since the beginning of 2014, but the land remains untouched.
The Developers have the right to sue the City to recoup their money, but with over $100 Million in lawsuits already on the books that’s not a feasible choice.
It’s going to be a race to see if the government indicts the Big Six before the Developers kill ‘em.
I’ll place a $.25 bet on the developers – two bits is all Beaumont City Staff and Councils’ lives are worth.