It finally happened. More than a year after law enforcement raids were conducted at Beaumont City Hall, the offices of city consultant Urban Logic and the home of longtime City Manager Alan Kapanicas, corruption charges have been filed against seven former Beaumont city officials.
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin announced charges Tuesday against Mr. Kapanicas, former finance director William Aylward, former economic development director David Dillon, former public works director Deepak Moorjani, former planning director Ernest Egger, former city attorney Joseph Aklufi and former police chief Francis Coe.
“Public servants must remember a basic truth: They serve the people, and the money handled by the city and any government is the people’s money and should be handled as such,” Mr. Hestrin said Tuesday.
The defendants face charges including conspiracy, embezzlement and conflict of interest. According to Mr. Hestrin, they were involved in the misappropriation of $43 million in taxpayer money from the city of roughly 42,000 people.
While the defendants certainly deserve their days in court, it has become clear that those charged were involved in mismanaging one of the most dysfunctional governments in the Inland Empire.
In November, the state Controller’s Office released an audit of Beaumont’s finances, finding a “total lack of accounting for, and questionable use of, bond proceeds.” Shoddy recordkeeping and incomplete spreadsheets made it difficult for city and state officials to fully explain where public monies have been going for decades.
Noting that the former finance director, city manager and public works director were personally benefiting financially from municipal bond proceeds, the Controller’s Office concluded at the least that “the city management and the City Council failed to exercise its fiduciary responsibilities in protecting taxpayer dollars.”
Additionally, Beaumont officials the past year have essentially had to completely rebuild the city’s budgeting and accounting processes. Basic pieces of information, like how much money the city actually had, needed to be reevaluated, and budgeting around hard numbers is evidently something new to the city.
It is unfortunate that such abuses and misuses of power had been allowed to persist for so long. Communities around the region need take note of what their own governments are up to and hold them accountable. For the residents, businesses and taxpayers of Beaumont, we hope the city continues the hard work of cleaning up the mistakes of the past and serves the public honorably and responsibly.