Corruption By City Staff Goes Unnoticed or Maybe Worse?
From 2004 to 2014 no one was watching City store. Beaumont’s city manager and many of our city staff were on the take, stealing thousands or maybe even millions of tax payer dollars. Some have already admitted to their crimes. Whose responsibility was it to keep watch over this gang of thieves? Our elected representatives – our City Council members.
I attended many city council meetings over this period primarily to question the accounting of our CFD tax dollars and to fight the incursion of warehouses in our area. I listened to advocate Judy Bingham question Kapanicas and Aylward on many occasion. Little did I know that Judy was the only one in town who suspected foul play. I recall after Bingham’s public comment attacks, council member Brenda Knight would giggle or Roger Berg would come to the defense of Kapanicas or Aylward. Were our council members so enamored by staff that they could not see the light? Did they hate Mrs. Bingham so much that they just couldn’t look into the accusations?
The little town of Beaumont was easy pickings for the likes of Aylward, Kapanicas, Dillon, Egger and Moorjani. Our city’s legal representation was non-existent and time will tell if they were complicit. What I do not accept is the complacency displayed by past city council members. They did not practice due diligence in their duties. I do hope that lessons learned will weigh heavily on our current city council members. Question city staff, question consultants, question, question, question. Don’t be naive and trusting as past councils evidently were.