Posted by Tina
Apparently the California Parks Department has been secretly hording cash for the last twelve years as it threatened citizens with closed parks and shuttered park services. To make matters worse they have been soliciting and accepting donations from the public and other government agencies to help keep the parks open. 70 parks had been scheduled for closure this year in an effort to “save” $22 million and State park funding cuts were part of Governor Brown’s $195.7 million line item budget cutting. (Child care and college scholarships were also cut.) The State Parks director has resigned and an investigation and audit will be forthcoming…at least that’s the story.
When are California voters going to wake up? Our public servants are not serving us at all.
People have lost their jobs because of lack of funds. I hope those responsbile loose theirs too.
It’s time for a complete audit of every department, and all new members in the senate and assembly.
Why will you people not look into things … even a little bit? A five minute internet search turned up a 2009/10 budget for the California State Parks of $845 million, and change.
I doubt that the agency’s little nest egg was actually “hidden”. Sacking perfectly good civil servants over any such media induced fuss is absurd … wasteful and stupid … and pandering to morons, besides.
Hey Libby, your “perfectly good civil servant” was not the victim of “sacking”(who says that? lol) ” The State Parks director has RESIGNED and an investigation and audit will be forthcoming…at least that’s the story.” When you said ” Sacking perfectly good civil servants”, it made me think of the movie Better off Dead, “Now that’s a real shame when folks be throwin’ away a perfectly good white boy like that”. Also the movie Men at Work used almost the same line, both very funny movies.
Getting back to the story, it sounds to me like the money was being hidden, if not why would we need an investigation and audit’s? If nothing shady was being done why did the “perfectly good civil servant” up and resign? I for one would like that answers to those questions.
Libby you need to follow your own advice.
Do you even bother to read what we post?
The director resigned!! Obviously there is some funny business involved.
Hiding money is a common practice in the public sector. Anyone with minimal knowledge of accounting would be able to review a departments budget/book to figure it out. Funds are put into an account with a budget number. Each number indicates if the funds are for salaries, supplies, maintenance, etc. Each account has sub-accounts to define further breakdown. Example: Salaries could be assigned a 6000 number with management being – 6001, faculty – 6002, classified – 6003, student – 6004. Every person and thing is assigned an account and sub-account number.
At our school board meetings one to two hundred thousand dollars would be transferred from one dept. or account to another. Making it impossible to track. Follow the pea under the shell game.
Over $500k was hidden in our campus police dummy account until it was discovered. A large sum for a school district who kept saying they were broke.
Spend it or lose it, was the common spoke phrase. At the end of EVERY fiscal year massive spending would take place with new cars for the police dept., vans for the athletic dept., and furniture and computers for our and other dept. This was money we were told wasnt available during the year, but the items just magically appeared.
Anyone who doesnt think this is going on now has his/her head in the sand.
Let’s not be dim. I’d resign, rather than deal with any more of this moronic horsepucky. The $54 mil won’t see the agency through the next year, and why work for a citizenry that is 1) so pitifully easy to distract, and 2) unwilling to pony up what it costs to keep this state running. Screw ’em, I say.
Hey Libby I’m with you. Citizens should just withhold all future tax monies forthwith and let the whole deck of cards come tumbling down. A few weeks on the unemployment lines with their neighbors in the private sector might serve to make them more responsible about money…especially money that is not theirs!
Wow, Libby said that? Hey, I’m with you…its great day when we can all agree on something!