Friday, July 20, 2012

State Parks Scam


California's park system secretly stashed away $54 million even though it was cutting services and threatening to close parks, officials announced Friday, and the department's director resigned as the hidden surplus was revealed.

The announcement means the department has plenty of cash, even though it's been soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations in what was thought to be a desperate scramble to keep parks open.

"We will get to the bottom of this situation,” said a statement from secretary John Laird of the California Natural Resources Agency, which oversees the parks department.

Officials said the department has underreported tens of millions of dollars for the last 12 years. News of the surplus was first reported by the Sacramento Bee.

Read more...

Posted by Steve Sinai

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Power of the press! This involves just one dept. What was the real agenda and how widespread is the problem? Good job, Sacramento Bee!

Anonymous said...

54 million doesn't seem like very much money.

Anonymous said...

That's one dept. Do you think there might be more?

Anonymous said...

They had threatened to close dozens of parks to save $22 million
before private donors and non-profits stepped up to keep them open. Begging from the public was never neccessary but it sure was easy.

Anonymous said...

Just like the teachers union and school districts. Begs for more money, more money, while secretly stashing billions. Greedy MFers.

todd bray said...

And the secret fund was to buy back vacation days. How is this not embezzlement?

Steve Sinai said...

"Just like the teachers union and school districts. Begs for more money, more money, while secretly stashing billions."

That's news to me. Please explain what you're talking about.

Anonymous said...

still waiting for that explanation
anon7/21@1211. enlighten us.