LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – County officials are investigating the discovery this week of a discrepancy in the balance of the fund that supplies cash for undercover sheriff’s operations.
A Friday afternoon statement released by Sheriff Frank Rivero’s office said an audit of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau undercover operations fund conducted on Wednesday discovered that $2,100 could not be accounted for.
“The funds are kept in a safe located within the detective’s bureau at the Sheriff’s Main Office,” the statement said. “The persons with access to the funds are limited and strict procedures are in place, which require two signatures for assignment of the funds when needed for operational purposes.”
The sheriff’s office statement concluded, “Upon learning of the discrepancy between the last reported audit balance and current balance, Sheriff Rivero assigned his financial personnel to review the account for financial errors and instructed his command staff to secure an outside agency to conduct an internal affairs investigation.”
The release of the information comes ahead of the completion of the audit, which was being conducted by Cathy Saderlund, the county clerk/auditor-controller.
“I can confirm that we have an audit in progress that has now been compromised, in my opinion,” said Saderlund in reference to the press release. She did not want to comment further at this point.
Sheriff’s command staff did not respond to a request by Lake County News for an explanation of why the information was released ahead of the audit’s completion.
County Administrative Officer Matt Perry said the sheriff’s office also didn’t alert him before releasing the information about the in-process audit.
He said that on Wednesday Saderlund’s staff was conducting a periodic audit of the fund, which last had been audited in December of last year.
The sheriff’s office had said that during that December audit, all funds had been accounted for, and Perry said he had not been advised otherwise at that time.
In January, sheriff’s Capt. Chris Macedo and Undersheriff Pat Turturici had gone before the Board of Supervisors to ask for an increase in the appropriation for the fund, which is used for operations such as narcotics investigations, as Lake County News has reported.
Rivero’s written report to the board stated, “As the Sheriff’s office has been pro-active in narcotic’s (sic) investigations, interdiction and eradication, it is requested this appropriation be increased to $25,000 at this time.”
Despite concerns about the lack of transparency of how the funds were used – sheriff’s staff acknowledged that information about how the money is used is sensitive – the board unanimously approved the request to raise the appropriation amount from $5,000 to $25,000.
According to the meeting minutes, the board also “encouraged the Sheriff’s Office to abide by requests from the Auditor-Controller regarding proper accountability.”
Perry confirmed that the fund whose audit is in question was the same one for which the board voted to raise the appropriations amount.
However, he said the increase hadn’t yet taken place, pending the sheriff’s office coming into compliance with the auditor-controller’s accountability requirements.
Supervisor Rob Brown, who supported raising the fund appropriation, credited Saderlund with finding the issue, but added, “It’s highly unlikely that any of the detectives have done anything inappropriate.”
Instead, he suggested it may have been the result of an accounting error. Brown added that audits are meant to find those very kinds of discrepancies.
“We all need to wait and see what the outcome of the independent audit is before we jump to any conclusions,” Brown said.
Perry said he didn’t want to discuss the county’s next steps at this point, noting that Saderlund has to finish her audit and he wants to confer with county counsel.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
012213 Board of Supervisors - Request to raise sheriff's undercover fund appropriation
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