TEHACHAPI, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) - An investigation by the Kern County Grand Jury claims a community services district manager in Tehachapi used an old grant to take workers from his former workplace and bring them to his new one.
David Aranda resigned as general manager of Mountain Meadows Community Services district last year and came to work as interim general manager at Stallion Springs Community Services District.
Before he resigned, he had an agreement from Employee Training Resource assigning workers from grant funds to work at Mountain Meadows.
Aranda used that agreement to bring workers to his new district at Stallion Springs, the Grand Jury investigation claims, writing that he was in violation of penal code 925 and continued to sign worker time sheets, acting as general manager of his former district, and instructed Mountain Meadows workers to come work for him at Stallion Springs.
Claims Aranda denies.
"It appears to me when you read this, the Grand Jury is trying to find something as opposed to looking at what was accomplished, and what was accomplished was perfectly legal and beneficial," Aranda said.
The Grand Jury also alleges Aranda falsified worker timesheets, writing, "timesheets reviewed by the committee, completed by workers in 2017 and 2018, were altered after the workers signed them. The altered timesheets indicated that the workers were working at Mountain Meadows, rather than their actual work location."
"I would not call them 'altered,' because we weren't trying to hide anything," Aranda said, adding that workers were working at both Mountain Meadows and Stallion Springs, and their pay was coming from a grant that applied to both locations.
Employers Training Resource, included in the investigation, admits that Aranda was given permission by an unauthorized staff member to bring workers from Mountain Meadows to Stallion Springs, but the required written agreement was never drafted.
If Aranda had a written agreement, which ETR said they would have readily provided, there would be no reason for the Grand Jury's investigation.
"I know I wasn't hiding anything, because if you brought everyone into a room together in front of the Grand Jury, the Employee Training Resource, the Board of Directors at Mountain Meadows, the Board of Directors at Stallion Springs, and the employees, they would all understand what they were doing.," Aranda said. "They were working on a grant program, they were getting paid, and both entities were benefiting."
June 21, 2018
Bakersfield Now
By Emma Goss
No comments:
Post a Comment