Inglewood Treasurer Wanda Brown is the most definitive resource when it comes to explaining the city’s finances. Due to her exemplary educational background, at the behest of Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts and the entire city council, she was given additional duties, overseeing the city’s finances, that would typically fall under the purview of the Chief Financial Officer David Esparza.
Brown continues to detail the ineptness of Esparza, Asst. Finance Director Sharon Koike and now Asst. City Manager/Public Works Director Luis Atwell.
They all have one thing in common: they appear to not be qualified for the high paying positions they hold.
Brown earned her Bachelor of Science Degree from Cal-State University Long Beach, MBA from UCLA, and post graduate studies at UCLA. Each of her degrees has an accounting emphasis. She simultaneously earned two doctoral degrees from Ministerial Training Institute in Biblical Counseling and Church Administration. She is a California Certified Municipal Treasurer, Certified Finance Municipal Administrator, and Certified Cash Handler via the Association of Public Treasurer of the United States and Canada. She has served as the city’s treasurer for over three decades.
When she discusses the city’s finances, she is overly qualified to detail and provide sound judgement as to her findings. This enrages Mayor Butts who has gone out of his way to forbid Brown from speaking during weekly city council meetings.
Related: When Inglewood’s treasurer brought up city finances, the mayor cut off her mic
Her latest revelation is the misallocation of $2 million of funds, provided to the city, from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Authority (LACMTA) where Mayor Butts previously served as the board’s chair. Her report indicates that when it was brought to Atwell’s and Mayor Butts’ attention, Butts replied, “…so what, I discover errors all the time.”
There have been other allegations, of misappropriating funds, while Butts served as chair of LACMTA, by a vendor working on the Crenshaw/LAX rail line. Apparently a Metro staffer was paying out federal funds, to Walsh-Shea, without the proper documentation to do so.
The allegation resulted in Metro’s Construction Committee Chair Janice Hahn, calling for an audit of all expenditures related to the project.
Related: Supervisor Janice Hahn calls for audit of Crenshaw/LAX rail line expenditures
Fiduciary malfeasance was also alleged by the board of the Inglewood Chamber of Commerce and after they fired the employee, for not explaining the chambers financial condition, the mayor had them rehire him.
There are an inordinate amount of consultants, eating off the city of Inglewood’s lack of competent staffers, and one could assume that as a direct result, it squashes the scrutiny of Butts’ alleged misdeeds, by legal minds, until the well runs dry.
Brown is encouraging residents to support a petition she is spearheading to recall Mayor Butts. Her contact information is listed in her treasurer’s report.
Treasurer Report 8-25 & 9-1 CCM Eviction
2 Comments
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It’s like you have no clue about what’s really happening. Clue… Pay attention to the Treasures change of rhetoric after she got denied special benefits.