Former Kootenai County, Idaho,  Finance Director Angela Spaccia is scheduled to be sentenced on March 21 in Los Angeles County Superior Court for her corruption-related convictions resulting from her term as the Bell, California, assistant city administrator.   The Spaccia (then Sheffield) connection to Kootenai County was outlined in several OpenCdA posts.

As often happens when criminal conspirators are to be sentenced separately, they turn on each other to try and get reduced sentences.  Spaccia’s boss in Bell, former city administrator Robert Rizzo, had already pleaded no contest to 69 felony corruption charges last year rather than stand trial.

Rizzo had been scheduled to be sentenced before Spaccia, however he is likely to be subpoenaed to testify at Spaccia’s sentencing hearing.  The Court postponed Rizzo’s sentencing until April 16.  Obviously Rizzo’s attorney hopes that his testimony against his former assistant Spaccia will lighten his sentence.  Spaccia’s attorney probably hopes to reduce her sentence by shifting some of the blame back to Rizzo.

It is reasonably certain that both Rizzo and Spaccia will wind up in state or federal prison.  It seems likely that Spaccia will face federal tax charges as well.

OpenCdA will continue to follow the trials and travails of former Kootenai County Finance Director Angela Spaccia.  Who knows?  At some point she might even start cooperating with the feds to get a reduced federal sentence.  If she does, we wonder what she might say about the time she was Kootenai County’s Finance Director.

In a December 12 press release, André Birotte Jr., the US Attorney for the Central District of California, announced that former Bell, California, Chief Administrative Officer Robert A. Rizzo has agreed to plead guilty to two felony charges: conspiracy and filing a false federal income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service. In the plea agreement, Rizzo admitted that he created a corporation to fraudulently claim losses on his income tax return, which served to illegally reduce his tax liability on the significant income he was receiving from the City of Bell.

According to the press release, Rizzo and co-conspirators (including his tax preparer Robert J. Melcher) formed an S Corporation to claim bogus losses in relation to a purported rental property in Auburn, Washington. He also used an S-Corp account to pay for more than $80,000 in personal expenses in 2009 and $120,000 in construction work on his residence in Huntington Beach in 2010, then falsely claim that these expenses were related to rental property.

As the last sentence in the press release states, the federal investigation is not over.  According to reporter Jeff Gottlieb’s article in the Los Angeles Times, Rizzo’s charging documents refer to “A.S.” and her company, Sheffield Management Corp.  That is almost certainly a reference to Angela Spaccia, whose married name was “Sheffield” when she was in Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County, Idaho, working for the YWCA and serving for two years as Kootenai County’s Finance Director.   OpenCdA hopes the federal investigation will reveal who the tax preparer, accountant, or attorney was who helped Angela set up Sheffield Management Corp.

OpenCdA encourages readers to carefully and thoughtfully consider Wednesday’s editorial in the Los Angeles Times.  The editorial was headlined The lesson of Bell:  A watchful citizenry is still essential (I’ve highlighted important lessons to be learned in this reprint).

While OpenCdA completely agrees with the need for a watchful citizenry, that simply isn’t enough.  Had it not been for the diligent news coverage by the Los Angeles Times, the magnitude and scope of the crimes might never have been known.  Press curiosity encourages honesty and openness.  Diligent, persistent, and penetrating press reporting discourages corruption.

We in Coeur d’Alene have often heard some of our own city councilmen, most often outgoing Councilman Deanna Goodlander, tell us that they don’t need to pay attention to the details and neither do we.  “Trust the City Staff.”

In Bell, the trusted City Staff was City Administrator Robert Rizzo and Assistant City Administrator Angela Spaccia.  Another former member of the trusted Bell City Staff, the City Clerk, testified that she falsified public records when directed.  And five of the six City Councilmen who trusted them so blindly have now been convicted of some crimes and may face retrial on other charges as well.

For us in Coeur d’Alene, The Lesson of Bell ought to be to unquestioningly trust no one at City Hall.  We private citizens need to pay attention.  Paying attention won’t be easy because our local and regional news media appear to be intentionally not paying attention.  But we have to try.

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Last Saturday’s OpenCdA post titled Coeur d’Alene’s Connection to the Corruption in Bell asked why Angela Spaccia was interested in buying some very expensive property in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.  More specifically, we wanted to know what Spaccia’s connection was and is to Coeur d’Alene.

Today, we have a much better idea. (more…)

There was a tantalizing mention of “Idaho” twice in the Los Angeles Times story dated November 14, 2013, headlined Ex-Bell leader Spaccia faces cross-examination in corruption trial.

These two sentences appeared near the end of the article:

“Spaccia also testified that in 2010, she borrowed $200,000 from Rizzo’s mother-in-law to buy a house in Idaho.”

“Adams testified that Spaccia asked him for a $350,000 loan for property in Idaho in February 2010.”

OpenCdA was curious about where  Angela Spaccia had been trying to buy property in Idaho, so we contacted LA Times reporter Jeff Gottlieb and asked.    His answer:  “In your fair city, Coeur d’Alene.”

Mr. Gottlieb’s answer raises more questions.  Why did Angela Spaccia happen to choose Coeur d’Alene?  Does she have friends, family, or business associates here?   During her tenure as Bell’s Assistant City Administrator, had she been in contact with someone in Coeur d’Alene who suggested this would be a good place to “get lost” because our local and regional news media and law enforcement are not professionally too inquisitive?

Maybe some day we’ll get an answer to these questions.

ADDENDUM:  Here’s a link to some selected news stories the Los Angeles Times has published concerning the Bell corruption.

OpenCdA has written several posts about the alleged corruption of city officials in Bell, California.

Some of the nagging questions are, “Didn’t the State require independent audits of Bell’s books?  If so, why didn’t the auditors question such things as the  ‘secret formula the public could never find out’ ?  Since the public ultimately pays for the City’s audit, isn’t the public entitled to a diligent independent audit rather than one designed by the alleged crooks to conceal financial mismanagement?”

To get an answer, OpenCdA contacted Jeff Gottlieb, one of the Los Angeles Times’ two principal reporters covering the Bell scandal story.  Mr.  Gottlieb had, in fact, written an article that at least partly answered the nagging questions.  His article was published in the LA Times online on June 2, 2012, and headlined California disciplines accounting firm that missed Bell irregularities.

Apparently the California  Board of Accountancy takes is mission seriously.

ADDENDUM on 11-18/2013:  LA Times reporter Jeff Gottlieb’s article linked above was preceded by one headlined Audits of Bell were ‘rubber-stamp,’ state Controller says.  The earlier article was published by the LA Times online on December 22, 2010, and included these indictments of the City of Bell’s independent auditors, Mayer Hoffman McCann (MHM):

“The long-awaited report is being closely watched because Mayer Hoffman McCann audits the books of dozens of government agencies in California and has 30 offices nationwide.”

“The controller’s office found that MHM failed to comply with 13 of 17 “fieldwork auditing standards” when reviewing Bell’s books in the 2008-09 fiscal year. The firm focused mostly on comparing financial numbers year to year rather than looking at potential for inappropriate or illegal activities, the controller’s report said.”