“Cardholders did not realize the purchases made were prohibited when using P-Cards,” a report by the Office of Audits & Advisory Services explains.

Dining on the P-card

San Diego County’s so-called P-Card program has been riddled with abuse, mismanagement, and improper spending, according to a report recently posted online by county auditors. “Out of 274,272 P-Card transactions made during the audit period, approximately 13,000 (5%) [of] transactions were flagged” by the auditors “as potentially prohibited based on the transaction description.” So says the May 9 report by the Office of Audits & Advisory Services about the county-issued purchase cards. “Out of a sample of 27, [auditors] confirmed 11 transactions were made for prohibited items.” Illicit expenditures included five separate charges on P-Cards for Food for Employees, as well as one each for Gifts, Memberships, Professional Licenses, and [Internet] Domain Registration, all of which are improper.

“Cardholders did not realize the purchases made were prohibited when using P-Cards,” the report explains. “Additionally, the Approving Official may not have been aware that the purchases were prohibited, otherwise, they should have rejected them.” Audit recommendations included more training and possible oversight. No names were provided. Another troubling finding: “Cardholders are splitting large transactions into smaller transactions to circumvent the Single Transaction Limit.” Notes the audit: “Splitting transactions allows cardholders to circumvent the controls in place around approvals and credit limits on individual transactions. This increases the risk of inappropriate transactions occurring by attempting to avoid the appearance of exceeding authorized limits. Finally, this is an infringement of the rules around competitive procurement.”

Also problematic, according to the report, was the audit’s finding that the county’s supposedly strict competitive bidding requirement had been evaded numerous times by P-Card users. Of the twenty P-Card purchases sampled, “4 out of 8 transactions, amounting to $1000 to $2500 each, did not have at least 2 competitive quotes obtained,” and “5 out of 12 transactions, amounting to over $2500 each, did not have at least 3 competitive quotes obtained.” In many cases, purchase details were lacking, with auditors uncovering “346 transactions where the transaction description entered was either blank or did not contain sufficient information.”

According to the audit, “Through discussions with [the Department of Purchasing and Contracting] and departments, these issues were due to human error.” County policy “requires the Approving Official to review each P-Card transaction in Oracle to ensure that transactions contain a correct and adequate description and, if not, to reject it.” In response to the bad news, Jack Pelligrino, director of purchasing and contracting, and Marko Medved, general services chief, promised to beef up compliance with existing regulations and expand oversight as needed.

Todd Gloria

Todd in chief

The political and financial intrigue involving the San Diego Democratic Party’s Central Committee is about to get an expansive new twist with the emergence of Mayor Todd Gloria as a candidate for a seat on the turbulent body. The first-term Democrat, up for reelection next year, has registered a separate fund to raise campaign cash for his 2024 campaign for Central Committee, per a September 23 filing with the city clerk’s office. The Central Committee has dabbled in city issues before; two years ago it passed a resolution demanding that the city council stop SeaWorld’s fireworks displays, saying the nightly shows “frighten companion animals, terrify lonely shelter dogs and cats, and wreak havoc on wildlife, often causing dogs and cats to flee and become lost and injured, and the toxic chemicals released into the air and water poison the environment,” according to an April 21, 2021 KUSI account.

But money, not concern about the issues, has long been the prime motivation for politicos like Gloria seeking Central Committee seats. During the first half of this year, the party collected $963,582 in campaign contributions, with cash pouring in from labor unions and other special interests, many of which have business at San Diego city hall, including $94,500 from companies run by Michael Gelfand, which operates Campland On The Bay and Mission Bay RV Resort.

Gelfand, a big contributor to Gloria’s mayoral campaign, is a persistent presence at hearings regarding the future of his properties — in particular, an Environmental Impact Report review meeting earlier this year. “I told them if they’re going to make informed land use decisions, they should have an EIR that is thorough and comprehensive. Right now, the draft EIR doesn’t address some very crucial things,” Gelfand was quoted as saying in an April 21 KFMB TV report. “For example, it talks about marshland having a beneficial impact on water quality but yet there’s no study to verify that.”

Michael Gelfand

Other major funding for the Central Committee came from the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West PAC ($150,000), Laborers’ International Union of North America-Local 89 PAC ($110,000), Building A Stronger California sponsored by the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters ($80,000), the United Domestic Workers of America Action Fund Small Contributor Committee ($50,000), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 569 Candidate PAC ($45,000), the California Apartment Association PAC ($20,000), as well as San Diego power lobbyist Southwest Strategies ($9000). In addition, $6000 came in on April 6 from New San Diego, the political action committee run by airport board chairman and key Gloria ally Gil Cabrera that trashed Central Committee member and ex-Assembly Democrat Lori Saldana’s city council primary bid last year, leading to her third-place finish after fellow Democratic incumbent Jen Campbell and Republican dentist Linda Lukacs.

Of late, open warfare has broken out between Central Committee members, with Saldana trading barbs on social media with Gloria-backer Ryan Trabuco regarding what she called “a yearlong effort of various Central Committee members to ‘gaslight’ me when I have requested budgets and financial documents to prepare for committee meetings, and began in early 2022,” per a September 14 Times of San Diego account. Meanwhile, on September 18, Gloria transferred the remaining $9500 in his Assembly 2020 reelection account to the San Diego Democratic Party.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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