MOORPARK : College Foundation Returns $16,000
At the request of college district officials, the Moorpark College Foundation has returned $16,000 in campus bookstore proceeds, which officials said were improperly transferred by the school’s president.
James Niles, executive director of the foundation, said Monday that the funds were returned Feb. 13 to the Moorpark College Co-Curricular Committee, which will decide how they will be dispersed among campus groups.
Moorpark College President Stanley L. Bowers was reprimanded in December by district trustees, who said he improperly directed $51,000 in bookstore profits to the foundation, a nonprofit group that raises money for the college.
District officials also found that Bowers had funneled an additional $3,152 in bookstore profits to Ingrid Ely, the college’s former alumni association president, to pay for travel.
The transfers are the focus of an inquiry by the Ventura County district attorney’s office.
Niles said that the $16,000 was transferred into the foundation’s general fund and that there was no way to account for how the money was spent.
He said the trustees “bent over backward to let us know they were not accusing us of anything wrong.”
Bowers has denied any wrongdoing and has insisted that the money transfers were proper.
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