Ex-Manager of Bradbury Gets 2 Years in Prison : Crime: Aurora (Dolly) Vollaire is fined $10,000 in addition to agreed-on restitution. She spent thousands in city funds on personal luxury items.

Former Bradbury City Manager Aurora (Dolly) Vollaire, who used the city’s only credit card to ring up thousands of dollars for luxurious personal purchases, was sentenced Thursday to two years in state prison, ending a more than yearlong scandal that shook up city politics in the affluent foothill hamlet.

Vollaire, who also was fined $10,000 on top of restitution she had already agreed to pay, pleaded no contest April 22 to misuse of public funds and submitting fraudulent claims to the city in a plea bargain that did not involve any guarantees as to what her sentence would be.

“Justice was definitely served,” Bradbury Mayor Bea Lapisto-Kirtley said Thursday. “I think it sends a clear message. . . . If you’re an elected official, it’s not your money. The money belongs to the people.”

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gordon Ringer said in pronouncing the sentence that Vollaire knew what she was doing all along, that the thefts occurred over a long period of time and that the former city official had used the Bradbury city treasury as “her own personal piggy bank.”

Revelations about how Vollaire was using city money began when two city gadflies dug evidence of wrongdoing out of the municipal trash bin. Later, documents showed that Vollaire spent tens of thousands of city dollars on designer sunglasses, shoes, china and fine crystal in shops from Laguna Beach to Barbados. The resulting scandal tarnished the reputations of the former mayor and a city councilman, who were recalled by voters, in part because of their failure to question or curb her spending. Both were brought down last year in a recall election and replaced by two new council members, including one of the people who had found the documents in the trash bin.

Vollaire, 54, had run Bradbury virtually single-handedly for more than two decades before she was accused by the district attorney’s office of misspending more than $53,000.

Thursday she came to court expecting to receive probation and a sentence of community service, said her attorney, Rayford Fountain. Instead, she was taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies to begin serving her prison term.

“She was just in a state of shock,” Fountain said. “She kept saying, ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me.’ ”

In addition to the two-year sentence, Ringer added a $10,000 fine, the maximum allowable under state law.

Although letters of support had been sent to the court by Vollaire’s friends and neighbors, Bradbury city officials sent numerous negative letters, Fountain said. “The mayor of Bradbury bad-mouthed her big time,” Fountain said.

But Lapisto-Kirtley said she simply provided names of other residents she felt should speak regarding Vollaire’s sentence. The mayor said she also told the court about Vollaire’s spending habits, management style and temperament. “If you crossed her, she went after you,” said Lapisto-Kirtley.

Bradbury residents first learned of the scandal in March, 1993, after Robert Penney Jr. and Rick Barakat dug through city trash to retrieve discarded financial records and receipts.

In addition, an investigation by The Times showed that Vollaire had used the city credit card and petty cash funds to charge a wide range of personal items, from sweat suits at discount stores to dresses at designer shops such as Adrienne Vittadini. In many cases, receipts had been altered to conceal the names of stores and items purchased. In addition, The Times found that Vollaire added bills after the council had approved initial expenditures, getting the required signatures from city officials who failed to question the changes. Nor did the city’s treasurer, a part-time volunteer who has since been replaced, question Vollaire’s expenses.

An audit ordered by the city tallied the amount of misspent funds at $84,000 over the past decade; the city sued in November, 1993.

The district attorney’s office filed six criminal charges against Vollaire with a maximum penalty of five years in state prison.

When Vollaire pleaded no contest in April, she agreed to pay the city restitution of $53,000. Then, on June 14, she settled the suit with the city, agreeing to pay a total of $110,000, including the restitution. The money came, in part, from her $85,000 city retirement fund.

Also felled in the scandal were former Mayor Audrey Hon, who was responsible for signing Vollaire’s expense lists and checks, and Councilman Tom Melbourn. They were replaced in January by Barakat and Mark Flewelling.

Mayor Lapisto-Kirtley said the city has put the Vollaire Administration behind it. Last month, the council held a public meeting to discuss all aspects of the scandal. In addition, city officials now publish a monthly newsletter to spur community involvement, operate under new financial checks and balances and will update the general plan, city codes and council district boundaries, items ignored under Vollaire’s management, the mayor said.