La Puente Official Penalized in Flap Over Expense Records
La Puente Councilwoman Sally Holguin-Fallon lost her city MasterCard and was docked $574.49 from her car allowance for failing to provide receipts for her expenditures on several city junkets.
The penalty imposed by City Treasurer Ted Abo was the result of a months-long dispute between Holguin-Fallon and her fellow council members and city staff over her handling of city expense funds. The city contends that Holguin-Fallon has failed to document some of her expenses from trips to Long Beach and San Diego last year.
But Holguin-Fallon said she has submitted receipts for all her expenditures and that the city is retaliating against her for her own investigation of other council members’ expense records. She said other council members have failed to turn in receipts and misused city funds on alcohol, room service and an X-rated movie.
One 1991 bill to Councilman Louis Perez shows a charge of $9.95 for an X-rated movie, but Perez said he did not recall renting such a film, and suggested that it might have been a hotel billing error.
Holguin-Fallon also identified cash advance records for other council members who are missing receipts.
Perez said Holguin-Fallon compromised the record system by searching through the documents instead of requesting records through city staff.
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