Auditor Stymied on D.A.’s Fund

Orange County’s auditor says he cannot tell whether a fund overseen by Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas was spent inappropriately because the office has not provided him with detailed documentation on its use.

Auditor-Controller David E. Sundstrom started investigating the fund in October, four months after the Orange County Grand Jury said the office’s chief investigator inappropriately billed the fund repeatedly for bar tabs.

Rackauckas wrote Sundstrom last month to say that all expenses billed to the special fund were related to criminal or civil investigations. He did not identify the people who were entertained or provide further detail, saying such disclosure would jeopardize investigations, Sundstrom said.

In June, the grand jury accused Investigations Chief Don Blankenship of using the fund to pay for meal and alcohol expenses during meetings with politicians, lobbyists, clergy and reporters. According to the report, Blankenship billed the fund 38 times for tabs he ran up at the Elks Club in Santa Ana. Some expenses were for food and alcohol, but most were exclusively for alcohol, the report stated.

The grand jury concluded that the spending violated a 1994 office policy that states that money from the special fund Blankenship tapped should be used primarily for investigations or cases. Blankenship billed the fund more than $4,600 between 1999 and 2001, according to the grand jury report, which did not say what portion of that spending it found questionable.

Rackauckas sent the auditor a memo from Blankenship that -- contradicting the grand jury -- indicated that all alcohol and food purchases the chief billed to the fund involved “criminal or civil investigations or cases.”

Because the district attorney did not provide detailed documentation, the auditor said, he could not resolve the conflict.

“The district attorney is telling me I’d jeopardize criminal investigations by getting access to those documents. Given that, I have to take him at his word,” Sundstrom said.

Sundstrom said he is now considering asking the state attorney general’s office to investigate because he believes its staff would have better access to the internal records.

District attorney’s officials did not return calls seeking comment.