Gonzalez Denies Hensley Law Group Interview

All Trustees, Except Gonzalez Grant Hensley Law Group Interview on Potential Forensic Audit

PALM DESERT — In December 2022, College of the Desert Board of Trustees voted 5-0 to seek a comprehensive forensic audit to help address concerns that have risen regarding how Desert Community College District is spending money. Now, when push comes to shove, Area 2 Trustee Bea Gonzalez, vice chair, is refusing to cooperate with the Hensley Law Group.

Why would she refuse? Does she have something to hide?

Gonzalez is seeking reelection in November.

The Board adopted a Resolution to Conduct Comprehensive Forensic Audit. The Resolution listed a number of concerns including the appropriateness of expenditures on development of certain campuses and facilities, the Palm Springs west valley campus “pause,” and the Roadrunner Motors project cancellation. The Resolution also called for a comprehensive forensic audit, the investigation of consultant’s contracts, investigation of the Information Technology system, and other actions.

Subsequently, Hensley Law Group was directed to interview each Trustee and return to the Board with a report and recommendations for discussion and consideration by the Board to further investigate and/or focus the forensic audits on areas of specific concern identified by the Board. You may read the full report here.

All of the Trustees, except Trustee Gonzalez, granted HLG an interview. HLG also met with the Subcommittee (formed by the Resolution), with both Trustee Gonzalez and Trustee Ruben Perez in attendance, for input. Based on those interviews and the
subcommittee meeting, HLG recommends the investigation of certain specific contracts, but the interviews did not provide information justifying the significant cost of a comprehensive forensic audit of all construction and consultants’ contracts.

Summarized below is a list of each of the recommendations. HLG requests that the Board discuss each and provide direction:

• Recommendation Regarding Public Construction Contracts Audit: Direct HLG to review all relevant contract documentation regarding Desert Isles, Inc. contracts including bidding, change orders and proof of payment of prevailing wage
  documentation for compliance with Public Contract and Prevailing Wage law. If necessary, we will request the assistance of an auditor or consultant to assist with the review. This would likely require a limited amount of HLG and District staff time to
  address.
• Recommendation Regarding Consultants Contracts Audit: Direct HLG to review all relevant documentation related to the following consultants’ agreements to determine if there are any irregularities regarding the contracts or the quality of reports or conclusions: Don Berz consulting agreement(s), Bond legal counsel David Casnoka, an unnamed consultant who did a feasibility study on West Valley Campus for (prior) President Martha Garcia and the architects’ contracts for the West Valley Campus going back to 2016. This would likely require a limited to moderate amount of HLG and District staff time to address.
• Recommendation Regarding Concerns Over Potential Brown Act Violations in 2021 and 2022: We recommend not pursuing this issue given it will not result in any legal ramifications due to the statute of limitations for any such violations having passed, and it will be costly. That said, if directed, our office could request from District IT staff electronic and other communications from various Trustees and District employees during the 2021-22 period, as well as closed session meeting notes, if any, to review to determine if there were any apparent violations of the Brown Act. It is unclear what, if any, communications may be discovered and what might be contained in the communications. This would require extensive time so would be expensive and would likely take months to complete. While there may be some value in exposing past Brown Act violations if they occurred, it might be more prudent to focus on the future conduct of the Board and potentially providing education about the Brown Act rather than attempting to determine what happened in the past.
• Recommendation Regarding Concerns Over Potential Alleged Conflicts of Interest in Coachella Property Acquisition Process: None of the acquisitions of concern were alleged to have been completed. Similar to the Brown Act, there will likely be no legal significance to pursuing this matter, and it would be costly for the District to pursue itself by directing HLG to investigate. If the Board feels strongly about this, then this concern can be referred to the FPPC or District Attorney but given the passage of time, it seems unlikely that either would pursue this matter.
• Recommendation To Adopt Resolution Removing Comprehensive Forensic Audit from Prior Resolution: Adopt the attached proposed resolution amending Resolution No. 042623-1 removing the portions of the resolution that directed that a comprehensive forensic audit of all construction and consultants’ contracts for the last five to eight years and replace those sections with a more limited scope consistent with the direction given by the Board regarding the above recommendations.

The Hensley Law Group report and its recommendations are on the Trustees’ agenda when they meet Friday.