Shortage of $4,000 at GW College Investigated

Golden West College officials have determined that at least $4,000 in college funds are missing and have asked the Huntington Beach Police Department to investigate for possible fraud.

John D. Renley, vice chancellor for human resources of Coast Community College District, which governs Golden West, said Sunday that the missing funds are from weekend swap-meet receipts at the 2-year Huntington Beach school.

The college, which is situated at Golden West and Edinger streets, rents parking lot space to swap meet vendors on Saturdays and Sundays, and the rentals bring in about $250,000 a year, Renley said. He said it may be determined that the $4,000 shortfall is actually more as the investigation, which is in the early stages, is completed.

Met With Police

“I met with Huntington Beach police last Friday, and they need additional material that I will be giving their fraud investigators on Monday,” Renley said. He added that the college district also will continue its own investigation of the financial discrepancy at the school, which has an enrollment of 14,000 students.

Renley said that Gary Sperling, an associate dean at Golden West College and the administrator in charge of the swap-meet program and other community service activities, was put on paid administrative leave March 17, the day after tipsters told college officials something was amiss with swap-meet funds.

Sperling could not be reached for comment on Sunday. Renley stressed that Sperling is not being accused of anything and that putting him on paid leave was an administrative move while an investigation took place.

Renley said the college district’s initial probe has determined “that funds are missing, and we don’t know if it’s an accounting or a clerical error.” The $4,000 specifically unaccounted for are swap-meet funds for the month of February, Renley said.

“Someone came to the district office (in Costa Mesa) on March 16 and talked to one of our officials and indicated there was a discrepancy in some of the funds from swap meets,” Renley said.

Renley said the initial investigation centered on the months of December, January and February. He said that the probe found an apparent excess of $2,000 from swap meets logged in December, and an apparent shortage of $2,000 from the swap meets in January. The February receipts showed an apparent shortage of $4,000, Renley said.

“The accounting system is not working,” Renley said, referring to the discrepancies found on the books for those 3 months. “We will now be looking into the records for the past 2 years.”

Renley said he did not know how long it will take for an investigation to be completed. “We’d like to get this resolved pretty soon,” he said.

Renley said information about the fund discrepancies was given to Coast Community College District trustees at their meeting Wednesday. The trustees, through the college district headquarters in Costa Mesa, govern Golden West and two other community colleges.