Scandal Prompts Plan for Financial Controls : Government: Council reviews guidelines intended to prevent a repeat of the situation in which a former official allegedly spent thousands of city dollars on personal items.

BRADBURY —  Amid a scandal that has sparked a recall drive against the mayor and a city council member, Bradbury’s interim city manager proposed sweeping changes Tuesday in the way the strife-torn city handles its finances.

In the wake of allegations that former City Manager Dolly Vollaire improperly spent tens of thousands of dollars in city money at fine boutiques and department stores, Bradbury officials moved to restore an air of openness, propriety and financial control to city business.

“We’re all trying to get the city on track, correct mistakes and oversights, and get a tighter rein on city management,” Mayor Audrey Hon said at a City Council meeting Tuesday night.

The regular council meeting was the first held since the council hired interim City Manager Keene N. Wilson, in part on the recommendation of a committee of five residents and two council members.

At the meeting, Wilson presented the council with a hefty set of “guidelines for effective financial control” intended to prevent a repeat of what a preliminary audit suggests was an extensive misappropriation of funds by Vollaire.

“I should not have the ability to approve my own expenses,” Wilson told the council. “I want to encourage an ethical atmosphere and encourage the council to question me on the demands and warrants.”

Wilson’s recommendations establish an audit committee, which the council decided would consist of the same council members and residents who helped select Wilson from a pile of applicants late last month.

The audit committee will scrutinize the guidelines drafted by Wilson, review them with him and city auditors, and review applicants for city treasurer, an appointed post now filled by Betty Christensen, who is not an accountant.

Wilson’s guidelines include pointed suggestions that all reimbursements should be accompanied by receipts, and should ensure that no one amasses too much power.

“Incompatible functions should be segregated to reduce the risk that an individual is in a position to perpetrate and conceal errors or act fraudulently in the normal course of duty,” one section reads.

Vollaire was rarely questioned on expenses she submitted for reimbursement, and a preliminary audit suggests that she used a city credit card, reimbursements on her personal credit card, and the petty cash account for personal gain. The district attorney’s office is investigating.

Councilman John H. Richards, a former mayor and mayor pro tem whose duties included signing final checks and approving the final warrant registers, suggested that the current authorized signers initial every page of the warrant register, in addition to signing the final page, as has been customary.

Vollaire allegedly added pages of additional checks to the warrant register after the full council had approved the list of expenses.

The council adopted a resolution Tuesday finalizing Vollaire’s termination and, in an accompanying ordinance, repealed the sections of the Municipal Code that forced the city to pay Vollaire for 30 days after she was served with her notice of termination. The city was obligated to abide by the code for Vollaire’s termination.

In other matters, Hon and Councilman Tomas Melbourn acknowledged that they had each received a “notice of intention to circulate a recall petition.”

Hon’s notice includes six points that serve as grounds for the proposed recall, including allegations that she “publicly defended Dolly Vollaire as looking ‘after the City’s fiscal affairs very well’ ” when a preliminary audit had already revealed that Vollaire used the city credit card for luxury purchases.

It also chides her for signing the final checks without reviewing credit card statements and for approving final warrant registers without realizing that Vollaire had added more checks to the list.

“You are a friend to many of us, which makes this effort neither pleasant nor easy,” says the statement, signed by five residents. “But as your constituents, we have lost confidence in your ability to govern the affairs of our city and to represent our interests with the degree of competence we expect.”

In an interview Wednesday, Hon said that, in retrospect, she regrets the atmosphere of complete trust in Vollaire that pervaded City Hall for years. She had no reason to suspect misconduct by Vollaire, she said, and even when the preliminary audit of three checks to the city credit card revealed serious irregularities, Hon believed they were isolated instances.

“I have been active in community affairs--not just in Bradbury--but all of my life, and done the best that I can,” she said. “I have tried to serve the city to the best of my ability.”

In other matters, the council decided to request a six-month extension from the state to turn in the housing element of the city’s general plan, due July 1.

The consultants have not met their deadlines and tried to draft the housing element without first drafting the General Plan Update, council members said.