Nearly three years after a scathing state review, the city of Industry remains plagued by gaps in financial oversight and has been unable to justify a host of suspect transactions, according to a draft of a new state report reviewed by The Times.
Officials with the state controller’s office called into question hundreds of thousands of dollars in ATM transactions involving a city venue, dozens of voided checks, nearly $2 million paid to housing contractors “without question or scrutiny,” and massively discounted rents at city-owned homes for city leaders and commissioners, the report shows.
The report also questioned whether renting these homes at far below market rate — at only $600 to $700 a month in an area where similar homes are being rented for up to $3,250 — amounts to violations of state law prohibiting gifts of public funds.
In one instance, the city’s housing agency allowed a “council member and family” to move into a home after spending more than $528,000 remodeling the place, according to the review.
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