Monrovia Auditor Says Placentia Not Its Fault; Sell City Annex? Apartment Complex Almost Ready to Go; Feds May Pay for Some of Its Stormwater Costs; Etc.

In his weekly newsletter ( http://goo.gl/lQdi4f ), City Manager Oliver Chi reports, among a lot of other stuff, that ...

- Monrovia's audit firm, Lance, Soll and Lunghard, LLP (LSL), is the same firm working for the City of Placentia, which has recently had a $4.3 million embezzlement scandal. LSL tells Monrovia that it had not completed an audit for Placentia during the time most of the alleged embezzlement occurred, but had completed the audit for an earlier period, and that audit found "several material weaknesses and significant deficiencies in internal controls and instances of noncompliance." Chi adds that Monrovia has "very robust internal controls" and promises to "continue working hard to ensure that we do not violate the public's trust." See the link above for more detail.

- Monrovia is thinking of selling the City Annex, which I believe is the old two-story house at the southeast corner of Lime and Ivy, caddy-corner from City Hall. Chi writes that "repainting and repairing the building would cost in excess of $200,000. Given the cost, and the lack of a clearly defined use for the facility, it was determined that it would be better to sell the facility to a private user. The city is looking for bidders.

- Construction of a 261-unit luxury apartment complex next to the train station was delayed when the general contractor firm filed for bankruptcy. With a new contractor the project should break ground in 3-6 weeks.

- Congress Member Grace Napolitano, who represents most of Monrovia, has introduced a bill in Congress to provide $4.85 billion in grants and $20 billion in loans to support cities in implementing the Los Angeles County Stormwater Permit. If I understand correctly, this would help cities offset the costs imposed on them by the government to clean stormwater. The cost to Monrovia is (would have been?) $231 million.

- Readers of Los Angeles News Group newspapers (Star-News and others) voted Monrovia their "Favorite Friendly City / Downtown."

- Brad Haugaard