> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Alleged misconduct at Woodlawn - URL: https://www.smdp.com/alleged-misconduct-at-woodlawn/ - Published: 2005-12-27T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T08:24:56.000Z - Author: Ryan Hyatt - Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Cemetery director said he was wrongly fired* CITY HALL — Attorneys made opening statements this month in a personnel hearing over the firing of Michael Steen, who is accused of ethical and financial misconduct when he was the director of Santa Monica’s publicly-owned Woodlawn cemetery. Steen appealed City Hall’s September decision to terminate him after a nearly year-long investigation concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing in financial discrepancies discovered at the cemetery. However, high ranking officials at City Hall say Steen’s behavior warranted his termination, particularly since he promoted his domestic partner’s monument-making business at the cemetery to Santa Monicans seeking burial service. “This is about an employee who violated the trust of the public, that at the time of their greatest need, dealing with those who passed away, (Steen) took advantage of them,” said Deputy City Attorney Carol Kurtz during a personnel board hearing held on Dec. 8\. “The findings will show financial mismanagement and an operation at the cemetery that was out of control. “When (Steen) was confronted with the significant evidence of financial mismanagement, he passed the buck.” When Steen appealed his termination, the matter was set to go before a five-person personnel board, of which its members are appointed and neither hold public office or are city employees. The board serves as an advisory to the City Council and City Hall’s human resources director. It is a quasi-judicial review body for employee appeals of disciplinary actions. The Dec. 8 hearing had four board members present. The hearing is expected to continue in January. According to Kurtz, Steen himself has attested to receiving a $1,000 monthly kickback from his partner for promoting the business, called Woodlawn Monument. Not so, said Steen’s attorney, Bill Bleecker, who indicated Steen received excellent evaluations during his 15-year tenure at the cemetery and labored under a management system that lacked appropriate checks and balances in the financial accounting of the operation. “His evaluations show he was an outstanding employee and his strength is the way he interacts with the citizens of Santa Monica,” Bleecker said. “We all have specialties in what we do. Mr. Steen was not an accountant, but in 2004, he complied with overall expectations.” Bleecker also said Steen didn’t receive money through any unethical business schemes. “There was nothing hidden about the fact Steen (promoted his partner’s business),” Bleecker said. “He had been doing it for years. “There was one citizen complaint, and it was subsequently addressed.” Steen and his assistant were removed from their posts on Dec. 17, 2004 after an audit released in July of that year appeared to confirm that Steen and his co-worker failed to follow accounting guidelines — initially suspected by city finance officials after a first audit was conducted in 2001. From December of 2004 until September of 2005, Steen and his assistant were put on paid administrative leave. Steen was then let go and his former assistant was transferred to another city department. City Hall officials concluded there was not sufficient grounds to press criminal charges against Steen. However, officials believed there were grounds for his termination. Kurtz explained that Steen began his tenure as Woodlawn’s top administrator in 1989\. During the 1990s, occasional audits first showed signs of financial discrepancies at the cemetery. However, it wasn’t until a 2001 audit conducted by an outside accounting firm, Moss & Levy, in which a “significant number of issues came up,” Kurtz said. Steen’s manager — Gil Borboa — issued a corrective action plan in light of the audit, but Steen didn’t accept it, according to records. He also didn’t accept the evaluation of his performance in 2001\. Instead, he appealed it. “While the appeal required that (Steen’s boss) make a few changes, the overall evaluation was upheld,” Kurtz said. “They said Steen’s (approach to the issue) was not what would be expected of a manager, but what would be expected of a low-level field supervisor. “This is the beginning of Mr. Steen’s pattern of pointing the evidence of (his) financial mismanagement,” she added. In 2002, then City Manager Susan McCarthy asked another outside auditing firm, to follow up with the 2001 audit. The new audit, however, wasn’t available until 2004, according to testimony. The audit company was only able to locate a draft of its audit, which it presented to City Hall in July of 2004\. Six months later, Steen and his former assistant were placed on administrative leave, according to Kurtz, after the evaluation seemed to indicate an investigation was in order. That investigation wasn’t concluded until this past September, at which point Steen was terminated and his assistant was allowed to remain. Their removal came after a three-pronged investigation that involved the City Attorney’s Office, City Hall’s human resources division and the Santa Monica Police Department. Bleecker said the evidence showed more about City Hall’s incompetence than it did that of his client. Bleecker admitted that after years of service, there was a citizen complaint about Steen promoting his partner’s business. As a result of that complaint, Steen’s partner agreed to remove the words “Woodlawn Monument” from the top of his company’s letterhead, which may have inappropriately associated the monument-making business with City Hall. However, Bleecker said the September 2004 complaint may have coincided too nicely with the allegations of Steen’s financial mismanagement. “The complaint was addressed, but after the complaint, something happened,” Bleecker said. “The city became excited and put Steen on leave, but we know it wasn’t based on his performance.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/122705-02_01.jpg) (Photo: Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 27, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/122705.pdf?ref=smdp.com)