Top administrators led out of offices at Woodlawn Cemetery, put on paid leave
PICO NEIGHBORHOOD — A criminal investigation is underway at Santa Monica’s Woodlawn Cemetery, where two city-paid administrators were led out of their offices last month, authorities confirmed Thursday.
Investigators declined to specify the allegations facing the two workers, though sources close to the cemetery probe said the employees could be accused of anything from mere bookkeeping incompetence to illegally taking large sums of money, either directly from the bereaved or from cemetery funds, which are controlled by City Hall.
The Daily Press is not publishing the names of the city employees under investigation until authorities decide whether to pursue criminal charges. In the meantime, the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office and City Hall’s human resources department have launched a joint personnel investigation, while the criminal probe is led by the Santa Monica Police Department. The employees have been on paid leave since Dec. 17. Modrey Floyd/Special to the Daily Press A city worker hauls dirt at Woodlawn Cemetery, where an investigation into city-controlled finances was launched in December.
Woodlawn is a gated, tree-lined cemetery located between 14th and 17th streets, from Pico Boulevard to Michigan Avenue. City Hall purchased the cemetery in 1897. As of June 2000, more than 51,000 Santa Monicans had been interred on the 26.6-acre site, according to city records.
Sources familiar with the cemetery said after the administrators were removed from their posts, questions were raised about the way customers were charged for everything from tombstones to burial plots. City officials stumbled upon irregularities in Woodlawn’s bookkeeping and cash handling, among other things, after attempting to complete an unfinished audit from previous years, sources said.
Investigators and city officials declined to discuss the details of the case.
“The Santa Monica Police Department is conducting an internal investigation,” SMPD Lt. Frank Fabrega said Thursday. “Due to the ongoing investigation, we will not discuss any of the allegations.”
Added Judy Rambeau, a spokeswoman for City Hall: “There is an investigation going on, there’s no question about that. Anything more than that the attorneys ought to be the ones to comment.”
Rambeau referred questions to Deputy City Attorney Barbara Greenstein, who, citing the employees’ privacy rights, declined to comment on the allegations or the individuals involved.
With Woodlawn’s top two administrators out, the cemetery’s offices are being staffed by Gil Borboa and Jean Higbee of the water resources division of City Hall’s environmental and public works management department. Part-time staff members are providing clerical support as needed, according to Rambeau.
The cemetery over the past few years has generated between $500,000 and $800,000 annually from the sales of lots and crypts, along with interest and what’s listed as “miscellaneous sales/services.” Paying the two office workers and four groundskeepers has been the cemetery’s major expense, with money also going to, among other things, benefits, overtime, temporary workers, utilities, tools, office supplies, and two major expenses labeled as administrative indirect costs and special department supplies, budget documents show.
Officials decided in 2000 to continue operating the cemetery as a community resource rather than close it to future burials. Woodlawn oversees about 100 burials a year, and the same number of daily visitors. Several hundred visitors converge on the cemetery on holidays, with 1,000 or more for an annual Memorial Day event.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 21, 2005. Read the original PDF.