Auditor Calls Out Caltrans For Letting Mobile Home Residents Live Rent Free
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The California auditor's office says a mobile home park held by Caltrans is costing the state more than $300,000 in its annual whistleblower report.
It says Caltrans failed to collect nearly $315,000 in unpaid rent and utilities from a San Joaquin Valley mobile home park, and also failed to kick out two tenants who couldn't afford to live there and one tenant didn't pay rent for four years.
READ THE FULL AUDIT: August 2016 Audit
Caltrans acquired that mobile home park in late 2010 as part of a project to improve a nearby freeway onramp. Some of the homes were removed, but 30 mobile homes were left. As of Dec. 31, 2015, the tenants of the mobile home park owed $57,000 in overdue rent and $258,000 in unpaid utility charges.
Three right-of-way agents were responsible for managing the property during the five-year period and three supervisors in charge of those right-of-way agents were aware of the issues, but supervisors say that "managing the mobile home park had taken a disproportionate amount of the right of way agents' time."
They further stated that right-of-way agents were "generally overwhelmed, with more than 400 properties to manage in the district."
They told the auditors that some things just slipped through the cracks.
Some of the cases in the report include:
- A conflict of interest violation after an engineer encouraged the state to pick his wife's firm for a $3.9 million contract.
- The Department of Health also paid a worker more than $74,000 in travel reimbursements for commuting from Sonoma County to Sacramento over a four-year period.