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DA’s office looking into CUSD credit card scandal
District Attorney’s Office requests copies of statements, district credit card policy

By Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Editor

COMPTON—The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is looking into the use of district-issued credit cards at Compton Unified School District, The Bulletin has learned.

Sources at district headquarters told The Bulletin last week that the District Attorney’s Office submitted a request for copies of credit card statements and the district’s credit card policy last Wednesday.

The request comes months after The Bulletin first reported that Superintendent Dr. Kaye Burnside, who is currently on paid administrative leave, used her district-issued credit card to make personal purchases.

The Bulletin last spring made an official records request for copies of credit card statements dating back to when Burnside first took the district’s helm in the spring of 2008 after employees contacted the newspaper complaining that Burnside was misusing the card.

The records revealed that a total of $58,328 had been charged to Burnside’s district-issued credit card, according to statements from April 2008 through February of this year. The card was credited $3,968, leaving the total charges at $54,360. Of that amount, according to the sum of all Burnside’s reimbursement checks, she repaid $9,893.

Burnside’s credit card was charged more than $12,000 for airline tickets, including seat upgrades and luggage charges; more than $8,900 for hotels; more than $4,700 for meals and food; more than $4,300 for floral arrangements; and more than $1,800 for gasoline, according to the statements.

In August 2008, the account’s $10,000 limit was exceeded, yielding a $39 over-limit fee. The district incurred late fees totaling $205, $49 of which Burnside covered, records show. Finance charges on purchases over the same time period were close to $950. The district did not provide records indicating repayment for any of the finance charges.

Many charges were related to district activities and business. But the district did not report official events that correspond to many of the other charges. This indicates either a lack of adequate record keeping by the district or that the undocumented charges were personal in nature.

The Compton Unified school board’s credit card policy expressly forbids personal use of credit cards, stating, “under no circumstances may personal expenses be charged.”

Burnside said she repaid the district for all personal purchases she charged to the card. She said she was not aware of the board policy when she used the card, adding that previous superintendents had for the past 26 years used the credit card similarly, charging personal purchases and reimbursing the district.

The Bulletin was provided with no records indicating that Burnside reimbursed the district for a number of the undocumented charges.

Burnside claimed that a majority of the charges to the card were made by other individuals, explaining that the school board’s secretary also has a card in Burnside’s name that is used for board member travel, meals, reservations and other district-related operating costs.
If other individuals were using the card, records do not indicate who these individuals are or if anyone else had repaid any of the charges.

Charges for personal expenses could be considered unauthorized loans of public money, even if the district was reimbursed. This conduct landed former Mayor Omar Bradley, former Councilman Amen Rahh and former City Manger John Johnson II in prison in 2004 tied to their use of city-issued credit cards. Former school board member Basil Kimbrew was convicted in 2005 of felony misuse of public funds for charging almost $2,000 to his district-issued credit card for a personal party. Kimbrew pleaded no contest in a plea deal.

Burnside said she does not see any similarities between her use of her district-issued credit card and that of these individuals who were successfully prosecuted for misusing credit cards in their capacities as city and school district officials.

Burnside was placed on paid administrative leave after a May 25 split vote in closed session by the school board. That same night, the board approved hiring an independent investigator at a cost of $450 per hour to thoroughly probe the use of Burnside’s credit card.

That investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, Associate Superintendent Karen Frison is serving as acting superintendent.

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