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Thousands of Dollars Missing From Suisun City Coffers

Nearly $139,000 is missing from city's coffers on land for Wal-Mart, according to probe of Suisun's files, says watchdog group

SUISUN CITY - Nearly $139,00 in taxpayer funds advanced to a contractor in 1993 by the City of Suisun for work performed on the 22-acre Walters Road property - now owned by Wal-Mart - appears to be "missing," according to a city watchdog group, Suisun Citizens League.

The full report will be released to the public Thursday, April 17, at 10 a.m. at a press conference in front of Suisun's City Hall, 701 Civic Center Blvd in Suisun.

California Healthy Communities Network, a project of non-profit Tides Center, is making public the report after it conducted an exhaustive search of City of Suisun records of the Wal-Mart site history, dating back to the purchase of the property by former property owner and prominent highway paving contractor, E.O. DeSilva in 1986.

"We have reviewed the report and documents obtained by California Healthy Communities Network under the California Public Records Act from the City and found that records provided by the City did not account for repayment of money taken from the City's Off Site Street Improvement Project fund to perform site improvements on the DeSilva property in 1993," reported Dwight Acey, a spokesperson for the Citizens League.

According to official records, the interest-free public funds advanced for the DeSilva property improvements in 1993 were due and payable to the City upon the sale of the property by DeSilva in 2006; however, no record of payment was located in City records.

The revelation about the land deal, and lack of repayment, is one of the reasons another organization, "Save Our Suisun" (SOS), announced a recall of three Suisun City Council members last month.