Davis lawmakers glean facts on school district fraud case
Former Davis District employees Susan and John Ross were indicted last month on 47 counts of mail fraud, money laundering, theft of government funds, copyright infringement and defrauding the district of $4.3 million in federal Title I funds between 2000 and 2005.
"(Lawmakers) are going into a legislative session, and there may be a lot of questions on spending in public education," said Chris Williams, district spokesman. "Here is a situation in Davis, and there may have been some questions in their minds in meeting with other legislators."
Davis superintendent Brian Bowles invited the lawmakers to the meeting in which they were given information that would help them in determining if the Legislature needs to initiate bills related to financial controls.
Although Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, said she hasn't heard of any such legislation, "lawmakers sometimes tend to react to those things."
Williams said most of the questions at the meeting Tuesday centered around what controls have been put in place in the last year and a half since the district discovered something was amiss in the Title I department.
Prosecutors allege that while working as Davis' Title I director, Susan Ross used a shell company to sell pirated education materials back to the schools at inflated prices. Her husband, John Ross, was working as the district's grant writer at the time.
Stella Smith, who was Susan Ross' secretary, was also indicted on charges of running an embezzlement scheme. Smith is charged with 37 counts of mail fraud. She is accused of creating fake book orders and charging the school district for some $338,000 in books it never received.
Smith and the Rosses have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Since the investigation began 18 months ago, district leaders have instituted new safeguards to alert them to questionable activity sooner — changes Allen so far has been satisfied with.
"The questions being asked by the public are legitimate ones, in are we doing all that we can to see that the public's money is spent appropriately," Allen said.
The changes made by district officials include looking at the frequency of orders with vendors, as well as the amount spent. Moreover, the schools themselves are now responsible for how Title I money is spent at their sites.
E-mail: terickson@desnews.com
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