AUDITOR SUPPORTS TRANSFER COUNTY TOOK $10 MILLION FROM LOW-PROFILE ACCOUNT.Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer Arguing no one was likely to come forward to collect interest held in a Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Superior Court trust account, county officials defended on Tuesday the legality of transferring $10 million to the county's general fund. Auditor-Controller Tyler McCauley said the interest stemmed from eminent domain eminent domain, the right of a government to force the owner of private property sell it if it is needed for a public use. The right is based on the doctrine that a sovereign state has dominion over all lands and buildings within its borders, which has its origins in and a variety of deposits made with the court years ago and that no one had come to claim the money. ``We set the money aside originally in anticipation that we might have to pay it,'' McCauley said. ``Occasionally, we clean out the account and that's when those transfers occurred.'' Outraged that Superior Court officials did not notify people and government bodies about the Superior Court Condemnation and Interpleader An equitable proceeding brought by a third person to have a court determine the ownership rights of rival claimants to the same money or property that is held by that third person. Interpleader is a form of equitable relief. account, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich Michael Dennis Antonovich (born 1939 in Los Angeles, California) is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors representing the Fifth District, which covers northern Los Angeles County, the Antelope, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, and parts of the San Fernando and San asked the County Counsel's Office in August to determine whether the county withdrew money from the account and transferred it to the general fund. ``Those entities owed funds should have received regular, timely notice of funds available,'' Antonovich said. ``Instead, no notice was sent to any entity regarding the trust account. Currently, notice is sent annually to municipalities owed funds, but not to individuals and companies.'' Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association helped sponsor Proposition 13, the property tax-cutting initiative in California in 1978 which slashed property taxes by fifty-seven percent and initiated a national tax revolt. It was founded by California republican Howard Jarvis. , said even though the transfer was legal, there is a big difference between what is legal and what is right. ``The interest on that money rightfully belongs to the people who should have been paid those funds in the first place,'' he said. ``The county needs to realize if they took money out of there for the general fund, they were borrowing money and borrowing money at a very advantageous rate of zero percent interest. It's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a for them to find out who the money belongs to and repay it with interest.'' A Daily News story in August outlined how the account was not publicly revealed until a bribery case involving an Encino attorney and a Superior Court clerk exposed its existence. In August, the account held $63.6 million in principal and $18 million in interest. In a memo to the supervisors obtained by the Daily News, County Counsel Lloyd Pellman wrote that the funds were legally transferred, but the county's chief administrative officer A chief administrative officer (CAO) is responsible for administrative management of private, public or governmental corporations. The CAO is one of the highest ranking members of an organization, managing daily operations and usually reporting directly to the chief executive at the time acknowledged the funds might have to be repaid. |
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