The firing of a senior finance officer at the San Diego Association of Governments has drawn fresh attention to troubling and persistent business practices within the $1.2 billion regional planning agency, deficiencies that have been previously pointed out by auditors.
Top executives of the sprawling bureaucracy known as SANDAG terminated finance director Lauren Warrem early last month without stating a reason, according to a retaliation lawsuit she filed just 10 days later.
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Warrem says she was let go after raising questions about an audit into why SANDAG paid millions of dollars to a vendor and sub-vendor for technology that her lawsuit says not only does not work but wrongly charged up to 45,000 drivers for a toll road they did not use.
“Defendant’s motivating reason for terminating her employment was based on her opposition to misrepresenting and/ or omitting material financial information in an audit, as well as her subsequent disclosure of that information,” her complaint alleges.
The firing came months after SANDAG’s independent auditor issued scathing…
