Vollaire Used Pre-Signed Checks, Officials Say : Finances: As much as $8,500 spent at the Price Club may have been for non-city items, according to auditors.

BRADBURY —  Former Bradbury City Manager Aurora (Dolly) Vollaire shopped at the Price Club with blank city checks that had already been signed by the mayor and treasurer, spending up to $8,500 on items that may have been personal, according to city officials and a recently completed audit of her questionable financial practices.

While the full City Council reviews a list of city checks before they are issued, the dozens of checks to the Price Club that appeared on the monthly warrant registers over the years had already been signed and spent, according to several city officials.

“It is apparent that some of those checks were pre-issued. I don’t know the mechanics of that,” said City Atty. C. Edward Dilkes. “I do not believe the city authorized the pre-signing of any checks.”

Commenting through her attorney, Rayford Fountain, Vollaire said a system of pre-signed checks was in place at City Hall to deal with bills that had to be paid between monthly council meetings.

“Dolly would go down, buy the item and pay for it with the pre-signed check,” Fountain said. “Those checks then would all be submitted to the council for their approval at the next council meeting. So that’s the procedure and yes, she used the procedure.”

Whether or not the money was spent for city items is another question, he said.

“Were all the purchases legitimately for city business? I have no way of commenting on that. I haven’t seen any of the (documentation),” Fountain said.

Vollaire was fired in April in the wake of allegations that she spent tens of thousands of city dollars on personal luxury items ranging from designer sunglasses to fine china. The district attorney’s office is investigating.

According to a long-awaited report on Vollaire’s spending presented to the City Council last week by the Pasadena accounting firm of McGladrey & Pullen, of $16,500 paid by the city to the Price Club since the mid-1980s, less than half went to items that appeared to be city-related.

“The receipts appeared to include many personal items purchased at the Price Club,” the report said.

Sometimes, entire trips by Vollaire to stores such as the Price Club and DEC Office Supply were “personal in nature,” Dilkes wrote in a memo to district attorney investigator Michael Armstrong.

Some City Council members said they assumed the city was billed by the Price Club for Vollaire’s purchases, and that checks were cut after the council approved the amounts. It appears, however, that Vollaire shopped with pre-signed checks.

“We received all the demands and warrants and everything was supposed to be listed there. When we got that, we were authorizing payments,” said Councilwoman Beatrice LaPisto-Kirtley. “I thought we had a purchasing account with the Price Club.”

The Price Club does not maintain purchasing accounts, according to one city employee. “She would take the check with her. The other signatures were obtained in advance,” the employee said.

LaPisto-Kirtley said she does not think the practice was sanctioned by the council: “I’ve been on the council for seven years and it just never came up that we would authorize pre-signed checks,” she said.

Bradbury city checks were signed by three people--the mayor, treasurer and Vollaire. Standard city financial practices dictate that checks be signed only when it is clear what they are for and how much city money will be spent with them.

City Treasurer Betty Christensen and Mayor Audrey Hon were not available for comment.

Former Mayor John H. Richards, however, said he regularly signed blank checks because he often traveled abroad and rarely went to City Hall when he was in town.

Richards, who was mayor for six years, said that when he signed blank checks, his was always the first signature. He said he assumed the treasurer would ensure the checks were properly spent and that receipts were provided by Vollaire.

He said he signed about five to 10 blank checks monthly.

A leader of the drive to recall Hon and Councilman Tom Melbourn over the Vollaire scandal did not take kindly to the practice.

“You don’t sign blank checks, and if you do, you certainly find out what it’s used for,” said Don Burnett, president of the Woodlyn Lane Assn., a homeowners group.