Former Paradise Valley Public Works Director accused of misusing $10,000 of public funds for personal use
Ex-Paradise Valley employee accused of misusing funds
A former Director of Public Works in Paradise Valley is accused of misusing public funds for personal use. FOX 10's Nicole Krasean has more.
PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. - A former Public Works Director faces charges of theft after he allegedly misused more than $10,000 of public funds while working for the town of Paradise Valley.
The man who replaced him uncovered the missing cash.
What we know:
This investigation started last summer when former Paradise Valley Public Works Superintendent Jerry Cooper found the department's budget review wasn't adding up.
"It was very shocking when it all first came about," said Cooper.
Finding out that a former co-worker, Brent Skoglund, was misusing public funds left him disgusted.
"For a community as great as Paradise Valley is, and as good as they've been to me, and as good as they were to Brent Skoglund, and to all the other employees, for somebody to do something like that is terrible," said Cooper.
Cooper first learned of the potential misuse of funds last April, just a few months before his retirement, while looking over the budget.
"Brent was buying clothing for his wife from our uniform supplier. We looked at that and then I started looking at other items and all these purchases he was making were coming up in all this stuff we were looking at," he said.
Skoglund worked with the department as a director until his retirement in 2023.
Fox 10 obtained documentation of some of the purchases Skoglund made with public funds and did not pay back, including $212 for a motorcycle battery, $194 for a North Face ladies jacket and $355 for a pool motor.
The purchases tally up to over $10,000, which Cooper says moves the needle in a town like Paradise Valley.
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Why you should care:
"Because once you hit bottom on your line items, your budgets, you're pretty much out of money so things start to suffer. Now we gotta wait until next fiscal year to repair this because we have no more money left over here," said Cooper.
Paradise Valley police, sharing this week that they have recommended charges, including theft and misuse of public monies and had seized more than 100 items from his property.
Cooper is hoping justice can be served for the community he served for nearly two decades.
"One I hope Paradise Valley gets their money back, which hopefully they will. And two, I hope that he has to, he gets sentenced to do time like anybody else would."
The other side:
The attorney for Skoglund, Josh Kosrud, provided FOX 10 with the following statement:
Dig deeper:
Paradise Valley police said in a press release that their department and the town government are committed to transparency, accountability and the responsible management of public resources.
