About those awards (April 19, 2017)

The Daily Press recently reported that the Town of Apple Valley had received financial reporting awards from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for the work of Assistant Town Manager for Finance Marc Puckett’s office (“Apple Valley receives financial reporting awards,” Daily Press, April 16, 2017).

What you did not report is that Mr. Puckett has a long history with this award.

According to the The Flint Journal, Puckett also won this award in 1998 while at the City of Flint, Michigan (for the fifth year in a row), one year before investigators found that Puckett had failed to pay millions in pension funding and taxes, had violated state spending limits, and had not allowed the books to be scrutinized by an independent audit, among other problems.

This supposedly prestigious award was also given to the City of Bell multiple times in the years before its City Council and City Manager went to jail for multiple corruption-related charges. [Source: californiawatch.org/dailyreport/scandal-plagued-bell-received-accounting-awards-7534]

Let us all hope that the receipt of this award doesn’t mean that Apple Valley is going to join the sorry ranks of these and other cities where serious financial issues were discovered only too late.

Greg Raven is Co-Chair of Apple Valley Citizens for Government Accountability, and is concerned about quality of life issues.


Files dealing with Marc Puckett