What a surprise
I got back from a wonderful vacation at a beach house back east to find the surprising news about John Enquist, the long time Mendocino County Winegrowers Alliance director who went on to become the head of the newly formed Mendocino Winegrape and Wine Commission.
According to the press release from the Commission which we reported on when it came out the first week in August, Enquist allegedly misappropriated about $200,000 from the new Commission funds. The Commission and Enquist apparently came to a settlement after a state audit of the books as Enquist is not being prosecuted and the press release indicated he is not accepting any official liability. However he did repay the commission $217,803.82. What he was doing with that money will forever be a mystery to most of us I guess.
The Commission says it now has some new auditing procedures in place that will prevent whatever didn't happen from happening again.
The release also indicates that Enquist was terminated from his job last December, when at the time the public was told he was just moving on and they threw a big party for him.
I know that the business community hates bad news and a brand new commission already having a financial scandal doesn't help, but it also looks just as bad for the public to find out after the fact that all this was going on. I know everyone is always worried about someone suing someone and they have to be careful not to make a formal accusation in public against someone they weren't willing to formally accuse before the law.
They got their money back, so they just want to put it behind them.
Enquist obviously had the money on hand to give back to them and he was willing to pay the additional expenses of the recovery of the funds so he's no doubt glad to have the thing behind him too. Nothing has to go on his record or his resume. Unfortunately, Google will still be around and the reporting on this will be out there in cyberspace forever.
I assume the press release was approved by him or his legal representatives.
I am amazed at John. I worked with him on a couple of local projects and saw him several times a year and liked him when he was with the Winegrowers. He was always a good source for news on the local wine business. Why would anyone get tangled up in something like this? It makes no sense.