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Uploaded: Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 11:55 AM
Tim Hanretty pleads not guilty of embezzling funds from Portola Valley School District
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by Renee Batti
Almanac Staff
Photo
 | Tim Hanretty pleaded not guilty this morning (June 19) to six counts of embezzlement from the Portola Valley School District, charges involving the alleged stealing of nearly $101,000 to pay for a construction project at his Woodside home during his tenure as superintendent of the district.
Mr. Hanretty appeared in San Mateo County Superior Court with his attorney, Michael Markowitz, denying all allegations and enhancements, according to Karen Guidotti, chief deputy district attorney. The enhancements have been added to the felony charges because the alleged theft was an "excessive taking" -- more than $65,000, she said.
Mr. Hanretty remains out of custody after posting bail.
In April, Mr. Hanretty was charged with three felony counts of misappropriation of public funds from work he performed earlier as chief financial officer of the Woodside Elementary School District. Both cases will be heard in court together, Ms. Guidotti said.
In the Woodside district case, the District Attorney's Office announced that it found no evidence that the misappropriation of funds was for his personal gain.
In an earlier email to the Almanac, Mr. Markowitz said he and his client have no comment about the new allegations.
The embezzlement from the Portola Valley district allegedly began in December 2010, just months after Mr. Hanretty became superintendent and chief business officer of the district, according to a statement issued late Friday night by Acting Superintendent Carol Piraino.
Mr. Hanretty resigned as superintendent in late January after the District Attorney's Office launched an investigation in the Woodside district case. The Portola Valley district then hired an outside accounting firm to conduct a forensic audit to pore over its financial records.
Ms. Piraino said the audit revealed that Mr. Hanretty submitted six invoices totaling $100,926 for reimbursement from the district's solar panel escrow account at Deutsche Bank.
The invoices describe work allegedly done at the district, but "the contractor never actually performed any work for the District. Rather, he performed work on Mr. Hanretty's personal home remodel project. The amounts on the contractor's invoices to Mr. Hanretty exactly mirror the amounts that Mr. Hanretty submitted to Deutsche Bank for reimbursement out of the District's funds," she said in the statement.
The school board will hear a report by the forensic auditors at its meeting on Wednesday, June 20; it begins at 5 p.m. in the district's annex building, 4575 Apline Road in Portola Valley.
See earlier story.
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Posted by Some Guy, a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on Jun 19, 2012 at 1:17 pm Is this what Portola Valley wanted?
Cause they sure tried REAL hard to make it happen.
What kind of people hire a man who has questionable ethics when dealing with public money, and then make him CBO AND Superintendent? Is Portola Valleys School Board REALLY that dumb?
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Posted by R James, a resident of the Portola Valley: other neighborhood, on Jun 19, 2012 at 2:22 pm Thankfully the contractor who did the work on his home is a cooperative witness.
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Posted by Bureaucracy in Action, a member of the Corte Madera School community, on Jun 20, 2012 at 9:02 am Viewing this case as some isolated tragedy will only lead to similar events in the future and leave the further mistakes currently underway unexposed.
When those who hold power operate without transparency, behind closed doors, as Tim did habitually, the results will never be for the greater good.
The school board must be held accountable not just for Tim's criminality, but for their pattern of operation that led to this situation and ultimately harms the schools in a myriad of ways. The open board meetings are really nothing more than a formality, voting on what has already been decided in private- based on the the will of a small group with undue influence.
Another example of the Board's current methodology is evaluating the acting Superintendant (Carol Piraino) based on her own collected data! She directs the administration and content of the staff and community surveys, she decides on how and what educational data is collected and presented to the Board. In her eyes, she must be a fabulous success; a point of view that she will surely communicate to the Board.
Local, national and world politics are screaming for more democracy and transparency from US banking to the "Fast and the Furious" to Egypt's military rulers to Portola Valley, as those who benefit from the lack of power-sharing work every angle to hold onto their power.
Why not start from scratch, have some Board elections rather than appointments for a change, and institute a method of public dialogue about school issues?
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Posted by Matt R., a resident of the Woodside: Skywood/Skylonda neighborhood, on Jun 20, 2012 at 10:36 am
Matt R. is a member (registered user) of Almanac Online I don't think anyone views the Hanratty affair as an isolated item. It's more the tip of a very large iceberg. It's also one of the two most glaring examples of the consiquences for how things have been administered and supervised. (The other being the huge budget cuts required to eliminate the structural deficit and pay for past poor financial decisions.)
I think most who are paying close attention realize that this couldn't have happened without a perfect storm of very bad things. And there are many who are looking to put in structural reform to either minimize or eliminate the possibility of repition.
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Posted by Maria, a resident of the Menlo Park: Sharon Heights neighborhood, on Jun 20, 2012 at 12:31 pm When I worked for the district, Hanretty didn't return phone calls or answer notes. However, neither did Karen. Also they lost records. It was very disappointing - there was lack of communication!!
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Posted by tom94301, a resident of another community, on Jun 20, 2012 at 2:00 pm Maria:
I agree with you. Communication was not one of Mr. Hanretty's strong suits. :-)
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Posted by Wondering, a resident of the Portola Valley: other neighborhood, on Jun 21, 2012 at 2:41 pm Per the quote below from the article, did the contractor cash checks from the bank that had the school disrict's name on the check? If so, there should be furter discussion with the contractor. If Mr. Hanretty recieved funds from the bank, deposited them into his account and then paid the contractor we have a very obvious problem. Does anyone know the details of the transaction(s)?
Ms. Piraino said the audit revealed that Mr. Hanretty submitted six invoices totaling $100,926 for reimbursement from the district's solar panel escrow account at Deutsche Bank.
The invoices describe work allegedly done at the district, but "the contractor never actually performed any work for the District. Rather, he performed work on Mr. Hanretty's personal home remodel project. The amounts on the contractor's invoices to Mr. Hanretty exactly mirror the amounts that Mr. Hanretty submitted to Deutsche Bank for reimbursement out of the District's funds," she said in the statement.
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Posted by Stephanie, a resident of the Menlo Park: other neighborhood, on Jun 22, 2012 at 7:39 am What do you expect? All superintendents in this town are shady types. We know that when we hire them.
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