Former Coachella employee speaks out about “illegal and immoral” city business

For the past seven months, Cherie Johnson has kept quiet about her time at city hall in Coachella.

“I’ve been sitting on a boiling pot of water since January and it’s been very uncomfortable,” she said. “I was scared the city would retaliate if I came to the press.”

Johnson says in January she was forced to resign after reporting numerous violations to her supervisor, city manager David Garcia.

She decided to come forward when she recently heard from a former coworker.

“I learned of another person let go in the same manner and I was just fed up,” Johnson said.

As Coachella’s human resources manager from late 2013 to January 2015, Johnson says she repeatedly came across “illegal and immoral” actions by city leaders.

She has a stack of papers that she says is evidence the city didn’t play by the rules and knowingly mismanaged public money.

“This is an e-mail for invoices that hadn’t been paid, this is an e-mail from the city manager and city attorney acknowledging that there may be possible embezzlement,” she said going through the stack.

Johnson says in one case the city failed to pay a $300,000 bill to the California Public Employee Retirement System (CALPERS).

In another case, she says the city had an employee who illegally collected benefits for a spouse who turned out to be his girlfriend, for 20 years.

“The employee was never reprimanded. He was never asked to pay the money back. That was money residents paid in taxes,” Johnson said. That employee she says is still with the city of Coachella.

When she tried to bring these issues to someone’s attention, Johnson says she was turned away and eventually forced out.

“My option was to sign a resignation letter city manager Garcia prepared for me to sign,” Johnson said. “So I do what I’m supposed to do, I bring this to your attention and I’m forced out the door? That sounds to me like retaliation.”

David Garcia wouldn’t agree to an on-camera interview but told us on the phone Johnson resigned from her position and that he can’t comment on matters regarding personnel.

He wouldn’t say whether or not he wrote her resignation letter.

Garcia says the city pays all its bills within 60 days, recently passed an audit and that the financial director recently got an award for financial reporting.

Meanwhile Johnson has filed discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

Garcia says the city isn’t aware of any complaints.

“I hope they get to the bottom of this and that there’s some type of action,” she said. “It makes no sense they can use tax dollars in an unethical manner and keep their jobs.”

Cherie Johnson is currently the chairperson of the Coachella Valley Professionals in Human Resources Association (PIHRA).

Stay with KESQ and CBS Local 2 for developments on this story.