FREMONT — Months after abruptly resigning with out rationalization, Fremont’s former metropolis supervisor has been charged with embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds for utilizing a metropolis bank card to make private purchases, in response to courtroom data.
The Alameda County District Legal professional’s Workplace filed the felony expenses in late February in opposition to Mark Danaj, who was arraigned March 9 in Alameda County Superior Courtroom.
The brand new accusation is the second authorized challenge to plague Danaj, who was arrested in September on suspicion of home violence at his dwelling in San Francisco. Fremont Metropolis Council members refused to say whether or not both incident was related to Danaj’s resignation, which got here two weeks after the sooner arrest. San Francisco prosecutors dismissed the home violence case the day after Danaj’s arrest, citing a scarcity of proof.
Within the embezzlement case, Danaj is accused of spending greater than $18,000 on his city-issued bank card to make “quite a few unauthorized, private purchases” from December 2019 via March 2021, in response to a declaration written by Inspector Thomas Cleary with the district legal professional’s workplace.
“These improper, private expenses included the usage of the bank card for journey, lodging, Apple merchandise, medical companies, and meals supply,” Cleary wrote. “These actions disadvantaged the town of public funds and have been for his private profit.”
Danaj’s legal professional, Dan O’Malley, declined to touch upon the case apart from to say he doesn’t anticipate to enter a plea on his shopper’s subsequent scheduled courtroom date of April 6 as a result of he's nonetheless gathering details about the case.
Fremont Vice Mayor Raj Salwan stated the actions Danaj is accused of eroding folks’s belief in authorities.
“I’m deeply upset find out that somebody is utilizing public funds for personal use,” Salwan stated in an interview Tuesday.
“The belief of the general public is crucial factor we now have. So anytime a public official does something lower than that, I feel it hurts the complete establishment and authorities, creates cynicism and violates the belief between the general public and authorities officers,” he stated.
“It’s just like the worst factor that may occur,” he stated.
However Salwan declined to touch upon whether or not the investigation into Danaj’s bank card spending led to his resignation or whether or not council members knew about it on the time. Fellow council members Teresa Cox and Yang Shao, reached by cellphone Tuesday, additionally declined to say.
Mayor Lily Mei, council members Rick Jones, Teresa Keng and Jenny Kassan didn’t instantly return calls or texts looking for remark.
A separation settlement between Danaj and the town obtained by this information group in October forbids the council, Danaj, and another metropolis officers from talking in regards to the causes for Danaj’s resignation and bars them from sharing details about the “existence or substance” of the settlement.
If somebody asks about Danaj’s exit, “every celebration shall state solely that Danaj resigned from metropolis service efficient September 30, 2021 and the departure was settled in a mutually acceptable method,” the settlement reads.
Along with the secrecy, Danaj negotiated a hefty payout price greater than $360,000. Based on the separation settlement — signed by Danaj on Sept. 25 and Mei on Sept. 29 — Danaj obtained 10.5 months’ price of severance pay, totaling $294,292, inside 10 days of his resignation.
Danaj additionally was to be paid a complete of $22,325 in month-to-month installments from November 2021 via August 2022 to cowl his well being profit prices, in response to the separation settlement.
And he was to obtain $50,000 from the town as cost for his “accrued however unused common depart time,” the settlement states.
Danaj’s authentic five-year employment contract with the town from September 2018 entitled him to as much as a yr’s price of severance pay if he was terminated by the Metropolis Council for any motive apart from “willful misconduct.” It didn't present for severance pay if he voluntarily resigned, which he did.
Fremont employed Danaj in 2011 as an assistant metropolis supervisor. He got here from San Jose, the place he labored as a human assets director.
He left Fremont in 2014 to take the helm as metropolis supervisor in Manhattan Seaside however was fired by the Manhattan Seaside Metropolis Council in early 2018, earlier than being employed as metropolis supervisor in Fremont.
That metropolis didn't present an official rationalization for the firing, however his legal professional contended on the time Danaj was being punished for pushing again in opposition to a directive to get rid of an assistant metropolis supervisor place. Danaj had employed his former Fremont colleague, Nadine Nader, to fill the place.
Although she declined to say what council members knew in regards to the investigation or after they knew about it, Cox stated Tuesday the crimes Danaj is accused of committing are “simply horrible” if true.
She emphasised she was not on the council when Danaj was employed.
“It’s vital that there was due diligence on his background earlier than he was employed. There have been some warning indicators,” Cox stated.
“Anyone that might Google his title and background would query why he was employed,” she added.