State officials say they’re almost finished conducting an audit of Stockton’s systems for safeguarding public money, the city’s finance chief said Tuesday.
The State Controller’s Office — California’s fiscal department and spending watchdog — told the city they have “substantially completed most of their work” examining the state of Stockton’s financial guardrails between July 2023 and December 2025, Chief Financial Office Gilbert Garcia said at a meeting of the City Council’s audit committee.
The Audit Committee includes District 1 Councilmember Michele Padilla and District 3 Councilmember Michael Blower, and is chaired by Vice Mayor Jason Lee, who represents District 6.
The state launched the audit after Lee sent a letter in fall, asking officials to investigate several areas of alleged wrongdoing including unauthorized commitments of city money; changes to the city’s annual budget; contract improprieties; unethical hiring practices; and other possible problems.
Some of the alleged misconduct happened when Steve Colangelo was serving as Stockton’s interim city manager, Lee stated at the time. Colangelo didn’t answer requests for comment at the time.
A State Controller’s Office spokesman didn’t immediately respond to Stocktonia’s request to confirm whether the audit is almost finished.
State officials didn’t tell Garcia exactly when their findings would be ready, he said Tuesday.
At the same Audit Committee meeting Tuesday, Assistant City Attorney Taryn Jones told committee members that the law enforcement agencies the city contacted about some of the alleged financial wrongdoing by Colangelo have barely responded.
The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office sent the city a receipt acknowledging the information sent, Jones said.
But for the San Joaquin County Grand Jury and California Attorney General’s Office, Stockton only received certified mail confirmations that the agencies had received the city’s requests, Jones said.
The City Council unanimously voted to contact law enforcement about the alleged wrongdoing in November.
Also on Tuesday, the Audit Committee requested details from the Office of Violence Prevention about its performance and staffing plan.
And the committee scheduled another meeting for Wednesday for a representative of Stockton’s new city auditing firm to discuss their work.