StanCOG director spent lavishly at taxpayers’ expense, grand jury says
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- Grand jury accuses StanCOG executive director of misusing public funds for luxury travel.
- The report cites over $100K in rental car spending, including daily luxury car use.
- The StanCOG board ordered an audit, oversight review and pledged public spending reports.
A civil grand jury report accuses Stanislaus Council of Governments Executive Director Rosa De León Park of rampant and lavish spending of public funds on luxury hotels, airfare and rental cars, as well as misuse of credit cards at taxpayers’ expense.
A grand jury investigation found that Park used rental cars almost nonstop for more than three years, at a cost exceeding $100,000, mostly for commuting from her home in Stockton to work in Modesto. More than half of the car rentals, billed to taxpayers, were luxury vehicles including BMWs, Mercedes Benz and Jeep Grand Cherokees, says a Stanislaus County grand jury report released Wednesday.
Other spending included first-class airline flights and lodging at Ritz-Carlton hotels in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Atlanta. The report says Park stayed at the luxury hotels instead of the less costly hotels that hosted conferences she attended.
The total charges for 39 nights at Ritz-Carlton hotels from 2020 to 2024 was $33,072, the report says. The grand jury also raised concerns about restaurant bills and other purchases made on her government-issued credit card.
The allegations are an embarrassment for an agency that oversees transportation services in Stanislaus County, after voters were asked to entrust StanCOG with millions of dollars in annual revenue from a half percent transportation tax approved in 2016. The 16-member StanCOG policy board consists of representatives from the county and cities in Stanislaus County.
The grand jury did not refer to Park by name in the report issued Wednesday, but she has been StanCOG’s executive director since 2015. Park did not respond to emails and calls seeking comment.
The StanCOG policy board held a special meeting Wednesday, behind closed doors, and released a statement Thursday.
“What the civil grand jury found is deeply troubling,” the board statement reads. “We are a public agency that is trusted to safeguard taxpayer dollars and deliver results for our community. This alleged level of waste and mismanagement demands immediate action. We are deeply disturbed by the supposed waste, mismanagement and lack of accountability within StanCOG’s management. If true, these actions are unacceptable.”
The policy board called for a workforce investigation and independent forensic audit of StanCOG’s travel, procurement and administrative spending over five years. It also called for public quarterly reporting on expenditures, an evaluation of the board’s oversight responsibilities and a review of executive management practices “including hiring, retention and staff treatment.”
The grand jury report claims the executive director verbally mistreated staff. StanCOG’s board will officially respond to the grand jury’s findings and recommendations within 90 days.
The grand jury, citing fiscal abuse and lack of accountability by upper management, said its investigation also found that high staff turnover has led to discrepancies in allocated funds to cities for their transportation projects.
Investigation started with citizen complaint
The watchdog panel said it investigated a March 2024 citizen complaint that StanCOG was behind on financial reports and would not likely complete a required audit on time. More than a dozen witnesses were interviewed during the grand jury probe, which discovered the StanCOG policy board had ordered an investigation, costing $25,000, into the executive director’s rental car spending.
The jury reviewed the executive director’s use of her government-issued credit card over a seven-month period, revealing 62 transactions with no receipts, including 19 missing receipts in one month. There were no receipts for 15% of purchases, totaling $10,000, the report says.
Park regularly picked up rental cars from Elk Grove Enterprise despite a policy that rental cars were for driving to meetings outside the county. From mid-2021 to late 2024, “there were only 40 days when the executive director did not have a rental car from the Elk Grove rental office,” the report says.
The grand jury said the rental cars, including luxury vehicles picked up from the Elk Grove business, were essentially used for commuting from her home in Stockton to work in Modesto and back home. The rental car charges were in addition to the annual $4,800 allowance to compensate Park for using her personal car on StanCOG business, the report says.
The investigation found the rental car charges increased at taxpayers’ expense when Park failed to return vehicles. In one instance, taxpayers paid Enterprise for a Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport sitting idle while Park was on a foreign cruise for two weeks, the report alleges.
According to the report, Park told the grand jury the high-end rentals for Mercedes-Benz and BMWs were free upgrades and not requested by her. But 2020 notes on Enterprise’s documentation said Park no longer would be offered cars above the intermediate rate, or they would be charged at full price. Most all of her car rentals from 2020 to 2024 were vehicles above intermediate class, the grand jury said.
Witnesses told the jury about first-class or upgraded airline flights purchased at Park’s direction, “including those for certain policy board members,” the report says.
Of the six people on one trip to Washington, D.C., on StanCOG business, the flight costs for four board members were $1,000 each round trip. The executive director and an unnamed Modesto council member had different flights and upgrades costing $2,000 each round trip, the report says.
The report also says the same Modesto council member took a trip to Detroit and back, costing $4,000 for airfare. One policy board member reacted strongly to a first-class flight purchased for him and reprimanded the executive director, the report says.
He expressed how inappropriate the purchases were and how inappropriate they look to taxpayers. The report added that “it was too late to rebook the flight, so he wrote a personal check to pay for the (first-class) flight.”
The executive director allegedly used the card to pay double the cost for the Ritz-Carlton in the nation’s capital for a conference in February 2024. The Ritz-Carlton rate was $600 per night, compared to $309 at the Hyatt Capital Hill, which was hosting the conference.
A table in the grand jury report shows charges of $3,900 at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington for four nights in September 2023, almost $3,700 for three nights at the Chicago Ritz-Carlton in August 2022 and another $3,200 the same dates, same hotel.
The report states that one Ritz-Carlton stay included a Modesto council member. Park’s credit card charges revealed stays at other luxury hotels such as the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego, the report says.
Other credit card expenses
The grand jury raised other concerns regarding credit card charges for restaurants and purchased items such as a Tumi carry-on suitcase for $560, plus $165 in accessories. The purchase was recorded as a “laptop bag.” A United Airlines annual VIP lounge access pass was purchased for $600, at taxpayers’ expense.
In addition, no one challenged $1,900 in recurring charges as a result of apparent scams over an eight-month period.
The report also cites statements from former staff regarding the executive director’s treatment of employees. They claimed that Park screamed at staff members in the hallway, humiliated staff at meetings, made hostile statements and told staff not to speak with policy board members outside of regular meetings.
A former employee said Friday the finance staff was shorthanded when she started working for StanCOG two years ago, with transactions not being processed for three to four months and bank statements not being processed.
“They were behind on the audit report and behind on submitting requests for reimbursements to Caltrans quarterly,” said the former employee, who asked for anonymity due to fear of retaliation. “We were on the verge of losing millions of dollars because of nonreporting by previous finance staff.”
In a Facebook comment Friday, Modesto Councilmember Chris Ricci called on Park to resign, citing the first-class flights, luxury hotel stays and rental car misuse.
A political action committee praised the grand jury for exposing the problems at StanCOG. “This represents a serious breach of public trust,” said the Stronger Valley Political Action Committee in a statement signed by Mike Lynch and Nick Dokoozlian. “We hope (StanCOG leadership) chooses to take meaningful action to restore accountability and confidence in their agency.”
This story was originally published June 27, 2025 at 1:50 PM.
