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California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

propublica.org

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Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#61

Post by flybrand »

forgingahead wrote: post #32
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like in many accounting controversies, the fundamental problem here is how to account for future expectations. If you’re owed a big sum of money but you know for sure payment is coming soon, your accounting statements should show you as much wealthier than the actual money you have on hand, because receiving a payment you already knew you’d get shouldn’t change how you measure your financial status. The commission sa…

How to account for this isn't controversial -- you put the expected money to be received on your balance sheet, either under "Accounts Receivable", which is listed as an asset, or another similarly related account that shows the money is due. Of course, you can't have "Accounts Receivable" for eons with no update, at some point an auditor will say the money should be collected, or you have to write it off as a bad de…

Deliberate accounting negligence to force other parties to cover the bill.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#62

Post by hnruss »

29athrowaway wrote: post #60
hnruss wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that more money probably means more backroom deals. This seems simple to me: One party wants to regulate, the other de-regulate. Which of those platforms attracts the most money?

Deregulate the environment and you will be drinking polluted water, and breathing polluted air. Your food will be likely exposed to pollution too. Deregulate labor and you'll have exploited workers working 100 hours per week, being constantly harassed by their employers, people being discriminated at the workplace, as well as people exposed to poor safety conditions where they can get injured or killed. Deregulate co…

Yes, and my guess is that there is more money to be made off of deregulation than on regulation. Thus, more corruption related to the party that wants to deregulate.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#63

Post by 0x10c0fe11ce »

chii wrote: post #27
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like in many accounting controversies, the fundamental problem here is how to account for future expectations. If you’re owed a big sum of money but you know for sure payment is coming soon, your accounting statements should show you as much wealthier than the actual money you have on hand, because receiving a payment you already knew you’d get shouldn’t change how you measure your financial status. The commission sa…

> you know for sure payment is coming soon and there-in lies the catch - you cannot know for sure something that hasn't happened yet. There can not be accounting practises that count money that has yet to be received on hand.

Yes, there is a thing that almost guarantees things in the future will materialize, it’s called a contract. People and businesses have been dealing in futures for centuries. For instance, Italian banks have special vaults for Parmigiano Reggiano taken as collateral. If some of their customers didn’t have access to these tools they probably would’ve gone out of business long ago, and we’d all have lost access to great cheese.

They’re just tools, as such expected to be held the wrong way by some people.

PS: I had a lot of fun developing an accounting system for a client that needed to solve exactly this problem :)

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#65

Post by FPGAhacker »

MacsHeadroom wrote: post #25
jasonboyd wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I can count on zero fingers the number of times I've used an exclamation mark professionally." I feel self conscious now.

In use exclamation marks in professional communication every day. It's not unusual at all.

In particular: thanks!

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#66

Post by 9HZZRfNlpR »

hnruss wrote: post #62
29athrowaway wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deregulate the environment and you will be drinking polluted water, and breathing polluted air. Your food will be likely exposed to pollution too. Deregulate labor and you'll have exploited workers working 100 hours per week, being constantly harassed by their employers, people being discriminated at the workplace, as well as people exposed to poor safety conditions where they can get injured or killed. Deregulate co…

Yes, and my guess is that there is more money to be made off of deregulation than on regulation. Thus, more corruption related to the party that wants to deregulate.

Why are you sure of it? Regulation often gives more backroom deal type of corruption and monopolies, deregulation on the other hand can give more anarchy. I don't think simple view of having one, regulation or deregulation, and itsa good thing is very intelligent thought.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#67

Post by wwwwwwwww »

legulere wrote: post #20
Justin_K wrote: post #18

The sad part is that CA remains a one party state and this will just get swept under the rug. The power is too unchecked.

As a European I ask myself why there’s no proportional voting system at all in the US. The states should be independent enough to introduce one for themselves, and there are also referendums.

As another European: proportional voting has nothing to do with it. Its more about ideologized voters who care more about ideology than merit when voting.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#68

Post by boomboomsubban »

hliyan wrote: post #7
boomboomsubban wrote: post #2

Call me cynical, but Stebbins likely faces a decade long legal battle which shell very likely end up settling to be done with it, the board members will get even better jobs in or out of government, and the $200 million will remain missing. Yknow, justice.

What you say will probably come to pass, but this sort of cynical, fatalistic attitude is part of the problem.

Please inform me of the actions you are taking to fix the problem.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#69

Post by amanaplanacanal »

twblalock wrote: post #55
claudeganon wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think Republican opposition is the answer, as they’re demonstrably just as corrupt and self-serving. But California could certainly benefit from some primary challenges from the left. LA is seeing this happen with the election of Nithya Raman and George Gascón (who were vehemently opposed by mainstream Democrats). Interested to see how they might shift the terrain.

Democrats getting defeated in primaries from the left only results in Democrats being replaced by other Democrats. We would still have one party in charge of the state, with a veto-proof majority in the legislature.

True, but that’s only a bad thing if you like the other party better. Which it appears the majority of voters in that state do not.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#70

Post by threatofrain »

Justin_K wrote: post #18

The sad part is that CA remains a one party state and this will just get swept under the rug. The power is too unchecked.

The national Republican party has money which they can dynamically allocate to different states. If they want to pitch exciting offers to California, such as solutions for transportation or healthcare, then so be it.

Kevin McCarthy is the house minority leader for the GOP and he's using his airtime by talking about how the presidential election is a fraud. That's a taste of the calibre of counter-narrative the GOP chooses to air.

I would argue there's more healthy idea generation within party than between party.

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