Retired Arlington employee under investigation for theft of $800,000

Published 1:18 pm Wednesday, August 6, 2008

ARLINGTON – A recently retired Arlington city employee is under investigation for allegedly stealing around $800,000 from city coffers during the past six years, officials said today.

Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives are investigating the employee, 56, of Arlington, for embezzlement, Arlington city spokeswoman Kristin Banfiled said.

“Everyone is just reeling from this,” Banfield said. “It’s a violation of the trust that the public puts in us. It’s also a violation the trust that we as employees put in each other.”

The woman worked for Arlington for 30 years and allegedly spent part of her time on the job altering as many as 100 benefit checks, making them out to herself, Banfield said.

The woman is not under arrest and no charges have been filed.

The woman split her time between human resource work and finance functions. She retired at the end of May. On July 11, a finance employee found a suspicious check made out to the woman and notified supervisors.

In 2008, Arlington’s general fund was about $11.5 million, Banfield said.

The city is working to recoup all the missing money either through restitution from the woman or through the city’s insurance company.

State auditors have been notified, standard procedure when misappropriation of public money is discovered.