At an October 2011 City Council meeting, officials fretted over a “fiscal crisis” that prevented them from hiring part-time employees. “By the time she was arrested, we were $22 million in debt.”īefore Crundwell was caught, Dixon city employees had gone years without getting raises and streets went unpaved. “From the time she started to steal, the city had about $10 million in a fund balance,” said Paula Meyer, Dixon’s current finance director. Crundwell pleaded guilty to fraud a few months later. Dixon’s operating budget is only about $10 million a year. In just six months, the FBI quietly watched Crundwell take at least $3.2 million from the city before arresting her in April 2012. He added, “I guess that was her strong point and her weak point.”Ī co-worker noticed suspicious bank activity while filling in for Crundwell, and an FBI inquiry revealed that the quarter horse queen had been funneling money from the city into her personal accounts since the 1990s. “I could ask her for some contracts with the utility company or something several years ago, and she would wheel around and pull something right out of her desk.” “She knew where everything was at,” James Burke, Dixon’s then-mayor, told the Los Angeles Times in 2012. Crundwell started working for the city part time as a high school student and later became city comptroller, a position she held for almost 30 years. No one should question that you’re secretly siphoning off millions from taxpayers when you’re in that unsuspecting salmon polo.” “You’re rocking your official city gear that says to everyone you’re here to help Dixon function. “This is the Rita outfit that says you’re here to work,” Brenden West wrote for. In October, a local columnist jokingly suggested readers could bid for one of Crundwell’s city of Dixon shirts - sewn with the name “Rita” and now going for $10 - to make a “Killer Comptroller” Halloween costume. NFL great Terry Bradshaw had signed the shirt, adding the message, “Rita, you are the best!” The word “best” is underlined.Īt the time, among quarter horse owners, Crundwell was the best. Fifteen bids have driven the cost of one T-shirt from a 2008 quarter horse championship to $205.

Rita crundwell story