District Attorney Jan Scully announced today that 40-year-old
Belisa Serna-Mayorga pled
guilty to felony misappropriation of public funds. Serna-Mayorga
was formerly the council
operations manager for the Office of the Mayor of the City of
Sacramento.
Serna-Mayorga was entrusted with a Sacramento City bank purchasing
card to be used solely
for City business. From July 2009 to June 2012, Serna-Mayorga used
the card for personal
items totaling over $19,000. Among the illegal charges were two
Disneyland trips for her and
her family in December of 2010 and June of 2012; hotels in Bodega
Bay and Monterey;
clothing; makeup; restaurants; grocery bills; and numerous iTunes
games, music, movies, and
entertainment applications.
In June of 2012, when an internal audit revealed Serna-Mayorga had
not been submitting the
required paperwork documenting her purchases, she admitted that
numerous charges were
personal. She wrote checks to the City of Sacramento for
reimbursement; however, she
stopped payment on those checks before the City could submit them
for deposit. The
investigation found that for some of the accounting documents she
had submitted to justify her
purchases, the signature of the mayor's chief of staff, Kunal
Merchant, was forged.
Serna-Mayorga was sentenced to nine months in the county jail, and
five years of probation.
She can apply to the Sheriff's Department for a work-release
program. She was ordered to
pay $19,043.29 to the City of Sacramento in restitution. This
conviction cannot be reduced to a
misdemeanor and disqualifies her for life from holding any public
office in this state.
Click to view the complaint and arrest warrant
affidavit.
Serna-Mayorga was formerly the council operations manager for
the Office of the Mayor of the City of Sacramento.
From July 2009 to June 2012, Serna-Mayorga used a
City-issued credit card for personal items totaling over
$19,000. According to the Sacramento County District Attorney's
office, among the illegal charges were: "two Disneyland trips for
her and her family in December of 2010 and June of 2012; hotels in
Bodega Bay and Monterey; clothing; makeup; restaurants; grocery
bills; and numerous iTunes games, music, movies, and entertainment
applications."
In June of 2012, an internal audit revealed Serna-Mayorga had
not been submitting the required paperwork documenting her
purchases.
She admitted that several charges were not for City use,
and then compounded her legal problems by writing bad checks
to cover the amount.
An investigation found the signature of the mayor's chief
of staff, Kunal Merchant, was forged on some documents submitted as
part of her effort to cover up the expenses.
After Serna-Mayorga serves her sentence, she will be on
probation for five years.
She can apply to the Sheriff's Department for a work-release
program.
She was ordered to pay $19,043.29 to the City of Sacramento in
restitution.
Her conviction cannot be reduced to a misdemeanor and it
prevents her from holding any public office
in California. Her brother is Sacramento County
Supervisor Phil Serna. Her father is the late mayor of
Sacramento, Joe Serna.
