Forensic audit finds sloppy Fresno EOC recordkeeping, out-of-control spending; board faces scrutiny

Mark Courey, director of forensic services at Wipfli LLC, outlined the firm’s forensic audit of Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission finances during a 75-minute board presentation on Feb. 24, 2026, concluding the review turned up “numerous examples of sloppy recordkeeping, no budget controls for the administration, and unmonitored credit card spending.” The audit covered a single year of activity, the 2024 financial year, and, according to the presentation, painted “an organization where overspending was rampant and budgets ignored.”

The audit was requested in November 2024 by Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, who publicly warned the commission was “hemorrhaging” money and had spent down its reserves, leaving it “on the verge of having to shut down.” Arambula, who had taken the commission seat formerly held by his mother Amy Arambula, asked for the review amid concerns about the nonprofit’s fiscal stability.

Fresno EOC operates Head Start, WIC, the Local Conservation Corps, and food and transit services, programs that the audit assessed only through the lens of agency-wide financial controls for 2024. The organization traces its origin to the 1960s as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty; the Wipfli engagement was hired in early 2025 to examine the recent year’s finances after the audit request.

Board-level decisions preceding the audit included a December 2024 vote not to renew chief executive officer Emilia Reyes’s contract. After the organization’s financial crisis became public, Fresno EOC made changes in 2025 that the presentation summarized as “dozens of jobs were cut, benefits trimmed, and there was a tighter focus on spending and accountability.”

Although the Wipfli presentation cataloged systemic weaknesses, it stopped short of assigning individual culpability. The consultant “found no evidence of ‘abuse’,” and the presentation “lacked specifics of who was responsible for the overspending, poor recordkeeping, and for disbanding the Finance Committee,” leaving open questions about when and by whom key oversight structures were altered.

Public reaction to the audit circulated on social platforms in brief posts that mirrored the presentation’s blunt conclusions. An Instagram post read: “A forensic audit of Fresno EOC's 2024 finances found that recordkeeping was shoddy and spending in some areas including credit cards was out” and the same text appeared on Threads; both posts were truncated in the public extracts reviewed.

Next steps identified by local observers include obtaining the full Wipfli LLC forensic report, Fresno EOC board minutes and the recording or packet from the Feb. 24 presentation, and the 2023–2024 financial statements and reserve analyses that underpin Assemblymember Arambula’s “hemorrhaging” characterization. The audit’s findings have focused scrutiny on the Fresno EOC board and its governance practices as the organization attempts to stabilize operations and restore fiscal controls.