Friday, June 13, 2014

Alameda County Auditor Candidate Charged With Felonies

By Doug Oakley
Staff Writer
Bay Area News Group
doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com

OAKLAND -- A politician running for Alameda County auditor has been charged with six felony counts of voter fraud and perjury for allegedly lying about her county residence as a candidate for office. 

Kathleen Knox, 49, who admitted to this newspaper earlier in the week that she cannot recall the last night she spent at the San Leandro senior home listed as her address on her candidate and voter registration forms, was charged by the Alameda County District Attorney on Friday. 

A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office decline to comment on the case except to say she expects Knox to be arraigned in superior court on Monday. 

Knox was living in Contra Costa County earlier this year but said she returned to San Leandro, where she owns a business and has long-standing ties, to run for the Alameda County seat. 

On a recent visit to the Danville home where her two sons live with an uncle, a car registered to Knox was parked in the driveway. Her website says that "as the county's auditor, I will fight waste and fraud." 

Knox did not immediately return a phone call or an email seeking comment for this article. She also acknowledged this week that she's never worked or become qualified as an investment banker, despite her own campaign literature that describes her "business background in investment banking." 

Knox filed to run for the countywide office in March after Patrick O'Connell, the longtime auditor-controller/clerk-recorder, abruptly announced he was not running for re-election on the same day that his chief deputy auditor, Steve Manning, filed papers to take his place. That gave outside candidates just three days to join the race for an open seat. Knox is the only candidate challenging Manning in the June 3 election. Both are registered Democrats. 

Alameda County's auditor leads a department responsible for all accounting, payroll, tax analysis, contract compliance, and auditing of budgeting and grants. The position also has a dual role of clerk-recorder, charged with the maintenance of vital records, maps and other public documents. 

The Rose Gate address in San Leandro has been Knox's voting address since 2006, according to public documents. She also used that as her home address when she served on the San Leandro Human Services Commission from 2007 to 2009, according to the city. Knox, the daughter of former Alameda County treasurer and supervisor Bob Knox, said her ties to San Leandro and Alameda County run deep. 


Follow Doug Oakley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/douglasoakley

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