Members of the Montrose Shopping Park Assn. contacted Glendale Police to request an investigation of former City Councilmember John Drayman, MSPA board president Alyce Russell said in an interview with the Crescenta Valley Weekly on Thursday. Russell and other board members allege that Drayman embezzled money from the Sunday Harvest Market, which is run by the MSPA.
Glendale Police searched Drayman's Montrose condo on May 17, but would only say that the investigation is connected to an organization that Drayman was a part of. Police would not confirm which organization.
Profits from the Sunday Harvest Market had been sagging since 2008, and the market was set to lose $52,000 this year. Bookkeeping was inconsistent, and monies collected from vendors went through Drayman, said Russell in the interview.
But, after the MSPA created a Harvest Market Oversight Committee in April, and appointed a committee member to collect money from vendors, profits jumped to the highest they'd been this year. The sudden profit prompted Russell and the board to contact police, she said in the interview.
According to the Glendale News-Press, Drayman defended the profit spike, saying that high gas prices were keeping people in town. And, Mark Sheridan of the MSPA said that the winter is traditionally the slowest season of the year for the market.
Drayman was previously president of the MSPA, and served on the city council from 2007-2011. While on the MSPA, he and other board members created the Sunday Harvest Market in 2002.
