Bell : New Firm to Monitor Club

In a move designed to impose stricter controls on the collection of revenue from the California Bell Club, the City Council has approved an agreement to have a Whittier accounting firm take over monitoring duties.

Lance Soll & Lunghard will be replacing Los Angeles-based Laventhol & Horwath as the internal revenue-control firm in early February. The move, approved Monday, will also save the city $18,000 a year because the new company will charge less for its services, Finance Director Steven Klotzsche said.

The city wanted stronger controls over the wide variety of games played at the club because they require different methods of collection, Klotzsche said. He said the firm’s staff is familiar with the six card and tile games that provide more than half of the club’s revenue. The club averages a monthly payment of $60,000 in taxes to the city, he said.

Klotzsche said the firm has suggested installing city-owned lock boxes at all tables to strengthen control because of the absence of dealers in certain games and the frequency of fee collection, which is based on time played, hands played or games played. The boxes would be opened only by a city employee, who would go to the club once a day to observe the counting of the boxes’ contents.

Lance Soll & Lunghard, which does the city audit, also has implemented an internal control system at the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, Klotzsche said.