The former top administrator for Placer Superior Court – who left his job after a state audit found he received $470,000 in apparently unauthorized compensation from July 2001 through March 2009 – is out of another job.

John Mendes, the former Placer court executive officer, on Wednesday left his new job as chief financial officer for Yolo Superior Court, said Shawn Landry, Yolo's assistant CEO.

His departure came a day after The Bee reported the findings of an audit that showed Mendes' total compensation almost doubled in six years to more than $300,000. The audit was released in April, the same month Mendes left his Placer job.

In May, he went to work for Yolo, where a former subordinate is now CEO. Mendes was to earn $88,000 in annual base salary for a three-quarter time schedule.

Yolo court officials declined to say if Mendes was fired or left voluntarily, citing rules barring them from discussing personnel matters.

"John Mendes no longer works for the Yolo Superior Court," Landry said.

Mendes did not return phone calls. His lawyer, Barbara Lawless, declined to comment.

The Administrative Office of the Courts started looking into Placer's executive compensation in March when the then-presiding judge requested a special audit.

Placer is one of two courts statewide on pace to overspend its budget this year, said Lynn Holton, a spokeswoman for the Judicial Council, the policymaking body for the state courts. The Administrative Office of the Courts is an arm of the council.

Placer placed Mendes on administrative leave in March, and he left his job there in April. Neither court officials nor Mendes' lawyer would say if he left voluntarily.

In April, auditors finished their report, which found numerous instances in which Mendes received salary or benefit increases for which there were no records of written authorization and which the presiding judges at the time have no recollection of approving.

Lawless, Mendes' attorney, told The Bee in an earlier interview that all of his raises were approved either orally or in writing, blaming the allegations on judges' faulty record-keeping.

As top officer, Mendes ran day-to-day operations for the Placer court, overseeing staff and budgets. The audit found his total compensation – salary plus benefits – rose from $162,307 in calendar year 2002 to $304,862 by 2008.

His base salary increased 11 times in seven years, from $120,000 in 2001 to $195,000 in 2008.

The audit also questioned the amount of management leave time that Mendes accrued. Mendes should have been eligible for 130 hours of management leave time in calendar year 2008, according to the audit. Instead he accrued 455 hours of management leave, about 12 weeks of paid time off worth about $42,000.

He was able to get the time at the beginning of the fiscal year and cash it out immediately, the audit states.

Lawless has said her client believes he was authorized to increase his management leave by 30 hours every year.

The audit also found that Mendes started a program that allowed him to convert unused sick leave to paid time off. Employees can't cash out sick leave, but they can cash out paid time off. From April 2006 through July 2008, Mendes cashed out 1,279 hours of paid time off worth $104,527, auditors found.

In May, Mendes went to work for Yolo in the finance department.

Jim Perry served as Mendes' assistant in Placer from June 2000 until becoming Yolo's CEO in September 2003. Perry told the Bee in an interview last week that Mendes had given him a copy of the audit. Perry said at the time he hadn't read the entire document, instead flipping to the conclusion. He said the findings looked to be a "payroll issue" rather than performance-based.

Perry did not return several calls Friday seeking comment.

Dave Rosenberg, Yolo's presiding judge, told The Bee in an earlier interview that he was aware of the audit but also had not read it. Reached Friday, he declined to comment on Mendes' departure, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters.

He did say that executive compensation is regularly reviewed in Yolo. "The salary and benefits we pay all employees of the Yolo court, including the CEO, are reviewed by the bench," Rosenberg said.

Officials in both Placer and Yolo counties said Mendes did not receive severance pay when he left their courts.

The state attorney general's office and Placer County District Attorney's Office are reviewing the audit.

Call The Bee's Robert Lewis, (916) 321-1061.