Accused of bilking district, Sacramento-area school board member may lose leadership post

Natomas Unified School District officials are expected to remove a recently elected member from her leadership positions Tuesday evening amid an escalating, yearslong state investigation into claims she bilked the district out of thousands of dollars in speech therapy fees.

Ericka Harden, who was narrowly elected to the Natomas School Board in November, has been under investigation by the California Department of Consumer Affairs since at least 2017, according to records The Sacramento Bee obtained through a Public Records Act request.

The state’s review has intensified in recent months, with investigators subpoenaing the district for receipts, emails and other documents involving Harden’s speech therapy work with children in the district. The receipts show Harden claiming more than $16,000 from dozens of speech services in 2016 and 2017.

An agenda for Tuesday night’s special meeting says, “Trustees will discuss temporarily removing Trustee Harden from holding a Board leadership position or committee representation until a pending legal matter is resolved.” District officials declined to comment before the meeting.

In an interview with The Bee, Harden said she was innocent of the alleged wrongdoing.

“There’s no merit to any of these allegations,” Harden said. “This is truly just an effort to try to make me want to leave the board. Just that simple.

“I was voted in by the people. And I’m here to stay. If and when anyone chooses to move forward with any type of legal action, I welcome that because I know I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Harden, who serves as the board clerk, has long held a valid speech-language pathology assistant license, according to state records. The records show she was a consultant with Natomas Unified School District who worked with children, sometimes taking them out of classes to help them with their speech.

Invoices and emails bearing her name were then sent to the district for reimbursement.

In January 2017, a district official appeared to become wary of some of the documentation that was coming in. Invoices were omitting her registration number. “Do not process anymore (sic) receipts from this vendor without licensure documentation,” one person wrote.

A few months later, in April 2017, regulators with the Department of Consumer Affairs levied a $1,000 citation against Harden for not providing documents and cooperating in an investigation. Harden said she attempted to appeal the citation, but was told it was too late.

Harden, in an interview Tuesday, said someone “made up” the invoices using her name. She said she has never done anything illegal involving the district or with her speech services, that she is cooperating with investigators, and that the claims for reimbursement are fraudulent.

“There is not at one time where there has been money exchanged between a Natomas Unified School District and myself,” she said. “I think that kind of clears it all up. So I am not the fish that they are trying to fry in this. I am just the one that is getting caught in the crossfire.”

Before election, Harden registers several businesses

In an email dated Jan. 24, 2018, a district official described being briefed about the ongoing review by a state Department of Consumer Affairs investigator who’d taken over after the original lead on the case retired.

The new state investigator told district officials they would conduct a “photo lineup” as part of its review and also get attendance records for a student to see if they matched Harden’s speech service invoices.

That case has dragged on ever since. Meanwhile, Harden branched out her work.

In 2019, state records show she filed papers to form a nonprofit arts council based out of her home. The purpose statement, she wrote, was to “provide people with disabilities access to all forms of art. A place for them to have full inclusion.”

She said a related day program she registered in 2020, also out of her home, went “hand-in-hand” with the art program. Harden also registered a business called Ganja Express in 2016 to join the growing list of new cannabis shops in the region, but she was not among those who secured a license.

Last fall, in her contest for school board, Harden, who is Black, reported that her campaign signs had been vandalized with racist slurs. Harden won the race by only about 300 votes.

On Dec. 7, 2020, a month after she was elected, an investigator with the Department of Consumer Affairs signed off on a subpoena that demanded school district officials appear before regulators as well as turn over certified copies of the receipts allegedly from Harden’s speech services as well as emails involving complaints about her work.

What the state’s investigation has found in the months since is unclear. A spokesperson for the Department of Consumer Affairs did not return a request seeking comment Tuesday.

Natomas Unified school officials said, “the district and the board will not have further comment on this matter until the Board has an opportunity to discuss it during Open Session.”

Tuesday’s special board meeting begins at 6:15 p.m.

This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 2:35 PM.