Roseville official charged with directing taxpayer money to hire woman, pay law school tuition

A top Roseville wastewater official has been charged with five felony counts of diverting public funds to personal use, including two counts alleging he used money from the South Placer Wastewater Authority to pay for the moving expenses and law school tuition for a woman he arranged to have hired, The Sacramento Bee has learned.

Kenneth James Glotzbach, 54, Roseville’s assistant director of wastewater utilities and the executive director of the wastewater authority, was charged in Superior Court on Nov. 8 by Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire’s office and an arrest warrant was issued, court files say.

He was arrested at his Carmichael home Friday and booked into the South Placer Jail before being released on $20,000 bail, Roseville police spokesman Rob Baquera said.

Glotzbach is accused of arranging to hire Marisa Tricas, a 32-year-old U.S. Environmental Protection Agency worker he met at a conference, without permission from the city and eventually of having her hired in 2018 by a consulting firm paid with city, county and utility funds, court records say.

He allegedly arranged for more than $300,000 in public funds to be used to pay Tricas, funded her moving expenses from Washington, D.C., by putting them on his city credit card and had the city pay for her tuition at Lincoln Law School, court records say.

The allegations are laid out in a Roseville police declaration from Lt. Kelby Newton filed in court documents that describes police seizing Glotzbach’s cellphone during the probe and discovering text messages between Glotzbach and Tricas as they appear to try to come up with defenses.

‘Fairly unusual’ hiring in 2018

In one series of messages, Newton writes that Tricas is “texting Glotzbach about a possible defense as to why he was paying for her to go to law school. It shows that they were actively coming up with defenses to cover for Glotzbach’s actions.”

Glotzbach did not respond to a message left on a cellphone listed under his name; his attorney, Barry Zimmerman of Auburn, said he had not yet seen the charges and could not comment on Glotzbach’s behalf.

Tricas, who has not been charged, also did not respond to messages left on her cellphone. Court records say she declined a formal interview with detectives.

The city issued a statement Wednesday to The Bee declining to comment on an active investigation.

“What we can share is that we are fully committed to ensuring that the people, policies and practices at the city provide the responsible stewardship of public resources that is expected in service to the community,” the statement added.

A city spokeswoman added that Glotzbach’s last day as an employee was Wednesday. Tricas remains employed by the city.

The investigation stems from Tricas’ hiring in 2018 as a temporary worker at the consulting firm Brown and Caldwell as a “principal scientist,” something a consulting firm manager later told police was “fairly unusual,” court records say.

At the time, the city was planning to hire two people to work in government relations, and Glotzbach wanted to hire Tricas for one of the posts, court records say. But the city only approved one position and hired someone else, with Glotzbach being told the second position would be available soon, court records say.

Council misled on wastewater funding need

Glotzbach oversaw the South Placer Wastewater Authority, a joint powers agency funded by Roseville, Placer County and South Placer Municipal Utility District that used Brown and Caldwell. Glotzbach called the firm and said he wanted to hire Tricas as a city worker “but was unable to due to temporary lack of funding,” court records say.

The $173,000 in funding to pay for the position was provided after Glotzbach and two others convinced the Roseville City Council that the money was needed for a federal program at the Dry Creek Wastewater Treatment plant despite the fact that the plant did not participate in the federal program, court records say.

“All three were aware that this was a misrepresentation to the Roseville City Council to obtain money to hire Marisa Tricas,” court records say.

Tricas moved to Roseville to begin the job, with Glotzbach putting her $6,166.41 in moving costs on his city credit card “as an administrative cost,” court records say.

“Tricas is flown to Sacramento and provided a rental car when she moved to Roseville,” Newton’s declaration says. “This was prior to her being hired by the City of Roseville or Brown and Caldwell.

“Glotzbach moved Tricas from DC to Roseville without authorization. Authorization would not have been granted because she was a non-employee of the city.”

Tricas was hired by the city in August 2019, and a year later Roseville’s finance department received an invoice from Lincoln Law School for her tuition, court files say.

‘Highly unusual’ payments to law school

Court documents say Glotzbach eventually arranged to use public funds to pay $14,454 for Tricas’ tuition at Lincoln Law School after he agreed to fund those costs “as a part of Tricas’ hiring process.”

Such an arrangement would be “highly unusual,” city Human Resources Director Stacey Peterson said, according to court records.

Glotzbach then suggested he would use his training funds for the cost, and eventually “created a purchase order for his department payable to Lincoln Law School,” court records say. Glotzbach also called Lincoln Law’s chief financial officer and asked her to “create a special invoice for Marisa Tricas’ law school tuition which would include her student number but would omit her name,” court records say.

“Glotzbach also asked that the invoices be mailed directly to him as opposed to the finance department,” court records say.

The situation came to a head in March 2021 when city employee Nancy Roethlisberger “discovered the invoices for Lincoln Law School and thought they looked odd,” court records say. She reported the issue and Environmental Utilities Director Richard Plecker confronted Glotzbach, court records say.

“Glotzbach assured Plecker that there was nothing inappropriate going on between Glotzbach and Tricas outside of work,” court records say. “Glotzbach stated that he had given Tricas his word about helping her obtain higher education and wanted to keep his word.”

By the end of March, police were investigating, and on April 19 detectives served a search warrant at a wastewater treatment building where Glotzbach has an office, court records say.

“Glotzbach immediately became nervous and started shaking,” court records say.

Glotzbach was 23-year employee

During that session, detectives seized his cellphone and later discovered a series of text messages between Glotzbach and Tricas, court records say.

“From examining the text message string in the phone there appears to be a theme that both Tricas and Glotzbach are concerned about HR starting an administrative investigation,” court records say. “Both Tricas and Glotzbach also appear to be figuring out who is behind the HR investigation and are looking for legal advice in the matter was well.”

In one text, Tricas tells Glotzbach “he cannot trust anyone,” court records say. In another, she advises him that “you have to play a full on victim,” court records say.

The two also discuss “a public relations nightmare for the City of Roseville and the City Manager,” court records say, and Tricas suggests a defense to which she may resort.

“I may pull the discrimination card and the women (sic) card too,” she wrote, according to court records. “I’m not super sure yet.”

Glotzbach is charged with public officer crime alleging he appropriated public funds from cogeneration and nitrate reduction programs, as well as funds from the wastewater project “to pay for moving expenses for M.T.” and “to pay for Law School Tuition for M.T.,” court documents say.

The alleged misappropriation from the cogeneration and nitrate reduction funds occurred between Dec. 10, 2018, and Aug. 16, 2019, court files say and apply to the first three felony counts.

The alleged use of moving expenses for Tricas, who is referred to in the charging document only as “M.T.,” occurred between Aug. 1, 2018, and Feb. 1, 2019, court records say. The alleged use of public funds to pay law school tuition occurred between May 1, 2020, and March 30, 2021, court records say.

Court records say Glotzbach worked for the city for 23 years, and online records show his salary in 2020 was $184,929.75.

Past media coverage of Roseville’s water facilities indicates Glotzbach was involved in award-winning projects, including a $19 million effort to reduce nitrate discharges at the Dry Creek plant.

“Projects like these require tremendous tenacity, teamwork and constant collaboration of the project team,” Glotzbach was quoted as saying in an October 2020 trade publication story that identified him as the city’s assistant wastewater utility director. “We are proud of the hard work it took to make this project come to fruition. It truly is testimony of the team’s mission of creating conditions that help towards environmental stewardship and the protection of public health.”

That same month, Gold Country Media reported that Roseville was investing $47 million to expand its Pleasant Grove Wastewater Treatment Plant, with Glotzbach telling a reporter part of the money would come from homebuilders connecting new homes to the city’s sewage system.

This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 5:00 AM.