The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Loyal Donors: As an embezzlement investigation continues at Goodwill Industries Santa Clara County, officials say donations are up at centers like the one in Willow Glen, where Ray Juarez works.

Goodwill soldiers on in wake of its store managers' arrests

Donations are up and public is supportive, Goodwill officials say

By Michelle Ku

Three years ago, Sandra Ortiz had a midlife crisis. At the age of 50 and after 14 years of working for National Semiconductor, Ortiz decided it was time for a change.

Plagued by carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow for more than a year, she decided to begin a new clerical career. For vocational training, Ortiz enrolled at Goodwill Industries of Santa Clara County's Institute for Career Development, a state-certified vocational training school.

Ortiz says she chose the school over four others because the classes were run in a professional office environment. "I noticed [the Goodwill school] had desks, typewriters and calculators--a working office environment," she said. Today, Ortiz works for Goodwill as a production scheduler.

Each year, the institute graduates about 300 students, who typically join the workforce within less than a month of graduation, Goodwill representatives say.

"What I like seeing is people who graduate on a Friday and begin working on Monday," said Cathey Eskandari, vice president of Goodwill Santa Clara County and director of vocational services.

Recently, Goodwill's most visible service, its retail stores, came under criminal investigation by the county district attorney's office, resulting in the Nov. 14, 1997, arrest of the former manager of the Willow Glen store and six other people on charges of felony grand theft and conspiracy.

But Goodwill officials say the investigation hasn't hurt Goodwill financially. Donations are up, the public has been supportive and services including the Institute for Career Development continue without disruption.

Former Glen store manager Linda Faye Marcil was the alleged ringleader of an embezzlement scheme that reportedly skimmed millions of dollars from Goodwill. Six of the seven arrested have pleaded no contest or guilty, said Stephen Lowney, deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County. Sentencing has been set for June 1.

The others arrested were Bonnie Marcil, former manager of the Almaden store; Dale Rice, former Cupertino store manager; Ellen Salas, former Palo Alto store manager; Cliff Miller, who reportedly received donated goods from Linda Faye Marcil (who goes by Faye) and sold them; Michael Mitchell, who allegedly opened a false business to launder money taken from Goodwill; and Jeffrey Marcil. All seven are related either by blood or by marriage.

Faye Marcil has pleaded no contest to theft and conspiracy charges. Bonnie Marcil, Miller, Mitchell, Rice and Salas have pleaded guilty. Jeffrey Marcil has pleaded not guilty, and his case is still pending.

Barbara Miller, former assistant manager of the Willow Glen store, was fired by Goodwill on April 1, but has not been criminally charged.

"We still have an ongoing internal investigation for things against company policy," said Hugh Barnett, president and CEO of Goodwill Santa Clara County.

Court documents verify that the embezzlement occurred at least since 1989, but Goodwill has detailed records for only the last four years of theft. "Arthur Anderson has conduced a crime audit that shows $4.5 million was stolen from 1994 to 1997," Barnett said.

As the investigation continues, life goes on at Goodwill.

"Except for the first day [when arrests were made], when the Campbell store was closed, we've been able to keep all the stores open," Barnett said. "Six of our 10 stores have new managers. Four managers were hired and two were promoted from within."

"Store sales have been very successful since money is no longer going out through the back door," he said. "We're seeing a huge increase in our average weekly sales."

Since the arrests, Goodwill stores have seen an increase of $50,000 to $60,000 in weekly sales, Barnett said. During the week of Jan. 23, 1997, the retail stores grossed about $166,000. During the same period of time in 1998, the stores grossed about $230,000, an increase of around 30 percent.

Goodwill officials are looking into adding one or two other skills-training programs to the institute and the possibility of creating a child-care center for the community.

The public has continued to support Goodwill, said Goodwill spokesman Steven Spivak. "People have been making their donations as perhaps never before. We have a couple of instances in January where we had to close down our collections stations so the trailers could be moved and replaced with empty ones. That perhaps has never happened before," he said.

A new Goodwill retail store is set to open on Story Road next month. The store will serve an area, east San Jose, that Goodwill has not served before, Spivak said.

[ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ]