City Continues to Have Unclaimed Funds, Residents Have 17 Days to Claim

. Now there's just $280 left, and in less than three weeks, the city can keep the money.

Though the remaining money is significantly less than last year's tally, when the city kept an estimated $6,400, Poway officials continue to look for those to whom money is owed.

For the first time in Poway's history, the city has posted a list of unclaimed funds online when at one point it was solely printed in the local newspaper, the Poway News Chieftain.

According to the city, current and former Powegians on the list must claim their money by July 17 or the money will be steered back to Poway. Under California law, any unclaimed city-issued checks worth $15 or more that are more than three years old may be returned to the city 45 to 60 days from the date of first notification, which, for this year, was June 2. In Poway, the city manager must also prepare a report that is sent to the City Council for approval before the money is returned to the general fund. That report was sent to Council on June 21, 2011.

“Every April, the Finance Division reviews the outstanding check register for uncashed city-issued checks over three years old,” John French told Patch in April. “A list is prepared and circulated among staff to attempt to identify payees.”

The city then attempts to contact those people by phone, mail or email and if a payee is found, the city will reissue the check. The city had $15,938.21 unclaimed in April and was able to contact people who had not cashed the checks and issue them new ones. The people on the remaining list are those that the city had not been able to contact because they either moved and left no forwarding address or there's no current contact information available.

“We don’t know why [the checks] were not cashed,” said John French, Poway’s director of administrative services. “The most likely reasons were that the checks were lost and forgotten.”

On this year’s list are Sandra Gonzalez, Bill Haggerty, Jesse Brown and David Pennock. Except for Pennock, each person is owed roughly $25. The highest amount owed is $170.14. Also on the list is Wild Oats, the parent company of before it merged with . It is owed $35 from the city.

A PDF list of unclaimed funds is attached to this story.