Colusa Mayor Tom Reische on Tuesday appointed Council members Greg Ponciano and Denise Conrado to an ad hoc committee to redraft a response to the Colusa County Grand Jury regarding allegations the city misused public funds and violated multiple state and local policies last year in hosting summer events.
At Tuesday’s regular City Council meeting, the majority of the council, along with several citizens of the community, said the city, in a draft letter that was prepared by staff for Reische’s signature, did not adequately accept responsibility for violations or it somewhat skirted around the truth.
Ponciano pointed out a number of prevarications in the city’s response to the Grand Jury, but was more disappointed in City Manager Jesse Cain’s staff report, which Ponciano said demeaned the Grand Jury and the work they did.
Despite the finding of the Grand Jury that multiple policies and codes were violated, Cain continued to deny that he did anything wrong.
“Nobody in this room that sat through last year’s meetings and subsequent discussions can say with a straight face that we did not violate any policies,” Ponciano said. “Nowhere in these responses to the findings do we even allude to the fact that we violated our own policies, state policies, and county policies. My point is that the means do not justify the end.”
Only Reische believed the response to Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Thompson was sufficient, as written, although he agreed to allow the council and public to speak on various points in the report.
“We did not, in any way shape or form, make a claim that we did not error in some areas,” Reische said. “We admitted our mistakes and made our commitment to remedy them.”
The draft letter to the judge does acknowledge the city “learned valuable lessons” after staff took on the task of creating summer events and has since adopted new policies that have changed the course for future city-sponsored events, including being more transparent with the public and following established budgets.
Community and council members have been fiercely divided for more than a year between those who wanted the city to spend money conservatively – and follow established state laws and city policies – and those who did not object to staff having free rein to decide behind closed doors how to spend taxpayer money because they had good intentions and the city-sponsored events were fun and good for the community.
Resident Sean Amsten agreed with Ponciano that the council needed to be more honest in their response to the judge and not let good intentions outweigh the need for proper governance and oversight.
“If I remember, the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Amsten said. “But the point is, people need to know what is going on, people need to pay attention, and people need to be informed on what happened. We can’t just sweep it under the rug. We can’t just say ‘oopsie,’ we lost some of the city’s money because we forgot to write down on a napkin that there was cash taken out of this place and that. Whether there were bad intentions or not, that is not part of the discussion.”
Former Planning Commissioner J.P. Cativiela said he appreciated that several City Council members have said they support city-sponsored events and want them done properly, as most people do, but was concerned the city denied the Grand Jury’s finding that code violations exposed the city to increased liability.
“I’m sorry, that is a stretch,” Cativiela said. “Again, I think you fixed it. I think you have adopted policies, and I think you should say that in your letter.”
Conrado, who will help rewrite the response to bring back to the full council before the deadline to file it with the court, said the city has moved forward this year with the same three events but with established budgets, and that purchasing policies and licensing requirements will be met.
The City Council, under new policies, is now the sole authority for approving, in a properly noticed public meeting, all budgets for city-sponsored events.
“One of the biggest issues for me in this whole process is transparency or lack of,” said Don Bransford. “Going through last year, there was very little transparency. The public was here to get the information, but we either couldn’t get the information or the information that was presented was wrong… I don’t think this report recognizes the mistakes that were made, and I think the City Council needs to own up to the fact that the city made serious mistakes, along with loosing $67,000 or more… You have to have the transparency.”
While the city responded in their letter to the judge that there is insufficient money to implement some of the Grand Jury’s recommendations on staff, Colusa Treasurer Devin Kelly, in a written comment, admonished the city’s response to the recommendation that the City Council conduct a “forensic” audit by simply responding the city has routine audits by an outside firm.
“An annual city audit is not a forensic audit,” said Kelly, referring to the Grand Jury’s recommendation for a complete examination and evaluation of the city’s financial records to prove or disprove criminal behavior – such as fraud or embezzlement.
Ponciano and Conrado said they will rewrite the responses and bring the letter to the judge back to the City Council on Aug. 16 no later than the first meeting in September. ■