Have our Strawberry Festivals been generating additional income to our city’s coffers or has it been operating in the Red and a financial liability? This question has become additionally prevalent when records provided by the city verified that the city used approximately $19,000 in “Petty Cash” to operate this year’s Strawberry Festival, and that after the Festival the City Council was asked to approve this this expenditure without any explanation. Sounds like Grand Jury fodder to me.

At our previous city council meeting I inquired about 4 checks totaling over $20,000 for “Petty Cash”.  I received a response from our Finance Director explaining that $10,450.00 of it was to pay 3 bands that performed at this year’s Strawberry Festival. Banda Autentica de Jerez was paid with 70 one-hundred dollar bills, Los Grandes de Tijuana was paid with 30 one-hundred dollar bills, and Mariachi Salinas de Martin Alcantar was paid with 4 one-hundred dollar bills and one fifty dollar bill.

The response prompted these additional questions to City Manager Carlos Palacios:

·         Why couldn’t these bands accept checks?

·         Other bands played at the Strawberry Festival. Were they also paid with cash money?

·         The check, #182454, in the amount of $18,650 for the bands, Sodas, Parking and Sales was issued on July 27^th, which is 10 days prior to the festival. When was the check cashed and who had the care, custody and control of the cash for the days preceding payment?

·         Who handed out the 104 One-Hundred Dollar Bills and the one Fifty Dollar Bill to the Bands, on what date and to which individuals (names)?

·          When was it agreed with the Bands that they would be paid with cash money?

Can you imagine how maybe conversations went when 104 one-hundred dollar bills were being handed out?

The Great Recession does have one redeeming quality that is pestering some elected officials and local and state employees- it’s the increasing demand for transparency.

In case you’re not keeping up, The Los Angeles Times and The Sacramento Bee have filed a lawsuit seeking expenditure records from Legislators. It seems this all started when State Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, a Democrat, voted against the state budget and he and Assembly Speaker John Perez, also a Dem, got into an imbroglio.  Portantino accused Perez of being retaliatory when his (Portantino’s) budget was slashed by Perez. Portantino, in his own self-defense, is demanding that copies of budgets for all Assembly Members be provided to the public.

One Assemblyman’s budget and expenditures I would like to see is Luis Alejo’s. Certainly he has nothing to hide, except maybe how he outspent all new Assembly Members with his new big black SUV in a “historic” economic time when people without jobs struggle everyday trying to make ends meet.  

But, one has to wonder what would happen here in Watsonville if Assemblyman Portantino demanded transparency. He just might be referenced by the first 3 letters of his title along with “hole” when his name came up in city staff meetings.  Asking questions about how our tax dollars are being spent is like asking for a lung from a bitter chronic smoker.

Tell you why, did any of you notice that in last week’s city council meeting the Grand Jury Report was discussed during the 4:30 PM Redevelopment Agency Session and not the in the regular 6:30 PM City Council Meeting? Where were you at 4:30 PM? In a nutshell, the Grand Jury was very critical of city staff for not being transparent. How did Mayor Daniel Dodge and City Manager Carlos Palacios respond to the Grand Jury allegations? Both took exception. And, although comical but alarming, both responded to the Grand Jury with two separate documents but both used the same verbiage. So who wrote Daniel Dodge’s Media Release letter back in June when the Grand Jury released their report? Was it him or City Manager Palacios? Or did both need assistance from a mystery writer?