Welcome to Bizarro World. Why would City of Hollister officials
choose to sit on $722,000 in federal block grant money for at least
seven years instead of spending it and regaining a long-lost
eligibility for new funds?
Welcome to Bizarro World.
Why would City of Hollister officials choose to sit on $722,000 in federal block grant money for at least seven years instead of spending it and regaining a long-lost eligibility for new funds?
The only rational explanations include the following: vast incompetence, extreme laziness or some other reason that officials have yet to explain.
City officials in 2004 realized they weren’t reaping any of the potential benefits in the CDBG allocation process – targeted toward projects benefiting lower-income residents – and asked the state what to do with about $1 million leftover from paid-off federal loans sitting in an account. The state, which disburses the federal allocation to local communities, told Hollister officials to develop a “re-use plan” and spend the money, and said the city would have to expend the funds before applying again for new grants.
Even with its own vague designations in the re-use plan – 25 percent to housing, 25 percent to nonprofit groups and 50 percent to economic development – the city has failed to find appropriate areas on which to spend all of the funds. And even more offensive to taxpayers: The portion that has been left unencumbered is largely comprised of the 50 percent designated toward economic issues.
Here we are in an economic crisis. Here we are with nearly 18 percent unemployment. Here we are continually stung by the burst of the housing bubble.
Here is a Hollister City Council plagued by multi-million deficits, stretched so thin it resorted to the Measure T tax increase, complaining about its inability to fund basic needs, and neglecting the simplest of expectations from voters such as fixing pot holes and water mains.
Here we are, led by a group of officials who once again personify contradiction, who can’t seem to grasp logic.
It goes further, too. The state and federal guidelines – which the city portrays as cumbersome, as highly limiting – allow for eligible uses that include activities already generally funded by the city. To some extent, the city is essentially throwing away money by not pursuing federal grant dollars.
There is plenty of blame to go around: to planning official Bill Avera, for overseeing this mess; to City Manager Clint Quilter, for neglecting his own leadership responsibilities and allowing it to occur; to Finance Director Robert Galvan for not speaking up; and to the council, for ultimately sitting on the money and showing almost no zeal, with the exception of Councilman Doug Emerson in recent times, to spend the funds and get back in the grant game.
It’s totally inexcusable, and all the while their counterparts at the county since the mid-1990s have reaped close to $6 million in federal block grants. City officials say the county has an advantage because it can more easily identify the targeted lower-income residents. We say it sounds like yet another excuse for utter malfeasance.
This must become a priority, even if it demands the creativity, effort and documentation that Hollister officials often avoid. Without it, Hollister taxpayers will continue getting far less than their fair share.
