City Manager Bill Avera took responsibility for local nonprofit groups spending nearly $33,000 in city money on upgrades to a Veterans Memorial Building floor before getting a necessary approval from Hollister council members.
Council members approved the expense after the fact, nonetheless, at last week’s regular meeting. The city owns the Veterans Memorial Building, but local veterans groups manage it and funnel any profits from weddings and other events to their causes.
The agreement between Hollister and those local nonprofits involves the city subsidizing maintenance costs of $80,000 annually along with any individual repairs of more than $5,000.
The costs to refinish the Veterans Memorial Building hardwood floors came to $32,900, according to a Hollister council agenda report.
Council members are supposed to approve repairs over that amount before they occur, but it didn’t happen with the Veterans Memorial Building floors.
“This has been done,” Avera told council members, regarding the floor work.
None of the council members spoke out on related process issues.
“I will take 100 percent responsibility on this,” Avera told the council. “We did go ahead and refinish the floors at the veterans memorial hall.”
Joe Love, an active member of the American Legion who’s been heavily involved in the Veterans Memorial Building, recalled how the main hall floor’s finish had been completely worn and damaging to the wood. Love said the building’s operators, local veterans groups, had the building closed for about two months during the holidays for the project.
