City Manager Jan McClintock and Councilman George Dias confirmed
Tuesday that they, along with Mayor Priscilla Hill, waited more
than a week before informing three council members and the general
public about the termination of a $3.8 million federal grant.
San Juan Bautista – City Manager Jan McClintock and Councilman George Dias confirmed Tuesday that they, along with Mayor Priscilla Hill, waited more than a week before informing three council members and the general public about the termination of a $3.8 million federal grant.
County Supervisor Anthony Botelho said he had heard about the grant in a Sept. 17 meeting with Hill, Dias and McClintock. More than a week later, Botelho mentioned the grant to Councilman Ed Laverone. Botelho was surprised to learn Laverone was still in the dark.
“That wouldn’t happen in the county (government),” Botelho said.
The city’s decision to withhold important information for more than a week was “a mistake,” he said.
“We have to have transparency,” Botelho said. “I’m disappointed that it took so long.”
Botelho said that at the Sept. 17 meeting, Hill and Dias had asked him to “keep it to myself until they figure out what to do.”
When asked about the delay, Dias said there was no intention to hide anything. The committee just needed time to figure out the best response to the EDA’s letter, he said.
“They came to us and, there’s no other way to put it, we didn’t know what to do,” Dias said. “But let me be clear – (no meetings) were held for nobody until we had our ducks in a row.”
McClintock first told the Free Lance on Friday that the federal Economic Development Administration had terminated its $3.8 million grant to fund the city’s $10 million water infrastructure project. On Tuesday, McClintock emphasized that it was Hill who determined the announcement’s timing.
“The mayor drove the release of the letter,” McClintock said. “The staff has to follow the directions of the council and whoever’s mayor at that time.”
Hill did not return phone calls before press time Tuesday.
McClintock said city staff received the letter from the federal Economic Development Administration on Sept. 14. The letter was addressed to Hill, who didn’t receive it until two days later. The mayor then told McClintock and Dias, who sits with Hill on the council’s two-person water committee.
“We don’t open the mayor’s mail, or any council member’s,” McClintock said.
She also said Hill didn’t authorize city staff to give council members Laverone, Rick Edge and Robert Paradice a copy of the letter until Sept. 26.
The council met in closed session on Monday morning to discuss the grant termination and will send an appeal to the EDA this week, McClintock said. Planning hasn’t stopped for the water project, she said, and construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2008.
Laverone confirmed he first heard about the grant’s cancellation from Botelho, not city staff or council members.
“I’m disappointed that it took so long for myself and two other council members to be advised of the EDA’s determination,” Laverone said. “Unfortunately, I’m not (going to be) at the next meeting, but I hope this would be a topic of discussion by the council as a whole.”
Not all council members share Botelho and Laverone’s concerns. Paradice said complaints about the delay distract from the real issue – the fate of the grant itself.
“The result of the letter is the same even if you find out about it a year from now,” he said.
