San Juan Bautista’s annual budget is $908,500. City leaders managed to lose more than four times that amount in San Juan’s failed, once-firm bid for a $3.8 million federal grant to go toward a required $10 million water project.
What could end up being the most disastrous development in recent times for the already troubled city was tainted further when some officials illustrated why San Juan has fallen into an apparent black hole of predicaments – mostly financial – by keeping the bad news secret from other officials for more than a week and from the public for two weeks.
It’s not that officials could have saved the grant dollars by communicating better after the fact. It’s that this episode indicates a flawed process lacking the type of openness expected of public officials in dire circumstances.
The city received the letter from the Economic Development Administration on Sept. 14 blasting San Juan’s handling of the grant application while pulling the plug on the funds. Two City Council members on the water committee, George Dias and Mayor Priscilla Hill, then met Sept. 17 with City Manager Jan McClintock and county Supervisor Anthony Botelho.
Hill and Dias asked Botelho to keep the grant termination to himself while they thought up a response to the letter, Botelho said. One council member, Ed Laverone, heard about it from Botelho more than a week later, as the supervisor had figured Laverone already knew and brought it up in conversation. Council members Laverone, Rick Edge and Robert Paradice finally received a copy of the letter Sept. 26, and officials held a press conference informing the public two days later.
Now city, county and water district officials are scrambling to figure out how to pay for the project and who’s going to oversee it. After all, it still must be completed.
Considering the loss’ magnitude, the problem’s urgency and the potential effect, all council members should have been informed immediately, and the mayor should have called for a special meeting to discuss it openly in public.
They neglected to give other officials and the public the respect they deserved. And Laverone by chance finding out about the development in a private conversation with Botelho is embarrassing to the entire city. This is not how open government is intended to work.
San Juan officials have proven their decision-making abilities are a liability that, for a project of this immensity, cannot be trusted. The EDA noted that the San Benito County Water District – a co-recipient of the initial grant – could still possibly use the money on the project. San Juan officials should swallow their pride and take the most responsible, safest route. They should relinquish authority on the project to the water district.
