On Public Display: A Disturbing Pattern of Management & Governance

At the Carmel-by-the-Sea 6 June 2006 City Council meeting, during the Public Hearing for the Resolution to put the Business License tax increase measure on the 7 November 2006 general election ballot, the following verbal exchange occurred between City Administrator Rich Guillen, City Councilman Michael Cunningham and Mayor Sue McCloud.

Guillen: ...And you will hear me again at the next budget hearing, that if you do not adopt this, really, why should staff move forward on the Tourist Investment District, it's a waste of time.

Cunningham: Rich, I know it can be frustrating. But, it seems to me that part of the process is that we request that you dig into it, to find out enough to help us make a decision. We can't go into it knowing what the decision is. And I think the Tourist Improvement District is an idea with potentially an awful lot of merit...I would say I would like you to investigate it...I'm glad you investigated this; but I just do't think that from my value structure, that what it shows is anything compelling with respect to saying that the business community owes the city of Carmel-by-the-Sea more than they are currently paying...So I can understand your frustration, but that's the nature of the beast.

Guillen: ...I guess when I was raising my children, a little thing, a little thing and then about the 5th or 6th thing I would explode...we're tried paid parking, Business Improvement District, Stormwater Utility Tax and then...

McCloud: TOT

Guillen: the TOT and now we brought this up and you get to a point that I'm, staff is really beating their head against the wall.

McCloud: Well, if I could interrupt, it's not only that, we have spent a lot of money along the way...we've spent $20,000 on pay-and-display,...the innkeepers spent $10,000 on TOT defeat,...somewhere along the line we've got to have some courage to try some of these things because its wasting staff time, which is money, and its wasting the money...I can understand Rich's frustration.


COMMENTS:

1. Notice that Guillen, with the interjection of McCloud, added the Transient Occupancy Tax Citizen Initiative to the list that "we're tried." FACT: The City advocated city-wide paid parking, the Business Improvement District and the Stormwater Utility Tax; the City advocated the defeat of the Citizen Transient Occupancy Tax Increase, which would have represented a continuing stream of additional revenue of approximately $700,000/year.

2. City Councilman Cunningham is absolutely correct when he stated But, it seems to me that part of the process is that we request that you dig into it, to find out enough to help us make a decision. We can't go into it knowing what the decision is. Furthermore, Guillen linking one City Council decision on the merits of increasing the business license tax to the merits of a Tourist Improvement District is a blatant coercive attempt to blackmail the City Council Members into approving this particular measure.

3. Mayor McCloud exhibited a disturbing thought process when she stated we have spent a lot of money along the way...we have spent $20,000 on pay-and-display...the innkeepers spent $10,000 on TOT defeat,...somewhere along the line we've got to have some courage to try some of these things because its wasting staff time, which is money, and its wasting the money. Similarly, this is a coercive attempt to blackmail the City Council into approving what she has already decided is something she wants to impose on Carmelites.

Needless to say, the pattern of City Administrator Guillen and Mayor McCloud stating at the outset that the staff will only be investigating a matter and then when an investigation is complete City Administrator Guillen and Mayor McCloud inform the City Council that they must unanimously support it because the City has expended staff time and money on it is evidence of a disturbing pattern of poor city management and governance.