Classic Example of Poor City Management

ABSTRACT: Selected, relevant excerpts from the City’s ADOPTED BUDGET FISCAL YEARS 2007/08 THROUGH 2009/10 regarding the Forest Theatre are reproduced. COMMENTS are made with respect to the ADOPTED BUDGET, the Forest Theatre, Scout House and statements made by public speakers and City Council Member Ken Talmage at the City Council Budget Meeting on April 17, 2008.

Selected excerpts from the City’s ADOPTED BUDGET, as follows:

CITY OF CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA
CALIFORNIA
ADOPTED BUDGET
FISCAL YEARS
2007/08 THROUGH 2009/10

CITY OF CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA WORK PLAN
Department: Community Services
Project: Forest Theater Renovation Plans
Start Date: 4/26/04
Due Date: ongoing
Cost: $ 400,000
Status: Forest Theater Foundation is working with an architect on a pre-design plan. Presentation to Council expected by June 2007. Foundation is fundraising to cover renovation plan costs.

City of Carmel-by-the-Sea
Capital Improvement and Capital Outlay Budgets
FY 2007-08 Thru 2011-12

Revised FY 2008-09
Capital Improvement
Forest Theater ADA Upgrades (design) $50,000

Note:
At the City Council Budget Meeting on April 17, 2008, a public speaker stated the expenditure for the Forest Theatre “design” was now $65,000.

COMMENTS:
• In the City’s ADOPTED BUDGET FISCAL YEARS 2007/08 THROUGH 2009/10, a Capital Improvement for the Forest Theatre in the triennial budget is for “ADA upgrades (design)” of $50,000 in FY 2008/09. For FY 2009/10, there is no expenditure for implementation of the ADA upgrades (design). A City policy of budgeting for “design” without subsequently budgeting for implementation is imprudent and improvident. Similarly, in that ADOPTED BUDGET, there is an “ongoing” item for the “Scout House ADA” from 1999 for a “Feasibility study” without any subsequent monies budgeted for implementation. A pattern of budgeting for designs or studies without budgeting for implementation makes for an incoherent budget document and poor use of taxpayer monies.

• At the City Council Budget Meeting on April 17, 2008, Carmel residents Monte Miller, Carolyn Hardy and Linda Anderson urged the City Council to hold a public meeting or workshop on the Forest Theatre design. Needless to say, no member of the City Council, or the City Administrator, responded positively or negatively to the repeated requests.

• City Council Member Ken Talmage articulated at the City Council Budget Meeting on April 17, 2008 that the "next major capital project for the City is the Forest Theatre," implying that the City could only budget for one "major" capital improvement project at a time and that capital improvement project must be the Forest Theatre. A more prudent and provident approach would be to budget for both the Forest Theatre and Scout House in phases given the fact that the ADA improvements and upgrades for the Scout House are a few hundred thousand dollars, compared with the improvements to the Forest Theatre which represent a multi-million dollar project. Moreover, for the City Council to agree to remove the Scout House from the proposed Budget at that Budget Meeting is a dereliction of their responsibility to citizens to have all public assets maintained, open and available to the public, especially since the Scout House has a long history of being Carmel-by-the-Sea’s “Community Center.”