We anticipated a “robust discussion,” on August 8 at the Concord City Council meeting regarding the CNWS Civil Grand Jury Report. We believe the Grand Jury’s recommendations and findings were relevant.
Elected officials authorized or spent $37.4 million! The report cited the following sources: Federal monies, (grants), State Redevelopment monies and our city’s General Fund (GF) loans. Our General Fund borrowed monies included $9.91 million from GF Reserves, $3.15 million from Workers’ Compensation Fund and $1 million dollars from our Pavilion Fund.
The Council has a fiduciary obligation not to burden the GF to pay for CNWS expenses. This tenet was repeatedly violated over and over as the public initially was told that the GF monies would not be used to pay for CNWS expenses. The tenet was violated by our electeds by loaning the $14.5 million GF monies to pay for CNWS expenses without a means of repayment to date.
Was Measure V money used? That is supposed to pay for “essential services.” Plus, why should the new developer, #3, be obligated to pay for gross mismanagement caused by previous “fiascos” caused by the LRA?
To rectify the gross mismanagement of multiple sources of funds the Grand Jury should ask the Department of Justice to conduct an independent audit of all monies that have been spent to date. We need an in-depth independent investigation, NOW!
Signed, Colleen Coll, Suzan Requa, Graciela Guerrero Reynoso
Read Grand Jury report here. https://cc-courts.org/civil/docs/grandjury/2022-2023/2305/2305wSignature.pdf
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