Judge Rules City Does Not Need To Provide Accurate or Meaningful Information in Annual Parcel Tax Audits

Today Judge Roesch heard arguments on the issue of whether the “audits” prepared by the City and outside auditors comply with the requirements of the Government Code and Measure Y. The ruling was disappointing.

As you may recall, one of the arguments I made in my original lawsuit was that the City never conducted the annual audits required under the law. The law requires that the City conduct annual audits that include how much was collected and expended under Measure Y, as well as the “status” of any project funded by the special tax. The judge ruled in my favor on this issue. After nearly a year, the City decided not to pursue its appeal on this issue, and submitted “audits,” which, in my opinion, were just garbage. The audits for the first three years made no mention of the lawsuit or the judge’s ruling that millions of dollars were spent inappropriately. Moreover, very little meaningful information was provided regarding the actual “status” of the projects to be funded. For example, Measure Y requires an “expansion” of paramedic services, and that a mentor program be established at each fire station. The fact of the matter is that there is no evidence that paramedic services were expanded, or that mentor programs were established. In order to be meaningful, the audits should disclose that the “status” of this “project” is that it never happened.

The judge disagreed, and basically said that if taxpayers have an issue with the quality of the audit, they should take this up with the Measure Y Oversight Committee or the City Council. Well, needless to say, I had already done that, and they have shown themselves to be not even remotely interested in accountability issues.

So the lesson here, folks, is that the accountability provisions in the Government Code and parcel taxes themselves are basically unenforceable, and a sad joke for the taxpayers, and that we need to vote the City Council out of office. We expect that when we cough up the cash to fund specific projects, that those projects will get done, and that somebody is monitoring everything to make sure that it does get done. But that hasn’t been happening. The City just wants your money, and if they never do what they promised they’d do with the money, well then, too bad for you. My recommendation to you - don't vote for any more parcel taxes, and vote the current bums out of office.