Page 2: Council sucks hard
That giant sucking sound you hear? That’s Mammoth’s Town Council putting one more tiny straw into the public trough.
On Wednesday, Council voted to give itself the option of a better retirement package (see news story page five) … even though the Town’s current pension obligations are woefully underfunded.
The reasoning provided by Councilmember Michael Raimondo on Thursday was that an improved benefits package (along with the pay hike approved in May by the previous Council), would attract a higher caliber of Council candidate in the future.
I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t current Councilmembers start worrying about their own job performance RIGHT NOW.
For starters, maybe they could familiarize themselves with how to do their jobs, as the latest Mono County Grand Jury report concluded that four out of five members of the last Council didn’t know a damn thing about the provisions of the Brown Act.
That report concerned the Town’s negotiations over a potential MRF (materials recycling facility) to be located next to Mammoth Disposal in the industrial park.
While Council is permitted to discuss property negotiations in closed session, it’s not permitted to keep those negotiations private if the negotiations move beyond price and terms and start talking about operational plans.
Rick Wood addressed Council during public comment on Wednesday, purportedly to indicate that he was the one out of five who does understand the Brown Act. He said he had recused himself from all MRF-related discussions and he resented the insinuation that Council was represented as a monolithic body.
He also resented the three hours of interrogation by a Grand Jury subcommittee “that hadn’t investigated the facts.”
He noted that some Grand Jury members were long-time foes of not only the past Council, but previous Councils.
The Grand Jury concluded its report by saying, more or less, “Don’t do stuff like this again.”
Rest assured, given the way the Town continues to outsource all responsibility, Council may not have much left to do going forward.
They’ve already outsourced Tourism and Recreation, and they appear to have outsourced public safety to God, since we don’t have too many officers left.
By God, I mean an actual deity, not John Urdi.
Speaking of Urdi and Mammoth Lakes Tourism, the Grand Jury decreed, “To the limited extent of our review, the Grand Jury is satisfied that MLT is operating with a reasonable degree of transparency and has adequate financial controls in place.”
Really?
From my perspective, MLT operates with all the transparency of a fraternity house bong.
The big issue with MLT is in regard to how it actually spends its money. The financials obtained by The Sheet for 2013-2014 show that out of the $5 million budget, approx. $2.3 million goes to air subsidy. That leaves $2.7 million to spend.
Of that, about $750,000 goes to employee expense, and another $700,000 goes to Mering Carson, an outside advertising agency, which has been responsible for the ad campaign, the web analytics, web advertising placement, content, graphic design, et. al.
What’s difficult to analyze is how much of the Mering Carson money goes to direct ad buys, and how much goes to production and analysis.
Within the remainder of MLT’s budget, The Sheet asked its own expert analyst to give an estimate as to how much money was actually spent on direct ad buys.
The result:
Guide Book $50,000
Newspaper $40,000
Magazine $80,000
Radio $50,000
Television $25,000
Trade Shows $95,000
Lyman PR $50,000
Agency $50,000 (for what appears to be a commercial shoot)
Promotions $60,000
Social Media $8,000
Other $9,000
Total $517,000.
Note: These financial statements were vague and haphazard and difficult to analyze due to the way things were cost-coded and entries were made. Further, there was more than $100,000 simply categorized as “reimbursements” for employees – Lord knows what for.
In MLTs own ROI (return on investment) study, it claimed that it spent in excess of $900,000 in direct ad buys.
It would be nice to see some sort of breakdown on how MLT defines a direct ad buy, and what percentage of money going to Mering Carson constitutes a direct ad buy.
The point is, we spent $5 million in 2013-2014 (which didn’t even include a full year’s TBID), and we’ll be generating more TBID and spending more on marketing in 2014-2015.
At Wednesday night’s Council meeting, a group of parents and children got up and said they’d heard the Town had some extra money lying around, and wanted Council to consider finishing the ice rink project which has been in-process for 15 years now.
“That truly is a rumor, that there’s money,” replied Jo Bacon.
Well, there may just be money, but Council at this point has outsourced its ability to get its hands on it, or make any decisions about it, because the folks who really have control of the till are John Urdi, an MLR Director to be named, and the Boards they answer to.
Council will claim that it has final oversight. Whatever. Who’s really going to expend the energy to do real oversight? How many MLT Board members or Councilmembers have ever reviewed the MLT financials?
Say you wanted to put a roof on an ice rink. Urdi will say that his job is to bring people to town. Not coming out of his budget. MLR will say that the rink constitutes a prior commitment that should be paid for by General Fund dollars. Not coming out of that budget. Council will just simply say we don’t have the money. Nothing will ever happen.
In 2012, we made a conscious (I would say unconscious) decision to spend every dollar on marketing and nothing on infrastructure and/or amenities. And now we don’t even really know how the marketing dollars are being spent. We just assume big budget = big return. Just like the Yankees and the Red Sox, who’ve gone last place-World Champs-last place the past three seasons. Boom and bust. Just like Mammoth.
By the way, saw the final dress rehearsal for “All The Great Books (Abridged)” at Edison Theatre on Wednesay. The show opened Thursday, and is directed by Drina Durazo of The Group Repertory out of Hollywood (Shira Dubrovner’s old stomping grounds).
Madcap and funny, the show features two actors, Mark Atha and Brian Stanton, who have appeared in so many other Edison productions they should be considered locals.
Favorite line: “I’m not illiterate. My parents were married.”
Favorite bit: The synopsis of Little Women from the perspective of a football coach.
For ticket into, see the ad on the opposite page.
Answer to page one quiz: Don Quixote.
