Insiders Profit Behind Closed Doors
NEWS FLASH, March 4, 2024
Another downtown boondoggle…..
More money from taxpayers…..
The same group, Sausalito’s Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC), that recommended the faltering and City subsidized “Sausalito Center for the Arts” below-market lease of the Bank of America building is now proposing a Property Business Improvement District (PBID) for the downtown tourist area, which will also be subsidized by City funding, i.e. your tax dollar. Some thoughts are:
· Since the role of EDAC for the most part overlaps that of the proposed PBID, a small city should only need one or the other, and possibly neither;
· Less than half of the downtown businesses, whether you measure by store frontage, building square footage or lot size square footage, want a PBI District. So the majority of downtown businesses may be charged a PBID “tax” for something they didn’t want.
The gerry-mandered draft of the proposed PBID boundaries include both City parking lots and City owned buildings with the result that the City (YOU) will be conveniently obligated to pay half of the annual PBID budget (currently projected at $130,000.)
· The City’s participation in the PBID is complicated (see hour 2, minute 4 of the Dec 19, 2023 City Council meeting). Even though the PBID is currently drafted with over 50% of the area and expense charges allocated to the City, the draft restricts the City membership on the PBID board to one (yes – only 1) member. If you factor in the City’s hesitation to enforce agreements, i.e. the Sausalito Arts Center lease, this could be another situation where the City is turning over your tax dollars to a non-profit of currently unknown leadership.
· Proponents talk up the potential benefits – but there is NOT EVEN AN IDEA OF MEASURABLE PERFORMANCE METRICS. The agreement with the PBID should require measurable performance analysis, and a voting position on the PBID Board commensurate with the City’s cash contribution..
**NEWS UPDATE, 7/4/22
TO THE VOLUNTEER GO THE SPOILS?
The clear front runner for the award of the lease for the use of the former Bank of America Building is a group founded by none other than Monica Finnegan, a sitting member of the City’s Economic Development Committee (EDAC). EDAC recommended to the City Council they purchase the Bank of America Building.
The process for awarding the lease had no Request for Qualifications nor Request for Proposals. The official Request was one for “Ideas” with no guidance on the nature of a response but the City did receive six responses. The standing committee comprised of Council members Hoffman and Sobieski only brought the Finnegan response to the attention of the full council at a meeting on January 11, 2022. At the end of the meeting, the Council instructed Staff to enter into lease negotiations with Finnegan’s group while at the same time making it clear that no final decision had been reached.
Six months later, no lease has been signed, no rent has been received on the main space, and the City has entered or intends to enter into a license agreement to use the BOA Building with Finnegan’s group for 120 days at a total rent of $1.
Is Finnegan receiving favorable treatment from the City? As one council member has said, volunteers in the BOA endeavor should be “thanked”. Such a deal!
See the Bank of America page for more information.
**NEWS UPDATE, 1/25/2022:
1. Charlie Francis:
a. Francis’ contract was cancelled as of November 26, 2021, but only after he had been paid $742,172 (Sausalito Accounts Payable) for less than a single year’s work;
b. While he was portrayed as a “financial wizard”, he would be more accurately described as a “virtual bookkeeper”; and
American Rescue Plan
c. In the above video, Francis brazenly matched the one-time $1.6 million of Federal funds under the American Rescue Plan with his then $1.35 million fee, otherwise called the “outsourced financial accounting”. Contrast Tiburon, where Mayor Thier said: “I think it is clear that the funding for the American Rescue Plan is meant to not only reimburse the town for expenses, but benefit the community with expenses they incurred during COVID, as well as to assist in important infrastructure planning and important water, sewer and broadband infrastructure” (Marin IJ, 11/21/2021)
2. Mary Wagner, City Attorney-What’s a Resident to do?
a. We submitted a confidential package to Sausalito City Attorney, Mary Wagner with compelling evidence that a former senior official misrepresented the circumstances of a $125,000 contract to the City Council. In response to our request that she advise the Council of the matter, she responded she would do so “when and if necessary”.
When we subsequently brought the matter to the attention of the Sausalito Police, we were advised by the Chief to send any further inquiries to City Attorney Wagner. What is a resident to do??? The DA does not not have an investigative unit and requires a law enforcement agency to review the case.
b. The City and Ms. Wagner missed a deadline to submit a $450,000 request for reimbursement from the Federal Government for the cost of repairing the Sausalito Boulevard landslide (Marin IJ, 1/12/2022) Ms.Wagner should have been on top of this provision.
3. Ms Wagner and Cypress Ridge
a.The Marinpost has reviewed the February 15, 2022 Sausalito City Council discussion of Cypress RIdge, one of the few open spaces in Sausalito. The entire Council exchange was confounding to say the least. According to the Marinpost: ”It should be acknowledged that there is disagreement about whether a government agency can grant a conservation easement on its own land. (The Sausalito City Attorney suggested it could not while private counsel has suggested it could under certain circumstances). “ BTW, Cypress Ridge is protected by a ballot initiative from 1976. Ballot initiatives don’t expire. So, what’s up with the CIty Attorney and why the confusion????
END OF UPDATE
**NEWS UPDATE: The contract with Mr Francis has been cancelled effective 11/26/2021!
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8/2021
In the past few months, the Sausalito city government has committed about $1.5 million of our tax dollars to insiders’ contracts without competitive bidding or open discussions.
● $1.35 million to a former city finance official working out of his Minnesota home; and
● $400,000 allegedly budgeted for legal services from the City Attorney and her new law firm.
The Million Dollar Finance Man, Charlie Francis
● In early 2021 Maze & Associates, the City’s auditors, issued a report and warned the City once again about sloppy accounting practices and poor oversight;
● In an apparent panic, the City Council resorted to former City financial executive, Charlie Francis out of Egan, Minnesota, to straighten out the books.
Charlie, who does not hold a CPA, believes you have to be a good storyteller to succeed in finance (Finance Storytelling by Charlie Francis). He saw the Federal Government’s American Rescue Plan wherein the City of Sausalito would receive $1.6 million and suggested that most of the one-time federal allotment be given to him. (Finance Committee Meeting )
He told the City Council the fable that he alone was the superman who could fix their problem. They bought it. They didn’t ask how his fee was derived and didn’t even bid out the work!
Charlie’s schemes during his tenure from 2009 to 2015 have cost residents big money:
1. In 2012 Francis was behind the 45% portion of your property taxes (with no upper limit) which pay Southern Marin Fire. Did he think property values were going to go down? The fire payment has grown from $2.8 million in 2014 to $4.9 million in 2020, an average increase of 9.5%...and it will continue to go up. He now consults for Southern Marin Fire.
2. Francis was the man who orchestrated the “Certificates of Participation” (COPs) to fund the Sausalito Park upgrades. According to the LA times, these COPs are nothing more than an expensive way around Proposition 13. Martin Luther King Park tenant revenues essentially pay off these COP loans thus diverting the MLK monies from other civic necessities –like roads or landslide control.
3. Francis is at it again proposing the City issue pension obligation bonds, despite pension experts labeling such bonds as too risky. And who bears the risk? The City? No. It’s the taxpayers!
Charlie Francis and Transparency
The Sausalito Superman has a long affiliation with OpenGov.com and sold the OpenGov software to the City of Sausalito. Unlike Mill Valley and Tiburon who have very transparent budgets (Tiburon Administrative Services Budget, Mill Valley 2021 Legal Budget), Open Gov requires a YouTube tutorial to decipher where our monies go. (FInance Committee Meeting)
The Certificates of Participation (COPS) are a literal maze of financial wizardry. See the diagram below which was included in the Staff Report to see if you can figure out the road to Oz.
FINALLY, Charlie is now under contract with the Southern Marin Fire District our negotiating opponents during the fire merger.
Stay tuned: The Storytelling Continues…….
Sausalito Legal Costs-To What and to Whom?
The long-time city attorney for the City of Sausalito, Mary Wagner, abruptly took the City’s book of business and translated it into a partnership with the law firm Burke Williams & Sorensen (“Burke”).
● Burke then offered Wagner’s service through Burke to the City as city attorney. This Burke/Wagner contract appeared on a recent City Council consent agenda. When citizens requested this item be discussed openly, the Council ignored the requests. No voices concerned over the insider appearance of the deal were heard. CIty Attorney Contract
● Mayor Jill Hoffman assured people that Wagner’s $225 hourly rate would remain the same and this is true for now. In 2022, her rate will jump to $265 per hour. However, there is this clause, among other rate adjustment provisions, in the agreement:
“Burke will charge its current standard private client rates (as opposed to the standard public entity client rates provided in this Agreement or charged other public agencies) for work that is reimbursed by private parties pursuant to litigation, conditions of approval, pass through agreements, reimbursement agreements, projects that are billed to permit applicants through the City’s cost recovery system, or other authorization. Current standard private client rates are $475 for partners and $425 for associates.”
In other words, if you are dealing with Wagner, make sure you know whether the City or you are paying for her time.
It’s clear Burke plans to make money off Wagner’s insider relationship with the City government.
What’s the Scoop on the firm and on the attorney?
● The Firm: Burke Williams & Sorensen (“Burke”) is a public law firm of over one hundred attorneys and ten offices throughout California.
○ The firm apparently has a strategy of either attracting in-place city attorneys, such as Wagner, or placing their own attorneys in city attorney positions when possible, such as Menlo Park and Foster City (Burke in Menlo Park; Burke in Foster City).
At Burke, Wagner will serve both as city attorney of Sausalito and as Assistant City Attorney for Benicia, a city of over 28,000 residents. At Benicia, the rate for Burke attorneys is $250 per hour. Benicia City Attorney Contract
● The Attorney: Mary Wagner has been a controversial figure in Sausalito city government nearly from the beginning of her individual contract with the City back in 2002. Let’s just focus on recent events:
○ The Landslide Cleanup on Sausalito Boulevard. The Marin IJ Editorial Board slammed the Sausalito City administration for the long delay in cleaning up the landslide:
"Perhaps city officials should have been better versed on FEMA’s bidding requirements, so work wasn’t delayed by having to go through the process of rejecting the initial bids and go through the time and trouble to repeat the process." Marin IJ Editorial
As noted , the delay jeopardized the 94% FEMA funding of the $850,000 project. The problem was the omission of a required clause in the contract. And the responsible “city official”? Mary Wagner.
○ The Dunphy Park Contaminated Soil Issue. The removal of the contaminated soil from Dunphy Park was delayed due to a faulty legal provision in the removal contract. Rebids were considerably higher than the original contract number and the polluted soil sat there for months. And the responsible “city official” for the faulty legal provision? Mary Wagner. Dunphy Park Toxic Waste Removal
Conclusion from these Insider Deals? LET THE SUN SHINE IN. Sausalito should adopt ordinances preventing insider contracts and requiring bidding on all contracts over $100,000.