IF HERCULES residents want to clean up their city government, they need to start by recalling City Council members Ed Balico, Donald Kuehne and Joanne Ward.
We don't say this lightly or flippantly. Recall is a very serious matter that should be reserved for only the most extreme cases. But it's become clear that these council members have provided ample reason for voters to question their competence. While the city is teetering on the financial edge, they are actively stopping efforts to get to the bottom of the putrid mess. Indeed, they just brought back the city manager responsible for the insider dealing.
For more than a year now, we've been warning of the nepotism and conflicts of interest surrounding City Manager Nelson Oliva. He has recommended, and the council has approved, $3 million over the past three years in no-bid service contracts for the firm he once owned, the firm for which two of his daughters until recently served as CEO and chief financial officer.
It was at that firm's recommendation, and after review by Oliva and his staff, that the city redevelopment agency put up $1.65 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year to bail out owners of five homes who were underwater on their mortgages. Two were city employees. A third was the project manager for the company, the very firm that recommended the loans.
Then the company in June 2009 recommended that Oliva's administrative assistant,
Again this is Contra Costa Times doing good work.
I guess the City Council started stealing big time and just hired a city manager who would agree to be the henchman. Further reading, we discover that the city was unable to pay $5 million due to county education because the money should have come from redevelopment funds, but they were stolen!
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