Latest news with #MunicipalCode
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Palmer Lake lawsuit alleges mismanagement in finances and civic participation
(EL PASO COUNTY, Colo.) — An array of organizations and individuals are raising questions about the integrity of leadership in Palmer Lake, with some alleging suppression of civic participation, mishandling of funds, and disregard for open meeting laws ahead of the Buc-ee's annexation hearing on Thursday, May 29. A lawsuit, from two individuals who live in Palmer Lake, alleges the town has misused public funds and falsified reports to obtain $1.3 million in state and federal dollars. The complaint also states that the town administrators allegedly diverted grant funds into the municipal water utility. According to the lawsuit, there were various instances where funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, Fixing America's Surface Transportation, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and more were misused. The lawsuit further alleges that Dawn Collins, the appointed Town Administrator, 'did not understand the legal status of the Town's Water Enterprise and the distinction between it and the Town's General Fund' and had the two individuals become concerned that Collins had 'fraudulently created municipal financial statements and recordings.' 'We spent nearly three years trying to help the Town recognize and correct basic financial red flags,' said Marty Brodzik, a Palmer Lake citizen and co-relator in the fraud case. 'Instead of fixing the issues, they ignored us. Then the accounting firm quit, the auditor quit, the financial clerk quit—and the Town still did nothing. Our hope now is that the weight of this lawsuit will help level the field for the citizens attending the upcoming hearing.' The lawsuit further alleges that the city only has one bank account, even though the city's Municipal Code requires the annual budget to provide for revenues and expenditures into four separate funds for the Conservation Trust Fund, Water Enterprise Fund, the Water Enterprise Capital Improvement Fund, and the General Fund. Collins managed both the General Fund and Water Enterprise; however, the lawsuit states the General Fund's monthly checks register failed to identify missing checks, including those that were voided, voided and reissued, or issued and never entered. The lawsuit further alleges that the Water Enterprise fund revenues were misused. When asked, the Town of Palmer Lake sent the following statement: '…Now that this is a matter subject to pending litigation, the Town has no comment except to note that the assertions by the complainants appear to relate primarily to how funds received by the Town and expended for public purposes were allocated and accounted for in the Town's financial records. The Town's financial records are audited each year by independent auditors. Each year the auditors have issued the Town an audit opinion that the Town's financial statements in all material respects were in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. The auditors routinely provide recommendations for improvement with which the Town has always complied.' Dawn Collins, Town of Palmer Lake Town Administrator Read the full lawsuit here: Palmer-Lake-TRO-Petition-Posting-Final-2Download Separate from the fraud case, Integrity Matters and various Palmer Lake community members have also filed a temporary restraining order looking to remove a publicly posted petition from the Town's website that contained full names, addresses, and partially visible signatures. According to court documents, various community members and petition circulators emailed the Town to redact or remove their personal information, and the Clerk had allegedly refused most requests. On May 21, the city refused to make any more redactions or remove the petition. The temporary restrictions order would immediately direct the town to remove all publicly posted petition documents containing personally identifying information from its website. Another temporary restraining order also asked the town to relocate the May 29 annexation eligibility as the current venue has allegedly excluded dozens and fails to meet the standards of the Open Meetings Law and the Municipal Annexation Act. 'Our hope,' said Integrity Matters Chief Legal Counsel, Kat Gayle, 'is that these developments—including the new lawsuit—finally push the Mayor and the Trustees facing recall to confront the truth: this is not how responsible government behaves.' FOX21 News has reached out to the Palmer Lake Mayor and is awaiting comment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Los Angeles Times
01-05-2025
- Climate
- Los Angeles Times
Climate change is cooking Los Angeles. Does Karen Bass care?
Los Angeles is still reeling from its most devastating wildfires ever. In the next few months, temperatures could hit triple digits. Yet Mayor Karen Bass wants to eliminate the city's climate emergency office. Yes, L.A. faces a $1-billion budget shortfall. But shutting the Climate Emergency Mobilization Office and firing five people who work to safeguard Angelenos from global warming, as Bass proposed last week, is an absurdly short-sighted plan from a mayor who has never made climate change much of a priority — especially when the savings, roughly $700,000, could potentially force the city to forfeit a $750,000 state grant. City Council members should refuse to go along with this terrible proposal. The budget cuts would undermine efforts to keep L.A. residents safe during heat waves, which at a national level kill more people than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined. Extreme heat has caused or contributed to the deaths of more than 21,500 Americans in the last quarter-century, researchers estimate, with the numbers rising in recent years as the planet heats up. Last year was the hottest on record globally. L.A.'s climate office is led by Marta Segura, the city's chief heat officer. Los Angeles is one of just three localities in the U.S. with such a job, along with Phoenix and Miami-Dade County — until now a point of pride for City Hall. Although it's unclear whether the budget cuts would eliminate the chief heat officer position — the mayor's office won't say — Bass is seeking approval to delete the language in the Municipal Code establishing the role. Either way, one of the climate office's main jobs is coordinating with other city departments during heat waves to keep people safe, especially low-income families and other vulnerable individuals, including the elderly and those without homes. If the climate office is shut down, people who don't have air conditioning or can't afford to blast it may have more trouble finding cooling centers. Some neighborhood may not have enough of those centers. In the long run, Los Angeles could lose momentum on planting trees, adding shade structures at bus stops and taking other steps to bring down urban temperatures — especially if it loses a $750,000 state grant to develop a heat action plan, which the climate emergency office is currently working to finalize. 'Should this Office be deleted, the grant would need to be forfeited,' Vahid Khorsand, president of L.A.'s Board of Public Works, warned last week in a letter to City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, as first reported by LAist. Bass' office insists that climate change is top of mind. The mayor's press secretary, Clara Karger, said in an email that despite a tough budget cycle, Bass is 'committed to her bold climate goals.' She pointed me to an Earth Day news release describing efforts to reduce pollution at the Port of L.A., expand food scrap recycling and add electric car chargers across the city, among other initiatives. She noted that Bass created a 'Climate Cabinet' of city officials, which includes an extreme heat working group. 'Climate priorities will continue as a core responsibility of every department,' Karger said. She also said that L.A. will keep developing its heat action plan, and that Khorsand's letter warning the city could lose the $750,000 state grant was misleading. She sent me a new statement from Khorsand that contradicted his previous missive: 'We do not have any indication from the State that the City would need to forfeit grant funding. Other staff in the City will be available to administer and execute the grant if it's awarded to the city.' Those are all very nice words. I hope the ones about the grant are true. But they do little to hide the plain truth. As more than a dozen advocacy groups — including Los Angeles Waterkeeper, the Center for Biological Diversity and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice — wrote in a letter to the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee, the mayor's proposal signifies 'an abdication of the leadership on climate, environmental health and justice that the City has demonstrated over the past decade.' 'Not long ago, Los Angeles was considered one of the world leaders in climate policy and action,' they wrote. No thanks to Bass. When I interviewed her ahead of the 2022 mayoral primary, I was underwhelmed. To her credit, she had released a detailed climate plan, which was a lot more than I could say for her leading opponent, billionaire developer Rick Caruso (who released no climate plan until well after the primary and declined my requests for an interview). But Bass clearly wasn't as well-versed in climate issues as several other candidates. Tellingly, she downplayed the dangers of heat, saying that older folks dying in their homes has 'historically been a problem in Chicago' but not Los Angeles. This despite a Times investigation from several months earlier finding that heat killed an estimated 3,900 Californians over the previous decade, with people over 65 especially at risk. Since then, there have been continued signs that climate is not one of the mayor's top priorities. She declined to take a position on Measure HLA, a high-profile ballot measure approved by voters that will result in hundreds of miles of new bus and bike lanes and make it easier to get around L.A. without a car. She withdrew her support for studying plans to turn the three-mile Marina Freeway into parkland and housing. Her promise of a car-free 2028 Summer Olympics appears certain to fail amid a huge funding shortfall for buses and trains. Bass did commit to powering the city with 100% climate-friendly electricity by 2035, a goal set by her predecessor, Eric Garcetti. But that public promise didn't prevent a strange incident in which the L.A. Department of Water and Power quietly seemed to back away from the ambitious 2035 timeline. The department changed course only after climate advocates and Yaroslavsky raised concerns (and after I started asking questions). More recently, Bass responded to the Palisades and Eaton fires — which killed 30 people, and which scientists say were made worse by global warming — by suspending a crucial clean energy requirement for new homes. As part of a wide-ranging order to help people rebuild in Pacific Palisades, Bass waived a rule that new homes be all-electric. As a result, many builders will install gas furnaces and water heaters that emit planet-warming carbon pollution. Although Bass framed the decision as a way to make rebuilding faster and cheaper, I talked with several experts who said suspending the clean energy requirement would accomplish neither goal. Speaking of which, do you know which city employees are developing plans to help Angelenos switch from gas to climate-friendly electric appliances? The staffers at the climate emergency office whom Bass wants to fire. 'The city and the state have goals to transition to clean energy. If we eliminate this [office], it's going to make it so much harder for the city to actually reach those goals,' said Agustin Cabrera, policy director at the social justice nonprofit Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education, or SCOPE. 'And it's just a huge red flag for [environmental justice] communities who are constantly being told that they're not a priority.' It's not just the climate emergency office that Bass wants to cut. In their letter to the budget committee, environmental groups accused Bass of taking 'a chainsaw to other key departments,' including a proposal to cut 159 positions at L.A. Sanitation, which they said could increase the risk of sewage spills, like the one that dumped millions of gallons of raw sewage into Santa Monica Bay in 2021. The groups also noted that Bass would cut the planning department's entire environmental justice team. L.A. has a long history of forcing low-income people of color to live alongside busy freeways, oil and gas drilling and other polluting industries. Hence the planning department's environmental justice work, which the agency describes as 'ensuring meaningful community participation in the planning process to promote equity.' Apparently now that we have a budget crunch, resolving those inequities isn't so important anymore? If anything, Los Angeles should invest more than ever in climate and environmental justice as temperatures rise, wildfires get even worse and scientists learn more about the how unhealthy it is to breathe dirty air. Instead, Bass' budget cuts would tell the world that L.A. is no longer interested in being a climate leader — right as city officials advertise the Olympics. And as President Trump's desperate efforts to support planet-warming oil and gas leave Americans — the vast majority of whom want strong climate action — desperate for leadership. As several people have written to the City Council since Bass announced her budget proposal: 'I urge the Budget and Finance Committee NOT to attempt to fix one crisis while causing another.' Just a reminder: We've been putting out a new Boiling Point podcast every Thursday! Today's episode features a panel discussion I moderated at last week's Society of Environmental Journalists in Tempe, Ariz. We talked about the first 100 or so days of the Trump administration — and how to keep making progress on climate. You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. The panelists were climate scientist Emily Fischer, California state Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), Montana-based environmental activist Anne Hedges and former federal official Nada Wolff Culver, who helped lead the Bureau of Land Management under President Biden. This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our 'Boiling Point' podcast here. For more climate and environment news, follow @Sammy_Roth on X and @ on Bluesky.
San Francisco Chronicle
23-04-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Oakland may have overpaid city workers using the wrong formula. It hasn't fixed the problem
Oakland officials are scrambling to explain why the city appears to have overpaid some city staff by $1.6 million using an incorrect payroll formula, and whether the problem is more widespread amid a city budget crisis. The city auditor released a report in February concluding that between January 2018 and May 2024, Oakland paid employees in the transportation and public works departments excess pay for overtime work. The audit determined that the overpayment problem could have affected other city departments. On Tuesday, the city administrator told members of the City Council's finance and management committee that it had not yet fixed the problem and was seeking help from an outside consultant. The revelation comes as Oakland officials try to close an $89 million budget deficit in the general purpose fund, which pays for police and fire, before the next fiscal year begins on July 1. 'I'm concerned that we're spending money that we don't have,' Council Member Janani Ramachandran told the Chronicle. The February audit determined that the city was using a method for calculating overtime that is different from the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a federal law that sets standards for minimum pay. The city's audit showed that 158 transportation employees and 368 public works employees were overpaid. One public works employee, whose annual salary was $127,691, received $107.44 per hour per the city's formula instead of $80.53 per the FLSA formula – meaning that the employee received 33% more than they should have, according to the audit. On Tuesday, Jestin Johnson, Oakland's city administrator, said that FLSA sets minimum standards, but that the city typically pays above that minimum. 'We pay a higher rate, which can impact the calculation,' Johnson told the committee. Erin Roseman, the city's finance director, said the payroll issues are 'not illegal and it's not inappropriate' as long as it's authorized, which staff are in the process of determining. But auditors found there was no evidence that the overtime pay was ever authorized. 'Neither the City Charter, Municipal Code, City ordinances, nor labor contracts explain the City's method for calculating overtime pay,' the audit said. 'Furthermore, the Finance Department — whose Payroll Division processes payroll and ensures employee compensation aligns with official terms and regulations — could not explain why the City is using this method; neither could the Human Resources Management Department or the City Attorney's Office.' Michael Houston, the city auditor, said Tuesday that his office was unable to determine how the formula was first entered into the city's system and why. In addition to the city's transportation and public works departments, he said officials should also review payments to employees in other departments. 'The calculation applies citywide and it could be a much bigger number, but we can only speak to what we found,' Houston said. 'There is no reason for us to think that it's limited to that.' It's unclear how long the consultant will take to complete their analysis of the city's finance issues. The consultant is currently reviewing the auditor's work, but Johnson said he would ask them to also look at other city departments. Ramachandran told the Chronicle she's confused why an external consultant needs to review the auditor's work. She agreed that the consultant would be necessary to review other city departments that may have been affected. 'I definitely believe in the need to have good salaries for city workers who do a range of core city services,' Ramachandran said. 'But not overpayment beyond what's authorized.'
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Yahoo
James River Humane Society board member urged to resign amid report of unlivable home
Apr. 12—JAMESTOWN — Members of the James River Humane Society are calling for the vice president of the organization's board of directors to resign after a Jamestown Police Department report said her home was deemed unlivable for animals and humans. The Jamestown Police Department responded at 615 3rd Ave. NW on March 12 for a welfare check after receiving a 911 call from an individual stating the front door of the home was wide open and the dogs were out, according to the log of calls from the Stutsman County Communications Center. Jolene Biloff, former president and current vice president of the James River Humane Society Board of Directors, is listed as the 2024 owner at 615 3rd Ave. NW, according to the North Dakota property tax information portal on the Stutsman County website. The investigation report of the welfare check at that address written by Lt. Nick Hardy with the Jamestown Police Department says all the floors upstairs in the home were covered in animal feces. "There wasn't a spot that wasn't covered," the report says. The report says Biloff told Hardy that the animal feces hadn't been cleaned up in a year. "Jolene said she doesn't let the dogs outside because they bark," the report says. "Jolene said she knows the condition is bad, she just hasn't done anything about it." Scott Edinger, chief of police, said Biloff is not facing any charges. The report says three dogs and a cat were taken from the residence and another cat was at large. The report also says the sewer was backed up for about two months. A phone call and message left to Biloff seeking comment was not returned. The home was deemed a dangerous building, said Tom Blackmore, zoning administrator and building inspector. Blackmore said he provided a written notification to the property owner of the dangerous building designation. "Within that notification, the property must be vacated immediately," he said. "It has to be either repaired or demolished within a time not exceeding 30 days of the day of the letter." He said the expiration of the dangerous building designation was Friday, April 11. "I will make contact with the homeowner tomorrow (Friday) to inspect the property," he said in an email on Thursday, April 10, to The Jamestown Sun. "If the home has not been brought into compliance, I will follow the procedures set forth in the City of Jamestown Municipal Code Chapter 9 Article VI and notify the City Council of noncompliance." Blackmore said Biloff is working to clean up the property. "She has had really good communication with me," he said. In the event of noncompliance, Blackmore said he notifies the Jamestown City Council. "Then the City Council holds a hearing to hear the testimony of the building official and also the property owner," he said. "Then the City Council determines whether the home has to be either repaired or demolished." He said an extension of the 30-day notice may be granted if the property owner is working to fix the issues. James River Humane Society member Jodelle Gefroh told The Jamestown Sun that Biloff is not fit to serve on the nonprofit organization's board of directors. "There are so many concerned people," she said. The James River Humane Society is a nonprofit, no-kill shelter set up to care for homeless cats and dogs in the Jamestown area, the organization's website says. The website says it is the Humane Society's policy to provide humane care and treatment for animals needing protection in the area served by the shelter. The James River Humane Society also receives a half mill from the city of Jamestown. Voters approved a measure by more than 60% in 2010 to have the city of Jamestown adopt an ordinance for a half mill levy annually for the support and maintenance of an animal shelter and to authorize the city to enter into a contractual agreement with the James River Humane Society. During the James River Humane Society Board of Directors meeting on Monday, April 7, Gefroh called for Biloff to resign immediately from the James River Humane Society Board of Directors. She said the board should remove Biloff from the board if she doesn't resign. The James River Humane Society Board of Directors took no action on the request. Gefroh said the organization's bylaws state the purpose of the Humane Society is preventing cruelty to all animals and promotion of their welfare and for other lawful purposes. "Cruelty includes 'every act, omission or neglect whereby unnecessary, unjustifiable pain, suffering or death shall be caused or permitted,'" the organization's bylaws say. Gefroh said she intended to read the investigation report of the welfare check at the board meeting on Monday but felt "flustered" after Rachel Hastings, community service officer for the Jamestown Police Department, spoke. Hastings said individuals were at the meeting planning to hand out the investigation report of the welfare check at Biloff's home. "I find this plan to be spiteful," she said. Hastings said the condition of the house wasn't great but it wasn't her right to speak publicly about what she saw that day. "While walking through the house, I couldn't help but wonder what hardships that this person experienced because at this point, I had only known Jo because of her association with the Humane Society," she said. Jamestown City Councilwoman Pam Phillips, president of the James River Humane Society Board of Directors, said the board listened to the information from Gefroh and Hastings. "No action was taken at that time," she said. "I would hope that we deal with this matter with grace and compassion." Phillips said she will talk to board members individually to see how they feel or what they want to do next. "When it comes to the Humane Society I would hope that they would ask her to step down immediately," said Wanda Alber, a member of the James River Humane Society. "She's a liability to the board and the shelter at the moment. She might be a great voice and a great advocate for animals but at the moment, she sure wasn't for her own and her own safety."
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Yahoo
City of Madison warns against scam disguised as letter from animal services
MADISON, Ala. (WHNT) – The City of Madison is warning residents of an ongoing scam claiming to be the animal services department to solicit money through the mail. According to a post on the city's Facebook page, you will never receive a notice from the City of Madison requesting money for an 'unregistered canine violation.' 'Really, really bad': 16 cats rescued from abandoned home in Guntersville The letter says, 'Our records indicate that your canine has not been properly registered with the City of Madison in violation of Municipal Code Section 12-4, which requires all domesticed dogs to be licensed annually. Failure to comply with this ordinance is classified as a Class B Misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $250 and/or potential seizure of the unlicensed animal.' Residents are urged to call any of the city's phone numbers listed on their website in order to verify any requests for money. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
