The county’s civil grand jury
released its annual report and claimed, among other allegations on various
government entities, that a local agency’s lease and future financial sustainability
are in question.
The San Benito County Grand
Jury report culminated the past year’s work of 19 volunteers who investigated
taxpayer-funded agencies, either upon request or on their own volition. Those
government entities are required to respond in some manner to the report’s
allegations within 90 days.
While much of this year’s
report underscored the grand jury’s own financial problems and the county’s
hesitation to increase funding during the current budget cycle—hashed out in
public at several prior county board meetings—one of the more serious
allegations has to do with the Community Services Development Corp. and its
lease with the county.
The CSDC is a nonprofit
organization that pursues affordable housing opportunities for low-income
residents, according to its website. The county created the CSDC in 1984 as a
partnership with health and human services and constructed a one-stop access
center on San Felipe Road in 1992 with assistance from low-interest federal
financing, according to background information in the report.
CSDC has a 30-year lease term
with the county along with a clause extending that lease another 99 years
starting in 2023 at a rate of $1 annually, according to the grand jury report.
That report is alleging that
the county’s consultants have misclassified the lease—broadly considered a
commercial lease—as “operational” instead of “capital” under that commercial
category. The report implies that the seemingly subtle difference means a lot,
because it allows the CSDC to receive federal reimbursements that essentially
create a rent-free situation.
The report makes the
allegations and associated recommendations—as is the case with all of the
investigations in the document—which include changing its accounting methods
and removing the lease option calling for an additional 99 years at a rate of
$1 annually.
June
23, 2015
Hollister
Free Lance
Posted
by Kollin Kosmicki
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