At election time all kinds of accomplishments and promises are touted by hopefuls to garner votes. Many of the feats are exaggerated and the guarantees empty. Unfortunately, illusive candidates understand that most voters don’t know fact from fiction and won’t audit the outcomes of campaign pitches.
One example of dishonest propaganda is Marysville Mayor Ricky Samayoa’s claim that the city is in negotiations to redevelop Hotel Marysville. Other city council members say it isn’t so. The mayor knew the supposed good news about the biggest blight in the city may get him some votes.
Real estate and developer discussions are conducted in closed session and any action authorized by the council. Proper council protocol does not allow a mayor or council member to be a political ‘lone ranger’ without official permission from the body to represent it.
Samayoa takes credit for developing a plan to clean-up Ellis Lake and acquiring funding for the upgrade. The Ellis Lake plan is a fiasco that will break the city. Councilmember Bill Simmons opposed the flawed approach proposing instead to reconnect the lake to Yuba River water as a test for 30 days at no cost. In the past, Yuba River snow water produced a clean lake.
Instead, the council will spend nearly $695,000 to convert the lake to be run like an aquarium, and $45,000 annually to maintain it. The mayor’s accomplishment so far amounts to four bubbling mechanisms in the lake surrounded by scum costing $130,000. They don’t work.
The Mayor and Councilmember Buttacavoli recently authorized more funds for further studying of the lake. No other lake in Yuba County employs such a fantastic contraption to keep it clean.
The initial $144,144 for the lake’s overhaul was not ‘found’ money but rather the result of reduced Department of Water Resources’ fines the city owed for Public Works Director Dave Lamon not filing 11 of 12 waste water quarterly reports from 2013-2015. All of this was under Samayoa’s watch.
The $144,144 was part of a fine of $288,288 owed, but Water Resources allowed half to do a city water improvement project. The city is a year behind in compliance with its settlement agreement while ignoring the Yuba River alternative noted in the contact with the state.
Another tacky move is when politicians take credit for the work of staff personnel. In this case Councilmember Buttacavoli in a social media post and Samayoa take credit for improving the city finances, refinancing bonds and finding monies to establish reserves. These two plus Brad Hudson fired the city manager who in under 3-years actually did the work to guide the city out of a financial wilderness.
Buttacavoli’s post in support of Samayoa’s re-election lists “Securing a well project developed, funded and in process saving Marysville thousands of dollars in water costs.” In reality, ‘securing’ means EKI Environment and Water writing a grant and offering it to the city. EKI included itself to manage the grant for profit.
The tragedy is that the $400,000 grant was written for one well in one park and nearly all but about $13,000 was squandered on what could have been wells in multiple parks. The well does get the citizens out of paying Cal Water’s exorbitant rates but the grant is also taxpayer monies spent wildly.
Buttacavoli and Samayoa took credit fired Marti Brown’s accomplishments while giving her no mention. Neither council member advertises the fact that they unethically approached the Community Development Director Jonathan Wright to replace Brown before Brown was fired and without ever giving the City Manager a performance review.
They also don’t note that they attempted to rehire the fired Wright after disposing of Brown. Their justification was that Wright was wrongfully fired by the city manager. The new interim city manager has conducted a hearing and determined that Marti Brown’s firing of Wright was justified.
Samayoa, Buttacavoli and Hudson’s dismissing Brown a few months before her contact ended cost taxpayers an extra $78,000 and they then hired an interim part-time manager for Brown’s full-time salary. They were wrong on Brown and Wright which makes the three look like impatient wasteful buffoons.
Buttacavoli’s post then uses the desperate incumbent argument as a reason to vote for Samayoa – “He’s been there a long time and the three of us are a team with projects to complete.” This rarely wows voters. The team that was turning the city around with projects to finish was actually Brown and her staff, not the council.
(Get Lou’s podcast at “No Hostages Radio” and his articles at nohostagesradio.com)
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