Wouldn’t it be nice to buy baseball tickets, attend banquets, or join an organization and have someone else foot the bill? Well, that is precisely what is happening at the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
Taxpayers may be surprised to hear exactly how their hard-earned money is being spent. According to the San Jose Mercury News (September 4, 2007), “Over the past three years, the board members have billed the public for such items as $415 in bar associations membership fees, $121 in funeral flowers, $84 in parking tickets, and 15 trips by the current board chairman to conferences in San Diego.”
It gets better. “When [the board members] talk to the to the Mercury News, they charge the public more than $200 for the effort. The same goes for YWCA luncheons, NAACP banquets, Woman’s Equity Day and American Diabetes Association dinner[s]… One particularly creative director charged the public $817 for attending four ‘softball meetings’ involving district staffers.”
Sadly, these board members do not understand the difference between their personal time and their work for the Santa Clara Valley Water District at taxpayers’ expense. “We call it public relations, [a board member said.] I try to go to every thing I can to make sure we’re on top of every issue. I volunteer my services. I run myself ragged.”
One of the board members an “ex-San Jose firefighter counted-and was paid for…a day volunteering as an oral examiner for the San Jose Fire Department, a lunch with KICU’s Richard Avila, and attending the ‘Santa in Alviso” events, where toys are given to underprivileged kids.”
While the ex-San Jose firefighter tries to portray these actions as noble causes, it is hard to make a case for how his actions relate to his work governing the water district–which does such things as flood control, managing reservoirs, and buying water.
Clearly, these board members have betrayed taxpayers and breached their trust by irresponsibly spending taxpayer dollars, “For a long time, the board has acted as if it didn’t really have much of a limit on its spending.”
Board members have demonstrated a total lack of concern for taxpayers and have inappropriately used our taxpayer dollars for activities that are outside the scope of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. It is time they changed the way they do business.
Being good stewards of taxpayer dollars requires transparency and accountability in the spending process. We elect the board and pay them to look out for the public’s interest–not their own. If these board members continue to abuse the expense reimbursement process, it is time to get new ones.
For back issues of Waste Watch – click here.