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SLO grants more than $200,000 to CAPSLO

February 6, 2013

Dan CarpenterThe San Luis Obispo City Council approved more than $200,000 in funding to the Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo Tuesday evening after acknowledging allegations that the nonprofit is fraudulently handling homeless clients’ accounts.

The council unanimously approved $125,988 in grant funds to CAPSLO as part of the yearly Community Development Block Grant issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It also unanimously approved an additional $98,700 for CAPLSO, which will come from the general fund.

Councilman John Ashbaugh, a member of the CAPSLO Board of Directors, motioned to approve the CAPSLO funds. The council only questioned the appropriateness of granting $50,000 to CAPSLO for designs and drawing of its proposed homeless campus when a location has yet to be determined for the new shelter.

But, just before the 5-0 vote, Councilman Dan Carpenter attacked CalCoastNews for reporting that clients are alleging that CAPSLO is stealing their money.

“I’m taken back to the amount of credibility that people want to give to this one online media source,” Carpenter said. “This is one media source and its credibility to me is no good.”

Carpenter recently motioned to request that attorneys Stew Jenkins and Saro Rizzo give CAPSLO half of the more than $130,000 awarded to them in legal fees for winning a lawsuit on behalf of the homeless against the city.

Mayor Jan Marx, who cast the lone dissenting vote against the request of Jenkins and Rizzo, also defended CAPSLO.

“It’s very sad to me that an organization that is doing so much for the homeless and disadvantaged is being attacked in this way,” Marx said.

 

Special Election

After approving the CAPSLO funds, the council chose to hold a special election, rather than attempt to make an appointment to fill the council seat Andrew Carter is vacating on February 20.

The council voted 4-0 to direct staff to arrange a special election, most likely to occur in June or July, to fill Carter’s vacancy. Marx pleaded the other three council members to consider appointing someone over concerns that a 4 person council in the interim may lead to gridlock on important issues, like the budget.

But, Marx voted for the special election after saying that Carpenter has demonstrated trouble with comprising. Carpenter said Marx’s comment offended him.

Several local Democratic Party leaders and other members of the community asked the council during public comment to appoint 2012 candidate Jeff Aranguena and forego the special election. Aranguena, too, pled for an appointment, describing how tiring he found campaigning to be.

But, the council agreed that no candidate has a clearly compelling case for appointment and that the decision belongs in the hands of the voters.

 


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After years of observation I can say that John Ashbaugh has a very hard time changing his position even when confronted with overwhelming evidence. Most of the time, once he has decided, he will not even listen to other opinions or look at all the facts objectively. He’s either OCD, or slightly autistic. That’s why, when caught with campaign violations, he continued to do the same thing, again.


Jan Marx will go with the flow, and as long as Adam Hill is calling the shots, she will go along like a community organizer. Dan Carpenter ??? Easily led and not that knowledgeable in many areas.


I think the real question is why is Adam Hill leading the SLO City Council? And, of course, why is Bob Cuddy from the Tribune acting as Adam Hill’s public relations man?


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Same old same old.

Taxpayer just bend over and keep sending money we know what is best for you and how to spend it.

I wonder what is going to happen in a few years when we the taxpayer can no longer pay for these scams.


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The taxpayers then become homeless, and Dee Torres can steal their Social Security funds.


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So, Dee Torres you got your money. Is it possible for you to now stop this extortion racket you and your team have going on. I know you are denying all of this and well it would be nice if you weren’t lying. At this point the only way to verify is for you and your syndicate to demand an impartial investigation to clear your name.


You claim you are audited twice yearly…..by what organization ? The City, the BOS…..who audits you.


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Very good question, but it appears Dee has left the building…or been yanked off the message boards by city legal counsel.


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It is totally fiscally, ethically and morally irresponsible for the SLO City Council members to approve $200,000 more funding to an organization that is stealing from the very members of society they are supposed to be serving.


Why would the council members approve something that is such a public-relations and investigation-begging nightmare?


We know why the SLO County BOS kowtows to Dee Torres and her thieving agency….she is the girlfriend of the nincompoop county supervisor for the county’s third district. As we’ve seen with Bruce Gibson and his floozy, the other supervisors support the conflict-of-interest-laden relationships of their co-supervisors.


But why would the City of SLO give taxpayer money to an agency whose administrators are stealing agency funds as fast as they can?


Could Dee Torres have “branched out” in her legs-in-the-air liasons with SLO City Council members?


I can think of no other reason for the council members to commit political suicide by approving more funding to an agency when it is clear that the agency is not only embezzling the funds they already have, but owes the Social Security Administration for fraudulently reporting its customers’ account balances.


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It’s laughable. Since when does one take the word of the accused that they are innocent?

If there are any clean hands in this bunch, they’d welcome a state audit. An audit by a company you have contracted isn’t of any value in the face of the seriousness of the matter.


The Council, like many others in Happy Town Power Circles,come off as badly behaved pre-schoolers!


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Bring on the state attorney generals office. In fact i think the city council should demand it. Allow a full impartial investigation. I believe that Karen’s credibility will stand the test.


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What’s so offensive about this city council is they’re totally out to lunch when it comes to allocating funds where they need to be allocated. $60,000+ for a special election is a great example. That money could be so much better spent on repairing dangerous sidewalks throughout town. Oh, I forgot, there’s no money in the budget for sidewalks except downtown. Give us all a break, council persons. You’re idiots.


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See, should have tried to see if anyone would have bet me………last night was just a formality


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Dan did you just make the idiot statement about CCN reporting allegations from people? In my 49 years I have read many a news organizations report allegations. Wasn’t Watergate an allegation at first? Or to keep REAL SIMPLE for you Dan so you can understand, how about the allegations against all the different hard money lenders in this county, that now a lot of the principles involved are in jail?


Dan what you are asking is for a society to keep quite so we don’t know what is going on. YOUR TYPE is the type that scares me NOT CCN!!!!


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P.S. Dan you’re starting to sound like one of the Good Ol boy types. Let’s keep everything status quo and everything sweep under the carpet, so we can keep our Happy City status.


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He always has been one of the good ol boy types. That’s all he’s ever been.


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