Sara Rubin here with a shoutout to all the volunteers doing incredible work in our communities all over Monterey County. Some of the most effective volunteer projects happen in partnership with government agencies that are chronically caught up in the slow-moving wheels of bureaucracy and can struggle to simply get stuff done that people-powered nonprofits can just do. (I observe this regularly in my neighborhood in Seaside, where Friends of Seaside Parks provides volunteer labor and coordinates with the City of Seaside, which provides water trucks and equipment on a schedule to improve and maintain the city’s parks beyond what either entity could achieve alone.)
The same is true for Carmel Cares, a nonprofit that is nimble and responsive. Dozens of energetic volunteers contribute labor—thousands of hours each year—and also work with contractors to advance projects that volunteers care about. They partner with the City of Carmel, moving projects forward to completion at a much faster clip than the city ever would. It’s a great model.
But the model has had numerous challenges since Carmel Cares founder Dale Byrne became mayor, wearing both hats as volunteer and representing the city.
Part of what makes the nonprofit effective is that it doesn’t have the same slow bureaucratic processes that a city government does, with requirements to go out to bid for certain projects and timelines to allow contractors to respond. Its budgetary decisions are made by a board, rather than elected officials who answer to the public and must publicly notice their meetings in advance and then deliberate in public.
These dual roles have thrust Byrne and the potential for conflicts into public scrutiny. The latest chapter may at first seem small in dollars or in consequence, but as Senior Staff Writer Pam Marino reports in this week’s edition of the Weekly, it reveals just how things can go off the rails.
Fourteen new signs, including new handicap-accessible parking signs, went up at the city-owned Forest Theater, at a cost of $23,493. The signs (lovely, in my opinion) were made and installed by the local company Signs by Van. Byrne requested the city reimburse the company for half of that cost.
However, the signs never went through the city’s (very aggressive) review process, and as Marino reports, questions were raised internally about whether the handicap parking signs complied with the American with Disabilities Act. Great idea, executed quickly—but those annoyingly slow wheels of government bureaucracy do serve a purpose.
Marino got an anonymous tip on Friday, June 12 about the signs, with a message that they might be removed by the following Monday. She went over to the theater later that day and saw them. The following week, they were removed.
She followed up by asking for related documents from the City with a request under the California Public Records Act, and what she got back revealed the mess that was created. I recommend you give her story a read.
For now, the signs remain gone.