2.6.14 Extra Helping of Squid

Under Contract…Squid was really starting to sweat before those few sweet drops of rain fell over the weekend, worried that the rain dances weren’t working. Finally, a few precious hours of driving rain, just in time for the biggest golf extravaganza of the year as the AT&T Pro Am gears up.

While a real deluge from the sky has yet to come this year, there’s been another sort of persistent deluge over in Carmel-by-the-Sea, where the dollars just seem to keep flowing. Flowing out of the city, that is, into the hands of consultants and contractors. Tuesday night’s City Council meeting is another episode in what appears to be a trend in city outsourcing, with no less than $365,000 in contracts for approval on the council agenda.

Those include year one of the IT strategic plan implementation ($75k), which the city has to pay for because its own two-person IT department has been on leave since June when a criminal investigation into department chair Steve McInchak started (no charges have been filed). There’s also $38,000 for janitorial work, and $81,600 for planning department services, at a price tag of $85/hour for 20 hours a week. Meanwhile, there’s been griping about city staff being trimmed back to the bare bones.

Janitorial services, sidewalk repairs, and computer operations are all things the city needs to pay for to get by. Squid gets it, even if outsourcing to private contractors doesn’t seem like the most cost-effective way to do it. (Neither City Administrator Jason Stilwell nor Mayor Jason Burnett returned a call on deadline about that.) But then there’s another request on the agenda for $60,000 for a professional imagination consultant. Richard Tavener is working on Wonderspace Carmel as part of the city’s destination marketing plan, the big idea being that Carmel should serve as a getaway for smart Bay Area TED Talk-types looking to do seminars with prestigious thinkers and presenters. Not a bad idea, but Squid isn’t convinced that you can pay for that kind of street cred.

One thing the city doesn’t outsource is elections. That means it has its own election schedule, with a three-way contest for two City Council seats happening on April 8. Even if you’re not a high-paid consultant, you too can get a gig working for Carmel: The city is hiring poll workers ($80 for the day for clerks, $100 for the day for inspectors). The business of magical thinking pays better than elections, unfortunately, even if that’s what Election Day usually ends up feeling like to Squid.

"The future's best hope is imagination in action," according to Tavener's bio. Maybe those City Council candidates can just imagine their way to victory.