Funding Flow

Funding Flow… Squid’s only contract is with the sea: the ocean provideth and the ocean taketh away. So when Squid saw the Monterey County Business Council’s press release announcing that local businesses received $33,636,617 in federal contract dollars for the quarter (July 1-Sept. 30), Squid wondered where all that money was actually going.

The Business Council did part of the work, breaking it up by the five County Board of Supervisors districts. District 5 received over three-quarters of that sum, while District 3 reportedly received exactly $0.00. Squid asked for some explanation, and it turns out those numbers are as squishy as Squid. According to Victor Valdez, program manager of the Monterey Bay APEX Accelerator, “There’s not enough resources to police all these buyers, which could be anywhere.”

Besides, the numbers were already outdated. The county’s federal contract total has since doubled to about $60 million, Valdez says. (As for why District 3 shows zero, Valdez speculates that the district’s largely agricultural economy may result in more state and local government contracts than federal ones.) He thinks District 5’s high proportion might be tied to the presence of IT service providers. It’s all pretty fuzzy for a pie chart that’s so inequitable.

When Squid sliced up leftover pumpkin pie after Thanksgiving, Squid eyeballed it, but still, the difference between the biggest piece and the smallest was barely visible.

Half-Baked Potato… If Squid was more omnivorous in Squid’s dietary preferences, Squid might be able to live off of political events, oozing around town to sample a fruit platter here and a tower of cheese sandwiches there. Squid was not in attendance on June 29 at Las Palmas Furniture in Salinas where Protect Salinas Renters held an event to gather petition signatures for a referendum seeking to reinstate rent control, but Squid has it on good authority there were baked potatoes on offer.

Squid knows this to be true because the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office investigated it – extensively. According to an announcement on Dec. 1 that the investigation is closed with no charges to be filed, “a lead organizer made statements implying free food could be provided for those who ‘support’ the petition.” To arrive at that conclusion, DA investigators reviewed the list of petition signatories and knocked on 64 doors from Oct. 13-17, speaking to 35 people. They called another 222, reaching 77. A total of six people out of those 112 thought free food might have been connected to signing.

This matters (in theory) because if there had been a quid pro quo – a signature in exchange for food – it’s a misdemeanor. But it all sounds to Squid like a lot of time and effort expended over Potato-Gate, just to say: Nothing to see here.