Funny Money

FUNNY MONEY… Squid has been oozing around local governments long enough to know that city managers come and go. Way back in 2023 when Squid reported on a romance and some diamonds featuring then-Salinas City Manager Steve Carrigan, it seemed to Squid like he might stay forever, if his bosses – that would be Salinas City Council – would keep him. Just a few months later, City Council voted unanimously to fire him.

The termination came right after Carrigan announced he was a finalist for a job as city manager of San Bernardino. After that fell apart, Carrigan sued that city seeking $1.5 million in damages, claiming that illegal leaks about the hiring process had not only cost him the San Bernardino job, but also his job in Salinas.

Fast forward to Wednesday, Aug. 7, when the San Bernardino City Council made one fleeting announcement about a vote taken behind closed doors regarding litigation. They had voted 5-1 to settle Carrigan’s case and would pay him $800,000.

Salinas has since moved on, landing former Gonzales and Watsonville city manager René Mendez as its top staffer in March. While San Bernardino’s check comes without an apology, Squid can read between the lines of all those zeroes, an amount that would’ve covered more than three years of Carrigan’s Salinas job: “We screwed up, royally.”

MIS-PLACE SOMETHING?… One of Squid’s pet peeves has to do with inane travel blog posts about Squid’s lair and thereabouts. If Squid sees one more trite post about Carmel being a “quaint village” where Clint Eastwood once served as mayor Squid’s head will explode… oh wait, it just exploded. The World Atlas website posted an article on Aug. 8, “8 Towns in California With the Best Downtowns,” which includes Carmel and the opening line that it’s “renowned for the fact that none other than Clint Eastwood served as its mayor from 1986 to 1988… ”

The worst of the article was reserved for Pacific Grove. If that’s one of the best downtowns in California, Squid is a sunfish. It’s not terrible, but it has a ways to go. Thankfully Hops and Fog brewpub just opened, joining the new Pop and Hiss to pump more life into the district. Maybe some vacant storefronts will fill up with businesses other than real estate offices, thrift stores and antique shops.

In the adding-injury-to-insult department, the post talks little of downtown and opens with the fact that P.G. is known as “Butterfly Town, USA.” It mentions the monarch sanctuary, which is almost a mile away from downtown.

The coups de grâce came with the accompanying photo: Instead of the P.G. sanctuary, it depicts Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove. Oof.