OWN GOAL… Squid’s athletic skills are best suited to munching on shrimp-flavored popcorn on the sidelines, while watching other creatures face off on the field or court. For years Squid has been looking forward to the arrival of Watsonville-based Breakers F.C., an amateur soccer club, in Monterey County. In 2023, the team was set to take over the former Moss Landing Middle School, a now-defunct expansion. Then came an idea to set up at York School instead.
Then came the lawsuits.
Monterey Breakers F.C. has allegedly ghosted contractors including Whitson and Associates and Armanasco Public Relations – and even Monterey County Superior Court. Armanasco sued in December, claiming the club owes $44,563 in unpaid fees on a contract for help with the now-defunct York School Pavilion Master Plan. In April, Armanasco followed up to say the club was evading court process servers, so they published a notice of the lawsuit in Monterey County Weekly. (There’s still no response, nor did Breakers president Lepa Galeb-Roskopp respond to Squid’s colleague.)
Squid reviewed some emails from Galeb-Roskopp, before she went silent, that are attached to Armanasco’s suit: “You would complicate matters by involving your lawyers,” she responded when company president David Armanasco suggested a payment plan. “I would advise against it.”
Her advice was free, and Squid’s got some free advice too: Pay the bills.
POT, KETTLE… With the exception of the many ways to enjoy shrimp-flavored popcorn, Squid’s not an expert on anything. But Squid is a studious cephalopod, keeping up on economics and politics and such.
That’s why Squid’s been amused by the Monterey County Republican Party sending out press releases in recent weeks attacking the economic policies of Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling him out for high gas prices and failing to meet the state’s needs because of his presumed national political ambitions.
Squid definitely has some issues with how Newsom and the Democratic legislature are managing California, but Squid also knows it’s a time of upheaval in all 50 states because of how the federal government is being run by Republicans. A quick recap of how that’s been going: immigrants have been unconstitutionally shipped off to a foreign gulag, Trump took a bribery tour of the Middle Eastern petrostates as his tariffs are tanking the economy, congressional Republicans are trying to cut health care benefits for millions while still adding $3 trillion to the deficit, all so they can extend tax cuts for the top 0.1 percent. Oh, and because of all that, Moody’s downgraded America’s credit rating, which means interest rates for all Americans will go up.
But hey, they are saying: Look over there!
(1) comment
Ah, Squid. Ever ready with the moral invoice and a side of buttered outrage. But when the popcorn stops popping, some of us are left wondering what the show was even about.
David Armanasco wants his \$44,563—not for bricks or bleachers, but for something vaguer. "Strategic communications," "community engagement," the kind of work that thrives in the gaps between action and appearance. He didn’t build a field; he curated its meaning. At least on paper.
Breakers F.C. promised motion, then vanished in a cloud of forwarded emails and unpaid contracts. Moss Landing to York School to nowhere. The only thing left standing is Armanasco’s invoice and a public notice filed like a missed connection.
Galeb-Roskopp, president and now part-time magician, warned: “Don’t involve lawyers.” A curious stance from someone already disappearing behind smoke.
But let’s step back. For all the ink and effort, what exactly did Monterey County receive? A school left dormant. A plan left dangling. Contractors stiffed. A consultant insulted. And still, the shape of the dream—if it ever had one—remains unclear.
Squid says: pay the bills.
A fair point—if we knew what the money ever really bought.
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