As a Laguna Beach taxpayer, I feel that it is shameful for the city to pay up to $75,000 to a consultant to defeat a grass-roots movement by Laguna residents to pass a ballot initiative that empowers residents to approve large commercial developments.
And this is not any consultant—it’s Stu Mollrich who has been paid $21,000 by Liberate Laguna PAC (who now call themselves Laguna Forward PAC).
The City Manager is literally making taxpayers pay to defeat the residents’ ballot initiative that collected 2,679 signatures.
That’s shameful. It’s yet another example of how the City wastes taxpayer money on consultants and projects that don’t add value to the City.
And the plot thickens. Liberate Laguna PAC has also contributed to the campaigns of sitting city councilmembers. Shouldn’t these councilmembers have recused themselves from voting in this apparent conflict of interest?
Want more intrigue? This contract was not put out to competitive bidding—as is required by city ordinance. Why? The City indicated that they didn’t have time—really? They’ve known about the ballot initiative for months.
This wasteful spending has to end now.
Merrill Anderson, Laguna Beach
Editor’s Note: Merrill is assistant treasurer of Laguna Resident PAC
Waste of tax money? Why? Because you don’t agree? We wanted that study.