Opinion: Blithe spending of public funds shows scandal-scarred SANDAG still can't be trusted [Opinion]
of an internal audit that found SANDAG employees ran up more than $300,000 in “improper” and “questionable” payments on taxpayer-funded purchase cards, with the agency making no effort to press workers to follow established rules even as they were broken.
Instead, vague “mistakes were made” answers were provided, with Ikhrata noting the “perception” the audit could cause. It’s not a perception. It’s a reality. SANDAG still can’t be trusted. Who agrees? Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall, a SANDAG board member. He told an editorial writer that SANDAG ignoring its own rules and then downplaying what it had done was “government at its worst.” He said it was part of an overall SANDAG effort to push a tidy “narrative” about the agency even when its grand plans are unaccompanied by realistic business plans showing their viability.
In separate email interviews, the chair and first vice chair of the SANDAG board — Encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria — agreed with Hall that the audit should be heeded. But Blakespear wasn’t as troubled, writing that she believed SANDAG’s overall record had “earned the community’s trust.” Gloria staked out a more guarded position: “We must do better at demonstrating that this is an agency that is competent, transparent and worthy of the public’s trust.
Will SANDAG indeed try to do better? Or will a political campaign emerge that emphasizes Hall has long been an outlier on SANDAG issues, ignoring his substantive critique? San Diegans should pay close attention. The stakes — billions of dollars — are too high to treat this flap as inconsequential.
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