Menifee Fall Festival, Skate Park costs questioned

In the wake of controversy regarding financial decisions involving Menifee city officials, there has been increased scrutiny of financial records, not only by concerned residents, but City Council members themselves.

Following the recent election of Neil Winter as mayor and at the suggestion of other council members, plans are underway to form an oversight committee -- including residents' input -- regarding the management of funds generated from Measure DD, the 1 percent sales tax increase approved by voters in November. A closer inspection of city funds is likely on several other fronts as well.

This was evident during Wednesday night's City Council meeting, when more attention than usual was paid to city expenditures.

Council member Lesa Sobek pulled from the consent calendar an item for discussion from the warrant register -- an accounting of city finances that usually is approved by council members with little or no mention. Sobek's question concerned a payment of $9,061.11 to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department for "extra duty services" at the City-sponsored Menifee Fall Festival in October.

That amount might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, given that expenditures for less than half of December totaled more than $2.4 million. As city officials are quickly learning, however, virtually any expenditure is more likely to be placed under the microscope these days. This appears to be part of the fallout from more than half a million dollars paid to departed city managers in severance pay, plus the much-discussed $12,400 check written by former City Manager Rob Johnson to former Mayor Scott Mann for a non-budgeted leadership seminar, to mention just two cases.

Sobek said her understanding was that any extra security needed for the 2016 Fall Festival was to be paid for by the Menifee Valley Chamber of Commerce, which partnered with the City in sponsoring the event at Audie Murphy Ranch Sports Park. She asked when the City would be reimbursed by the Chamber for the cost of police services, which were not included in the City's regular contract with the Sheriff's Department.

Robert Lennox, community services director, replied that nine officers were assigned to the event at the suggestion of the Sheriff's Department, in part because of the addition of a beer garden to the event. Of those nine, he said, four were assigned to the beer garden and thus were the financial responsibility of the Chamber.

"We're expecting payment from the Chamber in the next week," Lennox said. "The cost to the Chamber only applied to the beer garden. The Sheriff still suggested more officers than we had last year. The feedback for next year is that we don't need as many."

Lennox acknowledged that there were no incidents requiring police response during the event, which drew a reported 8,500 people. Sobek responded by saying, "If we budgeted $3,000 and went way over, what good is it to budget at all?"

The Menifee 24/7 "Truck or Treat" HallowFest, presented by RE/MAX Diamond the week before the Fall Festival at no cost to taxpayers, drew a crowd estimated at 10,000 to Wheatfield Park and required no police presence. Security was handled by volunteers, members of the Paloma Valley High School NJROTC, and hours donated by Menifee Crime Watch. No incidents were reported.

It is difficult to determine how much the City might have overpaid for police presence at its event. For one thing, the final expense report for the event presented by City staff to the Parks, Recreation and Trails Commission Thursday night did not even list a budgeted item for police services at the event. The financial recap lists $10,895 in total expenses, which would be almost doubled if the $9,061.11 police cost were included. Thus rather than showing a net loss of only $2,687, as reported, the actual net loss would appear to be nearly $12,000.

That amount will depend on how much the City is reimbursed by the Chamber. The Chamber has not had an executive director since the Board of Directors fired Michelle Pack on Dec. 15.

Ultimately, council members voted 5-0 to approve the warrant register, with Sobek casting her "yes" vote after some hesitation.

Two other items on the consent calendar were not allowed to be rubber stamped without discussion, both because residents requested to speak about concerns with them. Claudia Greenwood and former council member Tom Fuhrman both questioned items regarding an estimated cost of $34,000 for engineering and design services and an additional $48,963 for the purchase of a pre-fabricated restroom facility adjacent to the Audie Murphy Ranch Skate Park.

"Why didn't the developer build that restroom before turning the park over to the city?" Greenwood asked. "If you say you needed to raise the sales tax 1 percent, why are you spending all this money?"

Fuhrman questioned the cost of the restroom, saying, "Where I come from, a pre-fab is delivered and you're given instructions on how to put it up. Who's going to build this?"

Lennox explained that the purchase of the restroom was the result of previous action taken by the City Council as part of its decision to temporarily close the skate park while improvements are made. He also said that the restroom costs are funded through a Community Facilities District and do not come out of the general fund.