Public-private partnerships are designed to reduce transparency

OPINION

BY LEN CABRERA

At the Gainesville City Commission Special Meeting on October 9, City Attorney Daniel Nee said the quiet part out loud, essentially admitting that public-private partnerships reduce transparency. Instead of learning from the issues that led to the closure of Reichert House, the City is doubling down on the practice to keep state auditors and tax-paying citizens from seeing how the City is misappropriating our money. They think they’re above the law.

The purpose of the October 9 Special Meeting was to discuss the City’s response to the State Auditor General report. Dan Nee said (time stamp 6:03 in the meeting video):

“Finding 8, which dealt with the ability to review some records from non-City entities who were supporting the Reichert House Academy–the ability to review some of their records, I think primarily bank records from 2015 to 2018, so their distance in time as well–the inability to review them had caused them to mark that as ‘Partially Corrected.’ In further discussions with the auditors from the Auditor General’s office, we’ve tried to make the point that, well, one, these weren’t City records, weren’t City entities, weren’t City records, and also wasn’t City money. It was money from private foundations that they were intending to offer for support of the Reichert House Youth Academy. And that, as they were non-City entities, non-City money, we have no ability to control those records or even to compel their production.”

The Commissioners voted unanimously to not pursue “past records of non-City entities that purportedly acted in support of Reichert House” and asked the State Auditor General to consider the issue resolved as “no occasion to correct.”

Commissioners are hiding behind semantics and hoping the “non-City entity” language is a sufficient smoke screen to shield these Commissions, their predecessors, and the City of Gainesville from the lax (and likely illegal) financial practices that initiated the State audit in the first place.

One of the “non-City entities” in question is Palm Breeze Youth Services. The “non-City money” was a $20,000 federal grant from the Department of Justice that was distributed by the National Police Athletic League.

According to a letter by former City Auditor Carlos Holt that was part of the justification for the Joint Legislative Audit Committee’s investigation into the City, Reichert House Youth Academy, a subdivision of the Gainesville Police Department at the time, applied for the grant under the name Gainesville Police Athletic/Activities League (“Gainesville PAL, Inc.”) using the City’s Dun & Bradstreet (DUNs) number and Employer Identification Number (EIN). The grant was provided as a $20,000 check made out to the Gainesville Police Department, but emails were sent from Reichert House Youth Academy to the National Police Athletic League requesting that they take back the check and reissue it to Palm Breeze Youth Services.

The money was “non-City money” because it came from the federal government, then it became City money when it was paid to the Gainesville Police Department. In order to make it “non-City money” again and avoid accountability, it was diverted to a “non-City entity.” That sounds like an attempt to “conceal or disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, or the control of the proceeds or property believed to be the proceeds of specified unlawful activity.” In other words, money laundering.

Like most professional criminals who think they are above the law, the Commissioners flaunted their disdain for the state audit during the October 9 meeting. Shortly after Nee’s comments (time stamp 8:40 in the video), Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker asked whether “Reichert House is being stood up by agencies outside of the City at this point” and asked the City Manager for more information about that. City Manager Cynthia Curry said the City had set aside $250,000 in the current fiscal year’s budget for after-school care services and added, “My staff is right now in the process of putting the scope around a request for proposals.” She said Palm Breeze Youth Services is one of the agencies showing interest.

That’s the chutzpah of politicians who think themselves to be above the law.

Likely that money will be doled out as a block grant so that there will be no accountability as to how it is spent (and how much benefits the Commissioners, their donors, and their future campaigns).

This blatant disregard for oversight and accountability explains the City’s recent decision to no longer record certain meetings.

History proves that nothing good comes from government when it tries to hide things from the public. That is exactly the point of the increased use of public-private partnerships–to reduce transparency and allow government to avoid oversight. It allows our elected officials to behave more like rulers than representatives.