Moorpark Parks Panel Exceeded Festival Budget

Organizers of Moorpark’s Cinco de Mayo festival overspent city funds by more than $3,100, violated city codes and cannot account for all of the money paid by fair-goers to enter the Mexican celebration earlier this month, according to a 21-page report.

The city report, which staff members have been preparing for two weeks, recommends that the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission no longer organize local events.

And Councilman Scott Montgomery advocated that the Ventura County district attorney’s office, the Ventura County Grand Jury or an accounting firm investigate the irregularities.

“I’m not so interested in prosecuting misdemeanors as I am in assuring the public that the activities won’t happen again,” Montgomery said.

The commission spent $3,178 more than the $12,000 allocated by the city for the event, the report said. And the city never approved the spending of more than $900 to pay for the services of people playing Annabelle the Clown and a Ninja Turtle, who performed at the festival, the report said.

“I am very, very upset about that part of it,” Mayor Paul Lawrason said. “I made it quite clear that $12,000 was it. I did not want to see another dime spent.”

The staff asked that the city allocate the extra money from its reserve funds to pay the additional costs.

But Parks Commissioner Lynn Crockatt maintained that although organizers spent $15,178, they made $4,036 in beer and soda sales, bringing the net expenditure under budget.

Council members said they do not believe that the commissioners stole money from the city. But they said they will never have an accurate count of money raised because the 3,000 tickets issued were not numbered and vendors were paid in cash rather than with city-issued checks, the report said.

“While generally considered a success by the participants, the event was poorly organized and administered,” Philip Newhouse, director of community services for the city, said in the report. “Many items were not done, only partially done or not performed in a timely manner.”

Organizers collected $3,341.36 in ticket sales and Crockatt used $2,970 of it to pay vendors and entertainers in cash, the report said. Crockatt had been warned three times not to pay merchants in cash, the report said, since to do so violates city codes and makes it difficult to keep accurate records.

Crockatt said he knew that city procedure required payment through warrants or numbered city checks. But on the day of the event, no checks had been prepared, he said.

“We were faced with not having any money to pay the performers when these people started coming off stage asking for money,” Crockatt said. “I was doing it to avoid a problem with the vendors. It was a decision made from the heart.”

Crockatt agreed with the city that future events ought to be left to nonprofit organizations.