Dispute Over Funds May Cost City, Group

A dispute between the city of Moorpark and a local environmental organization over money left from a $64,000 state grant to restore habitat on the Arroyo Simi may result in the money being returned to the state.

The city and the local chapter of the Environmental Coalition are arguing over $4,470 that has yet to be spent. The city wants to split the sum equally, while the Environmental Coalition is arguing that the city should receive no more than 25% of the money.

“It’s not about the money, it’s the principle,” said Roseann Mikos, the Environmental Coalition’s project manager. “What we offered was more than fair. They aren’t entitled to half the money when they themselves admit they didn’t do half the work and never planned to do half the work.”

At a City Council meeting Wednesday night, the council split 2 to 2 on what to do with the money. Council members Patrick Hunter and Bernardo Perez favored the Environmental Coalition’s offer, while Mayor Paul Lawrason and Councilman Scott Montgomery thought the city should receive 50% of the leftover money. Councilman John Wozniak was absent.

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Mikos, who would receive the money for work she performed on the project, had bitter words for the city Friday after an agreement on what to do with the money remained unresolved.

“For some reason they are singling me out,” she said. “And now they’re drawing a line in the sand hoping we’ll back down. Well, we’re not backing down. They’re trying to take money out of the budget that isn’t even theirs.”

Mikos said both the city and members of the Environmental Coalition planned to be compensated for half the time they spent working on the project, and to donate the other half of their time.

According to a final report on the project, city personnel were expected to put in 319 hours performing mostly administrative work, but actually put in about 335 hours. Personnel working with the Environmental Coalition planned to work 3,168 hours, but actually put in 5,644 hours.

“It’s clear we both did more work than we anticipated, but look at the hours and tell me who did the bulk of the work,” Mikos said. “They weren’t even out there doing the planting and weeding. Most of their time was spent reworking the contract, because of problems they had in the beginning.”

Lawrason argued it was only fair to distribute the money equally because the city and the Environmental Coalition were equal partners in the agreement.

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The city has received $11,968 for its time.

Perez said missteps at the beginning of the project by city staff members have created an atmosphere of mistrust between the two groups.

Last year, just before the city was to receive the $64,000 grant, Montgomery tried to stop seven members of the Environmental Coalition’s board of directors, including Mikos, from being paid for part of their work on the project. He said then that he did not know the group was being paid and was led to believe the group would volunteer its time.

At the council meeting this week Montgomery said he thought the project was about volunteerism and that he owed it to the city’s taxpayers to demand an equal share of the money.

Perez disagreed. “It’s been a long, painful process in which the city should take the blame for initial missteps and oversights,” he said.