Times: Hercules city programs often escape council review
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 13 July 2009 — No comments yet »
In a related story, Tom Lochner reports that “the Hercules Affordable Housing Department and a slew of affiliated city programs are run from a portable next to City Hall by a private contractor, largely without City Council review. [...] The firewall between the city and its contractor at times appears ill-defined. In addition to referring to itself as a Hercules city department and operating out of the Hercules Civic Center, NEO/AHSG uses city of Hercules letterhead; its employees have city of Hercules e-mail addresses and business cards. The phone line rolls over to the City Hall front desk when a caller presses ‘0.’ Councilman Ed Balico’s son, John, went to work for the company earlier this year. McKinney often refers questions to City Manager Oliva or to Finance Director Gloria Leon.“