IVGID’s prior Boards under Callicrate and Wong, not the current Board, failed.

Perhaps some, including candidates for Trustee who only located/relocated here a few years ago, might be surprised by the following quotes from November 2020 board meeting minutes.  Anyone who thinks the disfunction was caused by members of the current Board is ignoring IVGID’s years under GM Winquest and a Board controlled by Callicrate and Wong (whose PAC supports candidates Tonking, Homan and Jezycki). Problems such as vacancies in senior management, mistakes in hiring, and purchasing million dollar items without a formal bid process were commonplace.

Here are some quotes from the November 9 and November 18, 2020 Board meeting minutes of comments by Linda Newman, one of the most knowledgeable, informed and articulate speakers to ever make public comment.

From the November 9, 2020 IVGID BOT meeting minutes

“General Business Item K2 [concerning the Tyler HR/ERP contract] is not ready for prime time. There is no cost benefit analysis for the expenditure of close to$900,000 for Human Resource Management and Payroll Process Software and new Finance and Accounting System software. In addition to the selection of Tylerwithout validation of their superiority over other vendors, there is NO documentation of outreach to payroll processing companies and their proposals on fulfilling these functions. Instead, Staff has given their opinion on why we shouldn’t outsource without the facts to validate their opinion. She recommends this Board convene a group with knowledgeable members of the Audit Committeeto evaluate the needs of the District and evaluate the best solutions. In light of the recent Staff resignations and the gaps in Senior management, she highly recommends that this Board review the qualifications for the open positions to ensure that we not only engage accountants that are licensed as CPAs but that we recruit the best candidates for the other open positions. At this time, there is no back up for any of the Senior positions. This must be rectified and the GeneralManager must receive more Board direction to ensure that our District has the workforce it needs to operate efficiently and responsibly.”

From the November 18, 2020 IVGID BOT meeting minutes

“If the General Manager cannot comply with policy 3.1, cannot place front and center the District’s most pressing priorities and instead load an agenda with secondary and tertiary considerations. She does not believe, based on his past performance, that he has the bandwidth to hire competent and qualified senior management in the coming months. This Board must take action in securing outside resources to fulfill the significant deficits in our District’s operations, capital project management, fulfillment of public records requests and financial accounting and reporting. Our community cannot, and should not, have to suffer the consequences of the neglect of the replacement or rehabilitation of 6 miles of our failing effluent pipeline, the delay in hiring a consultant to do a competent utility rate and asset replacement study, a $1.2 million commitment to software that may or may not be appropriate, unauthorized litigation expenses and the very long list of Senior Management turnover –resulting in a skeletal senior management team.

Until this Board takes an active role in fulfilling their fiduciary and statutory responsibilities and exercises responsible oversight, these follies will continue and you will be responsible and liable for the fallout.”

And who had Winquest hired for the vacant Finance Director position in January of 2020? He hired Paul Navazio, who was not a CPA and proved himself to be incapable of properly executing the Tyler system implementation or addressing the lack of internal controls in areas that had already been identified.

Hopefully, candidates will stop accusing the current Board majority of doing anything other than try to address past failures. Together with staff, they have made some progress, but with the constant attacks and obstacles that were put in their way, it is not surprising that the District is in such disarray.

Candidates as well as voters need to educate themselves and stop blaming current Board members for conditions that have been developing or have existed for years. If you would like to learn more, here’s a link to the Board packet containing these minutes.