Party price balloons to $20,000

Eron Ben-Yehuda

The price tag for a taxpayer-funded holiday party planned for city

employees has ballooned to more than $20,000, and officials are

scrambling to find private donations to cover the cost, a City Hall

spokeswoman said.

“We didn’t think it would cost this much money,” said Assistant City

Administrator Melanie Fallon.

The city so far has collected about $3,500 from anonymous donors, said

Deputy City Administrator Rich Barnard.

The cost of the event was initially estimated at $10,000. But the bill

doubled because the city didn’t realize the amount of time its employees

would have to spend fixing up a room in the vacant Broadway building at

the Huntington Beach Mall, where the party is scheduled to be held Dec.

9, Fallon said.

“It was in pretty sad shape,” said Tom Hasty, president of the municipal

employees union.

City carpenters, electricians and painters, among others, spent about 500

hours cleaning and repairing the private property while earning pay from

public funds ranging from $8 to $33 an hour, a city memo dated Monday

shows.

Since the the City Council approved the expense, residents have expressed

outrage, voicing their disapproval to City Hall and calling the

Independent’s Readers Hotline with their thoughts.

Concerns were raised that the city’s work amounted to an illegal gift of

public funds, City Atty. Gail Hutton said. But her preliminary research

shows no laws were broken because the celebration -- meant to boost

employee morale -- had a public purpose, and the property owner received

only “incidental benefits,” she said.

But that explanation didn’t sit well with Councilman Ralph Bauer.

“I don’t think it’s right,” Bauer said.

City government needs to be “squeaky clean,” and that means avoiding even

the appearance of improper behavior, he added.

“We get beat about the head and body enough without worrying about this,”

he said.

Ironically, the abuse heaped on city workers, which Fallon blames on the

press, was what motivated the city to hold the party in the first place,

she said.

“Rightly or wrongly, our employees feel battered, and we want to turn

this around,” she said.

QUESTION

Free time?

Do you think public workers should spruce up private property on city

time? Leave your thoughts on our Readers Hotline at 965-7175, fax us at

965-7174, or e-mail us at [email protected]. Please spell your name and

include your hometown.