THE GOLDEN FLEECE AWARD is given by the Central Coast Taxpayers Association to the government agency demonstrating the most arrogantly wasteful, and irresponsible actions and practices, often costing taxpayers millions of dollars and sowing distrust, disdain and downright outrage among the weary taxpayers of that agency.
2017 Award
The first Golden Fleece Award went to the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG) for using taxpayers dollars in support of Measure J, San Luis Obispo County Self-Help Local Transportation Investment Plan.
SLOCOG was formed in 1966 through a Joint Power Agreement to promote transportation coordination in what was then a very rural county. It has grown to an agency with over 20 employees who are transportation planners, Rideshare coordinators, and assorted administrators and public relation flacks.
In 2016 SLOCOG spent over $100,000 of taxpayer money on consultants to come up with a strategy to pass a 1/2% sales tax increase measure, allegedly for roads. SLOCOG also printed and mailed a 30-page booklet to “educate” locals about the bad conditions of their roads, in case they hadn’t noticed, again at taxpayer expense. The executive director, while collecting his government paycheck, coordinated a campaign effort that raised and spent over $500,000 to support this tax increase. But as we all know, Measure J, failed in the November 2018 election.
Even though the campaign was unsuccessful, board members of SLOCOG were so pleased with the actions of their executive director that they awarded him a 5% raise for his valiant efforts to raise taxes. So much for the concept of merit pay!
CCTA was instrumental in defeating Goliath with a mere $1200 and a grassroots campaign utilizing talk radio, letters to the papers, and word of mouth. The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) investigated SLOCOG for the coordination and the expense of public funds used on the measure.
The 2022 Golden Fleece Award went to:
The Paso Robles Unified School District
The Paso Robles Unified School District leadership, led by Superintendent Curt Dubost, promoted with taxpayer dollars, the qualification of a petition to vacate the appointment of Kenney Enney as a member of the Board of Trustees of the District. Kenney had been appointed in September 2022 to fill a vacancy in office that occurred upon election of a sitting Trustee to another local office.
Superintendent Dubost, the District’s racial diversity, equity and inclusion director Cary Alvord, and District Teachers’ Union President Bernadette Boddington, spent compensated public time and taxpayer dollars on qualification of the special election, which cost the District’s forgotten taxpayers approximately $600,000 to conduct.
Andrea Seastrand, President of CCTA and our former Congresswoman, stated, and I quote:
“The Paso Robles Unified School District and the named officials of the District wasted taxpayer dollars that should have been devoted to redressing the District’s abysmal record concerning student test scores. Clearly, these officials were willing to waste over a half a million taxpayer dollars to silence Kenney Enney’s pointed questions about District spending and its misguided focus on race and gender issues at the expense of students’ basic educational achievement. Not only were District forgotten taxpayers fleeced but the District children were harmed in this process.”