From NCT: City of Encinitas employee Alex Long, an Olivenhain resident, displays a hand-thrown urn of his creation. The city paid Long $500 for the piece and gave it as a gift to visitors from Amakusa Japan -- Encinitas' sister city. The city also paid $545 to ship the urn to Amakusa.

Reflection
A year ago the City of Encinitas played tour guide for a Japanese delegation, as part of a sister city program. The city spent $12,000. At the time, many Encinitas activists spoke out about the lack of transparency, how tax dollars were being spent, and the deterioration of the sister city program.

"They enjoyed catered meals and were treated to lunch and dinner at restaurants. City records show they took a $524 trip to SeaWorld and received more than $1,000 in gifts." NCT, October 21, 2006.

Follow up:

I didn't get deeply into the issue. The issue seemed like small potatoes when compared to other city issues. What I didn't realize was the abuse of the sister city program was apparent to the public. The public got a taste of the arrogance, secrecy, and lack of restraint at Encinitas City Hall. In many ways the disturbing aspects were no different than what went down in other city controversies.

An important difference is that many of the other controversies were related to engineering, accounting, and violations of development laws. It is easy to bury the abuse in those types of situations and few people are interested in discussing these topics and there are fewer willing to look into them. The city paying $12,000 for gifts and private (birthday?) parties caught the public’s eye. Mayor Christy Guerin’s comments at the time only clarified the arrogance surrounding the abuse. She had clearly forgotten who’s money she was spending.

The abuse of the sister city program was widely attributed to her. This attribution was unfair to the rest of the council. They enabled Guerin.


Recommendations

Keep Exchange Programs
Exchange programs can have profound benefits for personal and societal growth. Residents of Encinitas should continue these programs through organizations like Rotary. Our local Rotary recently hosted a group of exchange students.

Rotary Exchange Students

Reevaluate the Encinitas Sister City Program
Before funding the program the council should determine what benefits the city has obtained from its sister city program. Last year the city didn’t mention any benefits when publicly discussing the program. It was clear that the program was not about benefits to the City of Encinitas.

Commenting on last year’s sister city parties, "I think that that’s irresponsible and extravagant," said Bill Rodewald, [Past President] of the Encinitas Taxpayers Association, when told last week of the charges. "I see no economic benefit to the sister city program."

If the city decides to defund the program there is an option other than canning it. The program can be privately funded while still being officially endorsed by the City of Encinitas. The City can still maintain its official role and use nominal amounts of staff time for coordination. City officials could still participate.

Increase Transparency
Major city event and city expenses should be put before the council and approved in an open manner. That didn’t happen.

From the North County Times: In June, the City Council approved $30,000 to spend on the city's 20th birthday celebration and on the sister city guests. Of that, $20,000 would pay for the 20th anniversary party and $10,000 would entertain the visitors, officials say.

Officials Monday could not say how much public money would be spent on Saturday's private party, but said it would pay for all the food on the menu.

"I'm looking for the authorization for expenditures such as a private party," Houlihan said. "I don't know where the authorization was for that money to come out of the anniversary (budget). I think it's very important that we have an easy-to-explain and defensible process for making expenditures."

When the council adopted the city's operating budget June 21, that approval included "$30,000 towards the Sister City/City's 20th Anniversary celebration," according to records from the meeting.

At the private party on Saturday, former Fire Chief Don Heiser is providing the catering "as a favor to me," Guerin said.

Consistent with a slew of other backroom decisions, the city started the process renaming B street Amsuka Street without any open council discussion. Amsuka continues to be our sister city.