Here's something you might be interested in.
Six months back, I wrote an article about the Pacific Beach Business Improvement District, managed by the Pacific Beach Community Development Corporation, also known as Discover PB. At the time, a group of residents and shop owners expressed their frustration with the district, claiming it caters to the bar-crowd and failed to represent the interests of the entire community.
Now, the district is responding to a December 15 report from the City Auditor which found that it failed to meet requirements outlined in its contract with the City.
The investigation by the City Auditor's office was initiated after complaints were left on the City's fraud hotline line.
During the investigation, the City Auditor discovered the business improvement district had made "several payments" to vendors for contracts over $5,000 without soliciting multiple bids, as required in their contract.
The City Auditor also found numerous instances of Brown Act violations.
"We found there were Brown Act violations regarding instances of insufficient agenda item descriptions and meeting notice noncompliance," read the report.
"The Office of Economic Development Division has directed the PB-CDC to cure Brown Act violations that comes to its attention, and has put the PB-CDC on notice that failure to comply with the Brown Act can result in early termination of the contract with the City."
Lastly, the investigation revealed that nearly two-dozen businesses identified in the complaint failed to report accurate employee counts. As a result the number of employees at 23 businesses rose from 52 to 297, generating $3,000 in assessments for the district as well as tax revenue for the City.
The non-profit is now working to resolve those issues.
Six months back, I wrote an article about the Pacific Beach Business Improvement District, managed by the Pacific Beach Community Development Corporation, also known as Discover PB. At the time, a group of residents and shop owners expressed their frustration with the district, claiming it caters to the bar-crowd and failed to represent the interests of the entire community.
Now, the district is responding to a December 15 report from the City Auditor which found that it failed to meet requirements outlined in its contract with the City.
The investigation by the City Auditor's office was initiated after complaints were left on the City's fraud hotline line.
During the investigation, the City Auditor discovered the business improvement district had made "several payments" to vendors for contracts over $5,000 without soliciting multiple bids, as required in their contract.
The City Auditor also found numerous instances of Brown Act violations.
"We found there were Brown Act violations regarding instances of insufficient agenda item descriptions and meeting notice noncompliance," read the report.
"The Office of Economic Development Division has directed the PB-CDC to cure Brown Act violations that comes to its attention, and has put the PB-CDC on notice that failure to comply with the Brown Act can result in early termination of the contract with the City."
Lastly, the investigation revealed that nearly two-dozen businesses identified in the complaint failed to report accurate employee counts. As a result the number of employees at 23 businesses rose from 52 to 297, generating $3,000 in assessments for the district as well as tax revenue for the City.
The non-profit is now working to resolve those issues.