Citing soaring costs and years of financial mismanagement, a Santa Barbara County Grand Jury has recommended the dissolution of the coastal City of Guadalupe. The conclusion was reached in a report released last week, titled "Guadalupe Shell Game Must End.”
According to the grand jury, more than a decade of bungling by city officials has led Guadalupe to a dire situation in which debt obligations are mounting as the tax base implodes. They say city officials inappropriately transferred some $7.6 million in restricted funds to cover their debt, while flouting the recommendations of auditors and grand jurors alike. The chickens have finally come home to roost, they concluded, leaving the city with little choice other than to dissolve.
City Administrator Andrew Carter said the city council is unlikely to heed the grand jury’s recommendation. If it did, it would constitute the first instance of disincorporation in the state since 1973.
"There's nothing in the report that we don't already know," he said.
Carter believes the grand jurors focused too much on past blunders, while ignoring recent strides made by the city. He said the recommendation is symptomatic of a deeper rift between the affluent County of Santa Barbara and a farming town of modest means.
The city council has three months to issue an official response to the report.
Read more about the recent report here.