By Emerson Drake
8/4/11
At the sparsely attended City Council meeting last night the City was forced to let the public know what they have known since last week. This is verbatim from Ridenour's formal statement regarding the NSP Program.
"Late last week, the OIG and City staff discovered another Conflict of Interest concern. As a result, a “Notice of Conflict of Interest Violation” was issued to Trinity Ventures RE II (Trinity Ventures). Trinity Ventures purchased property on Tully Road with a loan from the City of Modesto of NSP2 funds. It was discovered that a real estate sales commission was paid by the seller to Benchmark Commercial Real Estate Services (Benchmark). Benchmark is a company that is co-owned by Ryan Swehla and Joe Muratore. Mr. Swehla is a principal in Trinity Ventures along with Scott Monday, and Mr. Muratore is a member of the Modesto City Council. OIG, in conjunction with City staff, determined that Benchmark’s receipt of the sales commission likely constituted a violation of conflict of interest regulations governing the NSP2 grant program."
We've said before, Modesto business are using the NSP Program as a cash cow. It's time for all citizens to wake up and smell the roses.
People need to be more involved and attend City Council meetings, and they need to keep the heat on City officials to get results from the investigation BEFORE the November elections.
Ridenour claims he wants to inspire trust in city government, but withholding information until after you can figure how to spin it isn't the way.
