Wasting money

“Wasting money,” Carmel Pine Cone – June 16, 2023

The Pacific Grove DEI Task Force has recommended paying a group called the “Seed Collaborative” more than $356,000 for a 30-month effort to bring something called “Targeted Universalism” to Pacific Grove.

Seed, partner in a mysterious think tank called the “Othering and Belonging Institute,” proposes to “operationalize visionary initiatives at the intersection of organizational development and diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice and belonging (DEIB) through the framework of Targeted Universalism (TU).” Maybe someone can tell me what that means? The 1,339 hours of work of four elite consultants will be billed out at $266 an hour! That’s a total of $356,256. Yikes, who makes that kind of money?

Without listing any specific measurable goals, objectives able goals, objectives or deliverables, Seed and the P.G. Task Force want Pacific Grove citizens to pay for this scheme at a time when local restaurants are struggling to find workers who cannot afford housing in Pacific Grove. At a time when the city is facing a “builders remedy” state deadline to construct more than 1,000 affordable housing units. At a time when local women-owned small businesses in P.G. are trying to figure out how to meet payroll with a Covid-aged-out inventory sitting on the shelves financed by maxed-out credit cards. Could there be a worse time for such a tone-deaf proposal?

The city is facing declining revenues, increasing capital costs, and high unfunded pension liabilities. There is not even enough money in the city coffers to fix the bathrooms in the historic, treasured, and iconic Chautauqua Hall.

Why are the taxpayers going to send hard-earned tax revenue to wealthy lawyers and college professors in Southern California with degrees from expensive colleges like Brandeis, Wellesley, USC, and Berkeley? What do they know about the unique history and culture of Pacific Grove? Nothing.

Let’s keep our cash in Pacific Grove. Call the P.G. City Manager and tell him we need new business to fill empty storefronts, bringing in revenue and not elite consultants draining our city treasury.

Mike Gibbs, Pacific Grove

Editor note: There is an excellent front-page article entitled “Residents skeptical of pricey DEI consultant for P.G.” that goes into more detail in this weekly newspaper.