As a member of the South County Collaborative Board of
Directors, I want to take this opportunity to be sure that
information concerning our issue with Francisco Dominguez and DZ
Consulting is full and complete. Full article
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As a member of the South County Collaborative Board of Directors, I want to take this opportunity to be sure that information concerning our issue with Francisco Dominguez and DZ Consulting is full and complete.
The Collaborative Board, under guidance of new Board Chair, Lynn Magruder, and then new Treasurer, John Blaettler, discovered discrepancies between contract limits and payments made to consultant Francisco Dominguez and DZ Consulting. We immediately launched a financial review that remains ongoing and contacted the federal authorities associated with the Drug Free Communities grant that Mr. Dominguez was contracted to manage.
The board also hired legal counsel to guide us in the process and help weigh decisions that could affect the Collaborative now and in the future. We consulted three different attorneys and concluded on the basis of their advice that, as board members, our legal and fiduciary obligations superseded our personal feelings of outrage and our individual desires for specific courses of action – and that getting the disputed funds returned to the Collaborative was our first obligation. With that as our charge, we obtained a signed commitment from Mr. Dominguez to repay the difference between contracted amounts and amounts received by DZ Consulting. The repayment has started.
The lack of financial oversight in place prior to Lynn Magruder and John Blaettler assuming their positions “is indeed embarrassing”, as stated in Dispatch. The fact is, as soon as the current officers discovered these unacceptable practices, new practices were developed to ensure stringent financial accountability and oversight. These efforts have been led by board chair, Lynn Magruder.
It has been disheartening to see how Ms. Magruder has been vilified in the paper and in the community at large. She stepped into the position in September 2010 after which time she and John Blaettler uncovered the issue. She has dedicated countless hours, working every weekend and most evenings since she assumed this voluntary position, investigating the situation, keeping our board informed and involved, and meeting the obligations and deliverables of the Drug Free Communities grant. The decisions that have been made are those of the entire board, not the chair alone.
It is very difficult to represent the opinions of a diverse board, and the 70-plus community agencies of the South County Collaborative. Anyone who has experienced something similar to our situation, and based on our conversations that covers a significant portion of people and companies in this community, knows that we cannot carelessly state opinions when the potential for legal action is involved. We live in a litigious society. Legal processes are excruciatingly slow, expensive, and do not always result in justice being served. If Ms. Magruder has come across as uncommunicative, it was from a desire to be cautious, diligent and judicious.
John Blaettler is someone the community respects deeply, as do we. We feel the same about the Gilroy Foundation’s leadership and board members. They are dedicated people making a difference in our community. It was mutual respect and common commitment to our community that led the two organizations to a formal funding relationship.
Yet why is the South County Collaborative board, and our legal counsel, not given the same weight concerning our collective expertise and standing in the community? We have toiled and agonized over this issue for months in an effort to determine all the facts. Why was our judgment, knowing more about the issue at hand than Mr. Blaettler or the Gilroy Foundation, dismissed so easily? The Collaborative tried to convene meetings with the Gilroy Foundation board and vice versa. Miscommunication prevented those vital meetings from taking place. Sadly, the resulting rupture between the two organizations ultimately hurts the people we are each committed to serving.
There has been no cover-up. Nothing has been swept under the rug. The Collaborative board has been diligently continuing with the ongoing investigation, driven by our legal and fiduciary responsibilities to the community. That we have chosen to do so in a manner others disagree with makes it no less thorough, accountable, or honest.
It has been a rough road. Hard lessons have been learned. Relationships have been fractured. There are no winners. Perhaps more difficult is finding a way to once again reconnect the various segments of the community that share a deep commitment to helping others. For if that fails, the loss would be more than any of us can afford.
Guest columnist David Cox is the Executive Director of St. Joseph’s Family Center in Gilroy and a member of the South County Collaborative’s board of directors.
Read The Dispatch’s editorial on the issue
