How the Banning Cultural Alliance ripped off the taxpayer for $ 110,000 – with the CRA  (City Council) looking the other way

In 2006 the Banning Cultural Alliance received funding for a variety of programs including a “marketing” program aimed at promoting the City of Banning . Under the contract with the City, ( see page 6 ), the Banning Cultural Alliance agreed to produce during 2006/07 :

• Billboard Ads
• Radio and TV Ads
• Infomercials
• In-flight Publications

This particular portion of the contract was valued at $ 110,000  ( see page 7 of the contract ). Funding was subsequently provided by the City of Banning in the full amount (view checks).

Today, 3 years after the contract was entered into, there is no dispute about the fact that the Banning Cultural Alliance never produced ANY of the above marketing items : they have never put up  a single billboard, never produced a single radio or tv ad or even one infomercial. In-flight publications have never been published either.  Plain and simple, the Alliance breached their contract with the City.

Instead of  providing the agreed upon services, the Banning Cultural Alliance  just pocketed the $ 110,000 given to them by the City, while they knew full well that they were not entitled to that money. They flat out ripped off the taxpayer.

During the CRA (City Council) meeting of June 23, 2009, City Treasurer Dr. John McQuown made a plea to the Community Redevelopment Agency ( City Council Members) . He asked the Board to take the above circumstances into account ( while not expressly stating the actual dollar amount of $ 110,000 ) and to stop or vastly reduce funding of the Alliance. Watch Dr. John McQuown  :

So here  the Board heard it straight from the City Treasurer : the  Alliance did not give the City what it paid for, therefore do not consider funding them with more taxpayer dollars. However, without much debate, the Board ignored Dr. McQuown’s concerns and immediatedly voted for yet another $ 131,500 in City funding, bringing the total to about $ 746,000. Hanna, Botts, Machisic and Robinson looked the other way and even voted for more funding that day, only Debbie Franklin voted against.

To this day the Banning Cultural Alliance has not repaid a dime of the $ 110,000 they were not entitled to. This circumstance clearly indicates  that the Banning Cultural Alliance must be seen as a parasite that depletes it’s host , the taxpayer, while enjoying immunity from litigation due to a complicit CRA (City Council).