MID’s Missing Legal Costs
By Emerson Drake 
A follow-up to MID Staffer Caught ‘Fudging’ the Numbers
We received the missing numbers through a Public Records Request. Not surprisingly Scott Van Veren’s representation to the public and the Board wasn’t as advertised. In the last meeting he made the claim the reason he hadn’t added the legal costs for lawsuits was because the settlements would skew or distort the report. So lets take a look and you tell me.
From 2014 through 2018 the missing numbers total from the legal fees for the lawsuits came to $3,283,175. The settlements for the same period came to $100,648. There was an additional column called other which was described as consultant fees and materials for the lawsuits which came to $680,383. You can see the breakdown by year below. Click on it to enlarge
it.
But clearly Scott claiming that $100,648 would skew $3,283,175 was a smoke screen. Just as sad was Director John Mensinger repeatedly calling for a vote. I would suggest John was aware of the ‘3 card monte’ or maybe you’d prefer ‘shell game’. being played out by MID staff.
Unfortunately MID is now using outside attorneys to process PPR’s. Normally you could get the answers quickly and if you had any questions they were happy to provide answers. The attorney I spoke with didn’t have a clue what the numbers meant nor could he explain the ‘other column’ Finally I was given a name at MID for follow-up explanations which were helpful. A hearty thanks to Ms. Cartisano. So we’ve made another PPR to find out just how much money MID is wasting on outside attorneys. Billable hours versus salary? The answer would seem to be a no brainer. But you know John Mensinger and his cabal, they’ll stop at nothing.
Eye On Modesto 