Former CMedia Director Responds to Santa Rosa City Council Over Accounting Concerns

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Former Director of Santa Rosa’s CMedia sent this letter, obtained by KSRO, to the Santa Rosa City Council this afternoon regarding the recent reports of $330,000 in unaccounted for funding.  The letter comes ahead of tomorrow’s City Council meeting, where the Council will decide whether or not to terminate it’s contract with the independent media center.

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After a successful rebranding and a contract negotiation with the City of Santa Rosa that provided the community media center, CMedia, three additional years of service despite previous efforts by the city to close it, former executive director Daedalus Howell is perplexed by the  concerns raised  by the City of Santa Rosa and various unnamed third parties over their expressed  inability to account for some $330,000 in funding provided to CMedia.

Howell believes that a reasonable inspection of the media center’s financial records will yield a coherent understanding of how those funds were used in good faith with the knowledge and oversight of the CMedia board and the City of Santa Rosa.

Line items for project fulfillment and implementation of new capital projects were included in budgets that were timely submitted to the both the media center’s board and the city and these budgets were approved. At various points during Howell’s tenure with CMedia the city directed staff to pivot from specific projects and channel activities into other projects, which incurred additional capital expenditures.

Among them was directing capital resources toward the development of a new media center location at the Social Advocates for Youth Dream Center but later the city decided to change course, directing CMedia to explore being absorbed by the Sonoma County Library instead. Likewise, a large scale clean-up and overhaul of the facility was initiated to accommodate ArtQuest on the premises, which required more capital than originally determined for which the city contributed additional capital. The facility upgrade also included streamlining the cable television playback system and disposing of a flatbed truckload of antiquated electronics equipment. This too required additional capital, which was provided by the city with full understanding of the usage of these funds.

Throughout the tenure of Mr. Howell at CMedia, detailed monthly financial reports were presented to the CMedia board and duly approved. A review of these reports (which were also presented to the board  publicly), the corresponding meeting minutes, and the actual ledgers will show how these funds were properly used with the knowledge and consent of both the board and the city.

Moreover, as a matter of course, financial audits, conducted by a board-chosen, third-party CPA, were presented annually to the CMedia board and City of Santa Rosa for approval. Such audits, including the audit for the most recently completed  fiscal year, found absolutely no wrongdoing, including the usage and transfer of funds amongst CMedia accounts, and found nothing improper. Throughout the course of Mr. Howell’s tenure as the Executive Director of CMedia, standard business and accounting processes were followed, including when transferring funds between CMedia’s capital and operations accounts, which was a practice established at the media center prior to Howell’s tenure.

While on staff, Howell cultivated valuable relationships with the media and prospective partners of the organization.  Such efforts resulted in discounted advertising programs, and frequent, positive media mentions of the organization and its work.  Mr. Howell was tasked, by the CMedia board, with these activities by the iteration of the organization’s board that initially hired him and he continued pursuit of these efforts throughout his tenure.

Recent allegations have been publicly circulated asserting that Howell engaged in financial misconduct as the Executive Director of CMedia. These allegations, many of which have been made anonymously, are untrue and defamatory. Accordingly, Howell is exploring legal remedy. Further, Howell is pursuing a claim for unpaid wages.  Howell has retained Owen Seitel of the San Francisco law firm, Crown, LLP as counsel.

Despite his grievances and acceptance that he will no longer participate with the media center, Howell maintains a belief in the overall mission center and is optimistic that the Santa Rosa City Council will enable the media center to continue providing important services to the public.

“I sincerely hope that the city council enables the media center to continue its mission helping give voice to those who wish to share their stories,” says Howell.