Caltrans Execs Back out of Golf Tournament Amid Criticism

The director of Caltrans’ Inland Empire office and other higher-ups within the agency on Friday dropped plans to participate in a charity golf tournament in the face of a lawmaker’s criticism that they shouldn’t be spending a workday on the fairway.

“We are not going to attend the tournament, which we had planned to do using our vacation time,” Caltrans District 8 Director John Bulinski told City News Service. “This was planned quite a while ago, and we had elected to do it on our own time.”

The California Transportation Foundation Charity SoCal Golf Tournament is set for Monday at the Dove Canyon Country Club in Orange County. Those slated to attend included Bulinski, Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty and Caltrans District 12 Director Ryan Chamberlain -- all of whom have since canceled their appearances.

“The tournament raises funds for a number of good causes provided by the foundation,” Bulinski said. “There are scholarships and support programs for families of fallen workers. When I was the District 2 director, two of my employees were killed in a rock slide, and the foundation provided significant support for both families.”

Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, denounced the golf function, issuing a statement Friday morning calling the outing another example of Caltrans employees wasting time on the taxpayers’ dime. He called for the transportation agency’s officials to withdraw from the event, citing a report released Thursday by the California State Auditor, which found that from August 2012 to March 2014, a Caltrans engineer spent 55 working days playing golf -- and his timesheets were all approved.

“Is Caltrans management that arrogant and tone-deaf?” Moorlach said. “The state auditor just revealed that they have employees golfing 55 days on- the-clock, so in response top management at Caltrans is taking a golf trip?”

Bulinski, a civil engineer who has worked for the California Department of Transportation over two decades, declined to comment on the senator’s accusations.

“All I can say is this is unfortunate. The timing is unfortunate,” Bulinski told City News Service.

Moorlach, a certified public accountant, has spent the past week issuing statements on the need for reform at Caltrans.

He said the auditor’s findings that 62 percent of vetted projects ended up over-budget, accompanied by a report from the state Legislative Analyst’s Office that Caltrans is believed to be over-staffed by 3,300 employees -- at an average annual cost of $143,000 per employee -- “screams” for attention.

According to the lawmaker, justification for overhauling the transportation agency is all the more apparent as the governor and others seek tax hikes to pay for statewide infrastructure overhauls.

“We simply cannot ask Californians to pay more for road repairs when the agency managing the process is trivializing their authority,” Moorlach said. “The employee mismanagement, waste and fraud of Caltrans must be addressed. I hope executives spend Monday stepping up their game by implementing reforms at Caltrans.”

--City News Service, photo of John Bulinski, District 8 Director. Photo courtesy of Caltrans