Secret Website, Why Can't We Be Friends?

Remember the little nuggets we uncovered about the mysterious origins of Gold Team, the troubling and unapproved by the county initiative from Ventura County Supervisor Jeff Gorell? We wrote about them here. Buckle in, the plot has officially thickened, and some public records receipts have arrived.

We filed a Public Records Act request and oh yes, Gorell's office delivered. Buried in an email dated March 6, 2023, Jeff Gorell casually drops this gem:

Ah yes, Mark Perryman. As in Gorell’s former chief of staff (CoS). The role of CoS is the highest paid position on his staff. Seemingly Gorell expected Perryman to moonlight as a webmaster for a site not hosted on any county approved system. This is interesting because Gorell routinely touts himself as a fiscal conservative.

So why not use someone from the county's technology team or a lower cost resource to build the website of this initiative that should have been approved by the board of supervisors before he embarked upon it. It begs the question, why did Gorell obfuscate the proper channels and ask his CoS and unpaid an unapproved by the county, volunteers to launch Gold Team?

Anyhow...

While the rest of the office was presumably doing you know, actual county business, Perryman was apparently tapped to help build Gorell’s seemingly covert digital side project. A CoS, not an intern, not a contractor, not even someone from Geek Squad, crafting a website that lived outside the county’s infrastructure. For reference, he continues to ignore the job description of a Ventura County CoS and has his current CoS submitting his financial documents to the Fair Political Practices Commission.

Nothing wasteful, corrupt, or fishy about that, Jeff.

Now, if you’re wondering whether we’ve received the archived version of that original site yet — the website that mysteriously vanished before the official Gold Team page on Gorell's county webpage appeared. Well, we’re still waiting. We believe we may not have the full record. When the records drop in the mailboxes of our investigative team, we’ll be right back here with the next chapter.

Before we return next Tuesday, we'd like to make you aware of jewel that showed up in the documents we received last week from Gorell's office regarding Gold Team. Apparently before former Executive Director (ED) Tim McDougall, there was another Gold Team ED.

Who is Ping? Who is Tim McDougall? Come back next week, friends. We've got the details.

Stay tuned. The tea is still steeping.