Update to Letters of Support Needed

Hello everyone,

First off, thank you for all of the kind words and support we have been given over the last 30 hours in our Performance Review Evaluation with the State. We are going through the process of e-mailing everyone who took their valuable time to send letters of support on our behalf.

We wanted to give you an update on the State’s response to us now that they are sending replies to those e-mails. Their response to people who have sent them an e-mail is as follows:

The blanket e-mail they just sent out:

From: “Concessions, SDCD@Parks” <SDCD.Concessions@parks.ca.gov>
Date: September 2, 2022 at 4:20:02 PM PDT
To: “Concessions, SDCD@Parks” <SDCD.Concessions@parks.ca.gov>
Subject: The Camp Store – South Carlsbad State Beach

Thank you for your comments regarding The Camp Store at South Carlsbad State Beach. Your State Parks values the partnership with our concession partners and acknowledge the amazing efforts of their businesses and employees, as well as, recognize the support of our visitors and communities.

Performance evaluations are completed by State Parks statewide to appraise how a business is meeting the purpose and the provisions of their contract. This evaluation is an internal review process between State Parks and partners. A draft evaluation is provided for the partner to review and then provide input and discussion with our offices before any score is finalized and the evaluation accepted and signed. 

State Parks provided a draft evaluation to The Camp Store on August 29, 2022 and to date, the department is awaiting our partner to calendar an appointment for discussion.  The evaluation is pending and will not be finalized until we receive input and have a discussion with The Camp Store.

We appreciate your understanding and patience as your California State Parks attempts to better understand the needs of its concessions program at the San Diego Coast District and create greater opportunities for partners such as The Camp Store. These types of evaluations ultimately improve the delivery of services to visitors. 

Kind regards, 
San Diego Coast District
California State Parks

To clarify, this is the process for handling Performance Evaluations. Please refer to Item number 6 when the State claims that the report was a “draft”. The report was submitted to us for signing within 14 days of receipt; this offers definitive proof that when it was submitted to us we were on Step 7 which is why they requested we review the document and sign it and send it back to them. So again, the e-mail they sent to everyone above is false, that is not the process. They should have signed the document before sending us the Notice of Completed Evaluation. All reasons why this can only be considered a final version.

The actual letter sent to us is in the PDF below – the title of the PDF is “Notice of Completion of Performance Evaluation_8.29.22”:

The problem with this response is that it is untrue. Here is the exact letter they sent to us along with the Performance Evaluation.

As anyone can clearly see there is no mention that this was a “draft evaluation” and that is further evidenced by the request the title of the document and demand performance evaluation for California to have us sign it and return the document back to them no later than September 16th. It also mentions they want to discuss the scoring but again there is no mention that there is any recourse to this evaluation which is why we have ultimately reached out to the public for support. Altogether, their response is a diversion, deceptive, and shady – this should never happen with any governmental office.

Here is a copy of the e-mail they sent to me yesterday afternoon once we published it:

From: “Concessions, SDCD@Parks” <SDCD.Concessions@parks.ca.gov>
Date: Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 2:16 PM
To: Anthony Marcotti <anthony@thecampstore.com>
Cc: “Concessions, SDCD@Parks” <SDCD.Concessions@parks.ca.gov>
Subject: RE: Performance Review Response

Hi Anthony,

Thank you for confirming that you have received your Performance Evaluation. In our email with your evaluation, we asked you to provide us with dates to review the evaluation. Please send us dates for us to meet to discuss the Performance Evaluation. 

Just to confirm, the Performance Evaluation is unsigned because we want to meet with you to discuss the review before it is finalized.  

We look forward to receiving some dates from you to review.

Kind regards,

Julia Miura and Megan BoisvertSpecial Events & Concessions CoordinatorsSan Diego Coast District | Department of Parks and Recreation

And here is a copy to our response sent today at 10:51am:

Julia,

It is apparent that you viewed that Performance Review as finalized based on this “Notice of Completion of Performance Evaluation” document with the further request that we sign it and return it no later than September 16^th. It does not mention you wanted to meet and discuss a non finalized version, it says you wanted to meet to “review” this performance evaluation. 

August 29th, 2022 at 12:13pm

“Hi Anthony,

Please see your Notice of Completion of Performance Evaluation and 8.12.22 The Camp Store Performance Evaluation attached.

Please send us a few dates that work for your calendar for a meeting to review this performance evaluation.

Please review, sign, and email back to us by September 16, 2022.

Kind regards,

Concessions Team”

This statement from your latest e-mail is categorically false and misleading and it appears you are positioning yourselves to backtrack on what was given to us as a finalized report:

September 1^st , 2022 at 2:16pm

“Just to confirm, the Performance Evaluation is unsigned because we want to meet with you to discuss the review before it is finalized. “

As we stated in our response “we do not accept your team’s findings, your logic, your opinions, or this score.”  And as a result of that we will not be signing this performance evaluation and will not be returning it by September 16^th as requested.. We are happy to set up a meeting at The Camp Store with concerned members of the public to discuss the rationale behind this scoring and for you to explain why it was unsigned which appears to be a breach of the standard operating procedures. If you do determine that the scoring was inaccurate we expect a written apology which we will also share with the public. Hopefully, as you can see the outpouring of support we’ve had your evaluation is not based on reality, has defamed our good character and hard work, and there should be repercussions for the people responsible for submitting that hurtful and misguided report from the top down. This evaluation has caused my family and I extreme drama and stress and is an insult to the hard work and dedication we put into The Camp Store to bring all of the ideas you signed off as our supposed partners to fruition. 

Regards, Anthony 

Anthony Marcotti
The Camp Store
7201 Carlsbad Blvd
Carlsbad, CA 92008
P: + 1.714.369.8121
C: + 1.714.478.2487
anthony@anthonymarcotti
www.thecampstore.com

This evaluation poses a direct threat to everything that we have worked for, the original letter is attached to the link below and we encourage anyone who received their false blanket e-mail to respond back to them and anyone who wants to write a letter fo support to follow the link below.

Thanks again, Anthony and Courtney

https://thecampstore.com/letterofsupport/