12/23/2024

Hot air balloons took off from California veterans home without state noticing, audit finds

A Napa Valley veterans home once criticized for building an adventure park on its grounds has been allowing a golf course to offer hot air balloon rides for years without a lease permitting the rides, according to a state auditor’s report released Tuesday.

The report draws attention to a mix of leases that the California Department of Veterans Affairs allows at its marquee property in Napa County, which the state dedicated to veterans in 1884. The audit found that the department has mismanaged the leases, allowing some tenants to pay below-market rent and allowing inappropriate activities to operate there.

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