What a Colossal Waste of Taxpayer Money!

ABSTRACT: The City Council authorized the expenditure of $250,000 to the Pebble Beach Company in an attempt to avoid stormwater obligations and authorized and/or has authorized nearly $350,000 to attorneys, consultants, et cetera, in an attempt to sell the National Register of Historic Places Flanders Mansion. Both resulted in failure. All in all, a colossal waste of taxpayer money!

Within the last 2 ½ years, the City Council of the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea has authorized the expenditure of $250,000 to the Pebble Beach Company for “legal costs associated with the Areas of Special Biological Significance Cease and Desist Order” and has likewise authorized the expenditure and/or agreed to the expenditure of $347,637.34 in professional fees associated with the City Council’s decision to sell the Flanders Mansion property.

The $250,000 expenditure to Pebble Beach for legal fees to the law firm Latham and Watkins, LLP, resulted in the denial of a waiver for the City’s stormwater runoff obligations. As of September 11, 2007, “Staff is investigating the cost for filing an exception as well as working with the cities of Monterey, Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach Company to meet with the WRCB Director to further discuss the ASBS discharge requirements.”

The nearly $350,000 in fees associated with the City Council’s attempt to sell the National Register of Historic Places Flanders Mansion property has resulted in a verdict by a Superior Court judge informing the city of the city’s multiple legal violations, including violations of the California Environmental Quality Act, California Government Code and the City’s Municipal Code. And, if the City Council continues in their attempt to sell the Flanders Mansion property, the prospect of additional consultant and legal costs associated with proving the lease option is “economically infeasibility.”

What a Colossal Waste!

REFERENCES:

113419 7/10/07 PEBBLE BEACH COMPANY $ 125,000.00 STORMWATER ISSUE LEGAL EXPENSES-FINAL PAYM
(Source: July 2007 Check Register)

111443 9/19/2006 PEBBLE BEACH COMPANY 125,000.00 ATTORNEY FEES - STORMWATER ISSUE
(Source: September 2006 Check Register)


$160,000: Susan Brandt-Hawley, Attorney for Flanders Foundation
$83,448: William B. Conners, Special Counsel for the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea
(Source: City won't appeal Flanders decision - Preservationists' attorney to get $160K, MARY BROWNFIELD, October 12, 2007)