Last night’s council meeting was cancelled due to a Brown Act violation in which Councilman Steve Sammarco emailed all the Council on the CenterCal agenda item. But the big story is NOT in the Brown Act violation, but rather what the Councilman was responding to.
The Councilman’s email was made public to remedy the Brown Act violation. The email reveals that the City Manager was trying to manipulate the outcome of the meeting by pressuring Sammarco into reading a pre-drafted motion to approve the CenterCal project crafted by the City Manager himself. Motions are supposed to be made based on the public Council proceedings, not pre-wired and pre-coordinated scripts.
But to make matters worse, the email also shows that City staff, who are advocating now for the developer, have not evaluated whether the proposed Mall-by-the Sea has any chance to be successful.
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”I’m not sure preparing a motion for me to read tonight is the right thing to do. For a number of reasons, first and foremost I wasn’t around when original deal was hatched. Secondly I was under the impression (by you) I would get my third-party independent review; to make sure the market could bear 400,000 sq feet of retail which I asked for I believe two months ago well in advance of this meeting so I could have time to prepare. I have no third-party independent financial Analysis.
So in all fairness to the taxpayers to the developer and residents, im the last person on the council That should be making this motion.” - Councilman Sammarco email
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It goes to prove that there is a lot of back room activity that goes on before a Council meeting that the public has no insight into. And certainly, before the City commits to well over $25M in taxpayer money investment, they should understand if the project has any chance of being a success. Shame on our City staff for rushing blindly forward. But even if they do an assessment at this point, how can we trust any assessment now that City staff has shown their minds are already made up?
Hat’s off to Councilman Sammarco for pushing back on the attempted manipulation and for demanding a feasibility analysis. Both are the right thing to do.
