The Times did more digging… “The latest home sale by the [Hercules Redevelopment] agency, in November, was a three-bedroom townhouse; one of the buyers listed in real estate industry records was a Hercules employee in 2008, according to a payroll list from that year. The price, about $387,000, was the same as the city paid [...]

An eighteen-minute gap… “Much of the council’s housing-related business is conducted these days at the committee level, where no minutes are kept, according to [City Clerk Doreen] Mathews. From there, it usually makes its way to the consent calendar of the City Council. A grant deed on file at the county Recorder’s Office references a [...]

The city could use some more community meeting space… “According to records furnished by the city, the redevelopment agency spent $123,971 to acquire the condo of Adelyn Jill A. Balico [Councilmember Ed Balico's daughter], on Devonwood in the Village Park section, in a short sale; a grant deed was recorded with the Contra Costa County [...]

The issue of fairness and equity is unavoidable when you hand out very large loans to City employees and insiders… “[Hercules resident Dave] Crescenti learned about the mitigation program from reports about some six-figure bailout loans, including one of $460,000 in June 2009 to Eguzki Olano, the administrative assistant to the Hercules city manager, and [...]

Adding dollar figures into the mix… “The Hercules City Council, without any discussion, awarded almost $1 million in service and consulting contracts for the current fiscal year to a firm founded by the Hercules city manager and now owned by two of his daughters.” Ahem, easy bake.
The list of approved vendor contracts is available on [...]

Earlier this decade, the then manager of the City’s Affordable Housing agency — Darrick Jonathan Chavis, a former city employee — was arrested by the FBI and IRS on multiple counts of fraud, as part of a “scheme to bilk the City of Hercules out of $390,494,” using the financial vehicles that still exist today, [...]

I assume every resident read all 16 pages (the benefits of train travel)… “The Hercules Redevelopment Agency, under public scrutiny of late because of six-figure mortgage loans to some employees of the city and its affordable housing contractor, has responded with a beefed-up newsletter that extols the agency’s accomplishments in creating jobs and housing for [...]

Two members of the City Council — Kris Valstad and Ed Balico — approved the loan… “The administrative assistant to the Hercules city manager got a mortgage of more than $450,000 in June from the Hercules Redevelopment Agency on a house across the street from a similar one that sold for less than two-thirds that [...]

Tom Lochner’s report echoes concerns that have been raised on this blog (what I have termed an easy-bake council)… “Some Hercules residents are calling for a more open city government, complaining that City Council meetings are long on ceremonial matters while much of the business of the city gets conducted out of public sight. Million-dollar [...]

A Hercules resident is perplexed by the affordable housing scandal… “I’m wondering if the residents of Hercules are asleep or not reading or watching the news. [...] Is this nepotism or conflict of interest, or what?“

It was 4:30 in the morning when Councilmember Ed Balico’s phone started ringing. Balico wasn’t sleeping because — as you know — vampires never sleep. It was City Manager Nelson Oliva who was frantic on the other end of the line and, based solely on his trembling voice, somewhat disheveled in his appearance.
The most comical [...]

Despite heated rhetoric by residents, only one person chose to actually address the City Council on the matter of potential impropriety in the City’s affordable housing agency this past Tuesday evening, who laid out a reasoned and factual, if uninspired, argument…

The information in this report — the loan amounts, loan forgiveness, etc. — is not new (it was originally reported in June when the City Council approved the matter), but the fact that the CEO of the company (and daughter of the City Manager, founder of the company) with a multi-million dollar portfolio, and is [...]

Several readers have wondered whether or not there is a connection to Councilmember Ed Balico in the affordable housing “scandal.” (I use scandal in quotes because at this point we still don’t know what it is exactly. The insistence of City officials to remain stubbornly quiet in the face of press reports is only to [...]

A gap in construction phasing has resulted in a stalled state of construction for the Sycamore Downtown/North project. The contracting and phasing aspects of the contract was subcontracted to a construction management firm for a fee of $4m (or nearly 8 percent of anticipated construction costs), although the “bidding process for the subcontractors [is] managed [...]

A resident* of Hercules lambastes city officials in an editorial… “I commend you [the Contra Costa Times] on your investigative articles on some of the questionable activities from officials in the Hercules city government. Are they above the law? [...] They used the funds to bail themselves out of some condominium investments they made for [...]

Tom Lochner breaks down the family tree that operates as the affordable housing contractor… “She’s still in college, and until recently waited on tables at a Hercules waterfront restaurant, but at 20-something, Taylor Oliva already has three years’ tenure as president and CEO of a company with a multimillion-dollar portfolio. [...] Until her younger sisters, [...]

A Contra Costa Times reader and Waterfront resident opined on the affordable housing affair… “I am very concerned and would like an independent review. The words ‘grand jury’ come to mind.“

In what could lead to a series of investigations by the County, the Contra Costa County Assessor “will be reviewing all the condominiums in the city of Hercules.” Eep.

This is a rude awakening — paying more in property taxes because of (potential) affordable housing fraud… “When [Karen Kahn, the homeowner] called in May to protest, an assessor’s official told her a somewhat smaller condo on the same street had sold for $350,000 a few months earlier, Kahn said. Recent sales of ‘comparable’ properties [...]