Some rather incoherent commentary from our humble elected officials (on three issues: Intermodal Station and waterfront development, affordable housing, and the City Manager)… Highlights include: Joe Eddy McDonald stating that there would be no delay in the Intermodal Station’s federal funding (but not mentioning the construction delay), plus stating that the surrounding development has nothing [...]
Mark your calendars. The City’s affordable housing agency (managed by AHSG) is hosting a program orientation on August 11. While housing assistance programs are open to everyone that qualifies, actual eligibility is limited to those working for the agency, relatives of councilmembers and City management, and existing customers delinquent on existing agency loan products. In [...]
The City will pursue negotiations to purchase property along Willow Avenue (including the site currently operated by West Coast Drilling; lorem ipsum dolor) as it establishes the ultimate property boundary for the future Cinema Town and Transit Town, the second and third phases of the New Town Center project. (The first phase is Market Town, [...]
Although it was both too late and ultimately powerless, Councilmember Don Kuehne’s comments on the grand jury report at the last City Council meeting was a welcomed change… And it was that much more difficult for the arguably poor public speaker considering the fact that both the City Manager and City Attorney were staring Kuehne [...]
Tom Lochner reports on the City’s response… Hercules has fired back at last month’s scathing county grand jury report, calling baseless the jury’s findings that the conduct of city business, particularly the affordable housing program, lacks transparency and creates an “appearance of impropriety.” “Just because something looks wrong does not mean something is wrong,” reads [...]
Tom Lochner reports on Tuesday evening’s Council meeting… Councilman Don Kuehne then asked [NEO general manager Walter] McKinney to comment on public concern about possible conflicts of interest in the administration of affordable housing programs. “I know of no conflicts of interest,” McKinney said. “I am now the owner of NEO Consulting … actually … [...]
The City has published its response — an 11-page letter signed by Mayor Kris Valstad (but likely written by the City Attorney and City Manager) — to the Contra Costa County Grand Jury’s scathing report released last month. Brief analysis to follow. UPDATE — The letter is testy: “The ‘appearance of impropriety’ is yet another [...]
Tom Lochner keeps digging… “[Mike] Sakamoto worked for an investment banking firm that underwrote a $60.6 million Hercules Redevelopment Agency bond issue. But that information is not included in public disclosure documents available at Hercules City Hall. [...] Today, Sakamoto, who served as city manager from early 2002 to April 2007, has several consulting portfolios [...]
In addition to the value engineering study, other items on the agenda for Tuesday evening’s City Council meeting are also noteworthy. The City Council will commence the design of the sewer system as it switches from the Pinole wastewater treatment facility to WCWD in Richmond. The preliminary design cost is $1.16m. The Council will receive [...]
The City will return to the negotiating table in renewed efforts to purchase the Hilltown property — currently assessed at $14.2m — in closed session prior to next Tuesday’s City Council meeting. The City has not yet officially released its intention to purchase the property, explain the possible purchase to its residents, illustrate why a [...]
Wow. The stench you smell emanating from the small city of Hercules is a conflict-of-interest cesspool that grows more putrid with each passing day. Despite warnings from residents, this paper and the Contra Costa County grand jury, City Council members continue to ignore the fetid flow, abrogating their responsibility to clean up the mess. The [...]
This is getting ridiculous, and is reminiscent of the real estate company that Ed Balico had no idea who was running (he was “just a broker”) — and Balico went to Sacramento to find out — only to discover it was owned by his son… “NEO Consulting Inc. D.B.A. Affordable Housing Solutions Group, the company [...]
Resident Bill Kelly took to the podium on Tuesday evening and blasted the City Council for failing to act prior to the grand jury releasing their scathing report on questionable transactions made by the affordable housing agency, a City subcontractor with deep ties to the City Manager… After Kelly’s statement, Mayor Kris Valstad said that [...]
The City Council will approve $1.1m in subcontractor fees for NEO Consulting (doing business as the Affordable Housing Solutions Group) to conduct the City’s embattled Affordable Housing agency at Tuesday evening’s meeting — 7pm at City Hall. Tom Lochner reports in the Contra Costa Times… The NEO list of contract renewals for 2010-11 on Tuesday’s [...]
The Grand Jury report released late last week concluded with five recommendations… The City of Hercules shall expand ethics and conflict of interest training beyond the minimum two hours required by the California Attorney General’s memorandum, Ethics Training for Local Officials, and avail themselves of additional resources. The Hercules City Council shall direct the City [...]
The Grand Jury report released late last week concluded with eight findings… Awarding agreements to NEO without competitive bidding does not ensure the City is administering its programs in the most cost effective manner. Since 2003, the City of Hercules has executed agreements with NEO, previously owned by the current City Manager. NEO currently employs [...]
This makes complete sense… “The Contra Costa civil grand jury is accusing Hercules of questionable practices and a lack of transparency in its affordable housing and business loan programs.” You can read the scathing Grand Jury report online. And a complete subject archive of the affordable housing scandal is available on this blog.
If you have the time during the day, do what Hercules resident Dan Romero is doing — dropping-in on the subcommittee meetings, which is how the City Council does its business these days and is an affront to open meeting laws (no minutes are kept)… “When Dan Romero showed up at 10 a.m. Wednesday — [...]
An end to easy-bake? … “Residents calling for more transparency in city government are forcing the Hercules City Council to answer questions about big-dollar appropriations that used to breeze to approval without any discussion.“
Safe mailboxes, dirty contracts? … “Resident Dan Romero and Councilman Don Kuehne asked why Obrestad’s existing contract was expanded without bid the last time it came up and why the same was being proposed once again. [...] Kuehne said a bid in today’s economy might be 20 percent lower than in 2008. Nevertheless, Kuehne joined [...]
The City Council will hear a report from State Senator Mark DeSaulnier on Tuesday evening — 7pm at City Hall — as well as implement a construction amnesty program for previous unpermitted work in the city. The Redevelopment Agency (aka the City Council) will set aside an additional $800k for affordable housing loans for the [...]
An Alameda County judge’s ruling that a voter-approved housing cap for the city of Pleasanton violates state law may certainly be appealed if it does in fact have wide implications (the reluctance of Marin County to expand housing opportunities comes to mind), but it does highlight that Hercules has done more than its part in [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The Contra Costa Times editorial staff rips the City’s affordable housing program (which should be suspended indefinitely)… “There are two issues here. First, there’s the issue of the conflict. Second, it’s clear that the city is throwing good money after bad. By paying off the loans, or, in some cases, buying the properties outright, the [...]
Affordable Housing Solutions Group (which also does business as NEO Consulting), the contracted consultant that runs the City’s affordable housing program, is made up — in part — of the following team… Michael A. Sakamoto, former Hercules City Manager and one-time mentor of current City Manager Nelson Oliva; Walter McKinney, former Chief of Police of [...]
An informative report by the Contra Costa Times’ Tom Lochner on the origins of the current Affordable Housing program in Hercules was published in 2003 (shown below; currently unavailable online). It should be noted that former City Manager Mike Sakamoto currently works for Affordable Housing Solutions Group, and is also a consultant to the City [...]
Interesting details uncovered by Tom Lochner… “NEO Consulting — the initials are Nelson E. Oliva’s — was founded by Oliva, but he divested himself of his interest in the company in early 2007 before he became Hercules city manager that April, he said. ‘[Oliva] does not manage the corporation and has never as city manager [...]
Another investigative report from Tom Lochner on the peculiar investments made by the City’s affordable housing agency… “A Hercules affordable housing loan program devised to help residents stave off foreclosure in recent years has bailed out numerous owners of ‘underwater’ homes, including the project manager for the contractor that runs the city’s Affordable Housing Department. [...]
In a related story, Tom Lochner reports that “the Hercules Affordable Housing Department and a slew of affiliated city programs are run from a portable next to City Hall by a private contractor, largely without City Council review. [...] The firewall between the city and its contractor at times appears ill-defined. In addition to referring [...]
According to Tom Lochner’s report, an affordable housing loan was made on a property owned by a manager of the City’s affordable housing program (which is run as an independent corporation), a loan of $295k on a purchase price of $345k (with an additional $50k first-time homebuyer loan issued later that covers the difference). The [...]