Another week has gone by and yes, the Marina City Council has had another meeting. Trust me on this one when I say they keep getting more and more interesting. If I recall, the resounding cry from the supporters of Councilmen O’Connell, Brown and Mayor Delgado has been for more transparency and fewer conflicts of interest (however real or perceived). So what to make of the events at the last Council meeting?
A few weeks ago the Marina City Council voted on and approved a very modest (1.8%) rent increase for the residence of Preston and Abrams Parks. This was done after market surveys and testimony from the property management firm and was passed by the Council. So last week Councilman O’Connell decided he was taking too much heat for this vote so he requested the City Council revisit this item, which is his right.
What happened from here is disturbing. Councilman O’Connell proceeded to “grill” the property manager (Alliance), but never seemed to grasp or want to grasp the answers to his questions. Instead he decided to introduce a long motion with multiple parts that would roll back the rents, fire the City’s liaison, make himself the Council liaison to the renters, take funds from the reserve account to cover the difference in the City’s budget and introduce a new rent formula to calculate future rents. Clearly, this motion was set up in advance… which raises a whole lot of questions about process, but that’s another story.
Quite simply, this motion is a complete disaster. This omnibus motion should never have been made. Many of the parts are worthy of considerable discussion and have deep consequences that the Councilman clearly does not understand. The Council could decide to roll back the rents but that has some unintended consequences. I am sure that these items will come up again on Tuesday night as the Council continues the agenda from last week, so I will not detail all the issues here.
My concern is the profound conflict of interest that is imbedded in his motion.
As a Marina City Councilman, each council member has a fiduciary responsibility as the Agency - for oversight - of the property manager (Alliance). As the City’s representative to FOR A, Councilman O’Connell also has a fiduciary responsibility for the Property Owner (FOR A) for oversight of the Agency (The City of Marina). However now Councilman O’Connell wants to act as an advocate for the property renters against the property manager (Alliance) and also act as an advocate against the Agency (City of Marina) and the Owner (FOR A). The motion to change the rental policy and the recalculation of the formula for rents will negatively affect the financials of both the agency (City of Marina) and the Owner (FOR A). One other point: Councilman O’Connell is also a party to the arbitration hearings between the City of Marina and FOR A - which adds another layer to this complex issue.
So the question to get answered is: to whom does Councilman O’Connell have fiduciary responsibilities to?
- Is it the Property Owner (FOR A)?
- Is it the Agency (City of Marina)?
- Is it the property manager (Alliance)?
- Or Is it the renters as their advocate?
Can one person have such conflicting roles and not put himself and all the parties represented in jeopardy?
Perhaps these are the questions that should be raised at Tuesday night’s Council meeting.
More later
Here is what happened:
ReplyDelete1) We voted to raise our taxes to support public safety services
2) Mayor Bruce Delgado and Council Member O'Connell are taking that money away from Public Safety and giving it to their friends. People who make more than $80,000 a year.
Yea , they claim to be for the working class, but all of their actions are to kill jobs and not challenge Monterey, Carmel and Pacific Grove.
I just love this so I am re-posting it: Atlas Shrugged
ReplyDelete...People don't want to think. And the deeper they get into trouble, the less they want to think. But by some sort of instinct, they feel that they ought to and it makes them feel guilty. So they'll bless and follow anyone who gives them a justification for not thinking. Anyone who makes a virtue--a highly intellectual virtue--out of what they know to be their sin, their weakness and their guilt."
Bruce is making it a virtue to expect the government to take money from one group and give it to his friends and supporters.
Council member O'Connell is either lying or not aware of the facts when he states that he is always looking out for the best interests of Marina.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first act that council member O'Connell took as a Council member, was to ask for a reductions in the Market Rate rental rates in Preston Park.
Does he not know that 40% percent of the housing in Preston Park is set aside for very low , low and moderate income owners and 60% is for Market rate housing, which should be rented out for what the Market will bare. By lowering the rates council member O'Connell took money away from all of the citizen in Marina to benefit a few.
O'Connell and Delgado are both guilty of giving too their supporters at the expense of all the citizens of Marina.