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| Developer helping to fund AB 1991 lobbying efforts By Mark Noack [ mark@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 2:25 PM PDT City officials revealed Tuesday night that the real estate developer previously entangled in the lengthy Beachwood conflict with the city has been paying half the lobbying expenses to help pass AB 1991. Developer Charles Keenan's payment of $20,000 a month was revealed during the regularly scheduled City Council meeting. Councilman Jim Grady said he was uncomfortable with the city's lobbying firm, California Strategies, and the lack of any itemized invoice from the firm showing what they were doing on the city's behalf. Grady wondered aloud why the city was paying only half the lobbying firm's standard $40,000-a-month payment, saying he had reason to believed Keenan was paying the other $20,000. "My issue is this: Only a fool would pay $20,000 a month and expect nothing for it," said Grady. "It's not right to have the person who initiated this litigation paying half the costs." Keenan confirmed Wednesday that he has been paying $20,000 to help get AB 1991 passed, along with providing attorneys to help draft AB 1991. "We helped pay the city's lobbying bill," Keenan said. "Also AB 1991 involves some technical land-use issues so we gave them guidance on that." After a federal court ruling in 2007 awarded $38 million to Keenan, Half Moon Bay officials negotiated a settlement agreement in April, agreeing to pay the developer a lesser amount of $18 million if they city could not secure rights for Keenan to construct 129 homes on the Beachwood tract along Highway 1. Building the homes on the property that has been declared wetlands requires a legislative initiative to create an exemption from state environmental law. The bill has thus far been stymied in the Senate. According to Keenan, he is under no obligation from the settlement agreement to help get AB 1991 passed. "Everybody came to the settlement table in good faith, so I just felt like I'll chip in," Keenan said. "I wasn't required to do this, but I did pay a lot of money. I wanted to give the town and myself every opportunity to get AB 1991 passed." |