LAKEPORT – During Tuesday's Lakeport City Council meeting, the city's mayor disclosed publicly his friendship with a man interested in developing the city's sewer treatment land and the Dutch Harbor and Natural High School parcels.
The disclosure came during a discussion on eminent domain, a topic controversial enough that more than two dozen area residents attended the meeting.
Responding to questions from citizens, Mayor Roy Parmentier denied that the city planned to use eminent domain to take the Natural High property from the Lakeport Unified School District in order to allow Jim Burns and his partners, Boeger Land Development LLC of Gridley, to develop a resort complex there. Boeger Land Development also is proposing the Cristallago development outside of the city.
Parmentier said Willopoint Resort, near Library Park, was a more likely candidate, but said that he only wanted to add the language to the city's redevelopment plan to give the agency another tool.
A reporter then asked him if he had any relationships to disclose, at which point he admitted he and Burns were “fishing buddies.” Parmentier said he paid for gas and bait and that there was no issue with the fishing trips.
Burns, who has done redevelopment consulting for the city, had reportedly counseled against including eminent domain language in the redevelopment plan in 1998-99. Last month, however, he made a redevelopment presentation to the council involving a hypothetical $35 million resort complex on the school site. In that presentation he addressed the use of eminent domain.
Less than a week later Parmentier, who in recent years been a staunch advocate of seeing the Natural High and Dutch Harbor properties jointly developed, had the eminent domain language addition agendized not under Redevelopment Agency business but under “City Council Communications.” The item was rescheduled under a more appropriate heading at acting City Manager Richard Knoll's suggestion.
Burns and Boeger also are proposing to develop a golf course and housing development on the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District (CLMSD) land, although an actual plan has yet to be submitted to the city. Parmentier has voiced his support for Burns doing such a project; in fact, Parmentier and Councilman Buzz Bruns sit on the council-appointed committee to negotiate with Burns and his group regarding the property.
City hall officials and council members say it's no secret that Parmentier and Burns are good friends. City Attorney Steve Brookes also called the two “fishing buddies,” and City Councilman Ron Bertsch said the whole council knows about the friendship between the two.
Parmentier reportedly visits Burns regularly at his Fort Bragg home, where the two go fishing on Burns' ocean-going fishing boat.
Parmentier claimed Tuesday night that he had publicly disclosed the matter before, a claim he also made in a recent interview.
However, both Brookes and Knoll said previously no formal public disclosure has been made.
As city attorney, Brookes advises council members on potential conflicts of interest. Parmentier said in the previous interview that he asked Brookes for an opinion and that Brookes said he didn't need to recuse himself from discussions with Burns.
“I don't know what he means by that,” said Brookes in an interview that preceded Tuesday's meeting. “I don't believe he has formally asked me.”
Brookes said during that interview that he couldn't offer an opinion on the subject with the information he has. “The only thing I know is that Mayor Parmentier has gone fishing with Mr. Burns.”
At Tuesday's meeting, when Brookes was asked whether he had opined on the nature of the relationship, he said no. Brookes then invoked the principle of attorney-client privilege. When asked what his opinion was, Brookes stated that he had no problem with the fishing trips.
Brookes did not address the more specific concerns of whether or not Parmentier's friendship with Burns constitutes a conflict of interest, based on the fact that fishing trips could count as gifts, which would establish a financial interest and therefore a conflict on Parmentier's part.
The Fair Political Practices Commission states that elected public officials cannot accept gifts from any single source totaling more than $360 in a calendar year. It defines a “gift” as “any payment or other benefit provided to you that confers a personal benefit for which you do not provide goods or services of equal or greater value.”
Under the FPPC's explanation of conflict of interest, it lists gifts as economic interests. The FPPC states on its Web site: “You have an economic interest in anyone, whether an individual or an organization, who has given you gifts which total $360 or more (changes to $390 or more beginning January 1, 2007) within 12 months prior to the decision about which you are concerned.”
As an example of value, Anchor Charter Boats of Fort Bragg reports that a five-hour fishing trip on the ocean costs $70 on average.
Parmentier's last statement of economic interest form, signed March 31, 2006, and covering the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2005, noted that he had not reportable interests to disclose.
Parmentier declared Tuesday night he would call the FPPC about the issue.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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