Article: Is the Sebastopol Planning Director Rigging the CVS/Chase Project?

[Peacetown Jonathan]

Aug 12, 2012
I want to post publicly what I said to Kenyon in person recently, which is that I offer my apologies for the tone of this article. While I still think the main point of the article, stating judgement as fact in staff reports, is a worthy concern, the tone and generally accusatory nature of the article was un-called for and inappropriate.

I will leave the article up, as it the viewpoint of one of our members, but I want to make clear where I stand on it.

Barry
Moderator

Jonathan Greenberg
WaccoBB.net

This week's Agenda Report about the CVS development by Sebastopol Planning Director Kenyon Webster to five City Council members reads like a legal brief on behalf of the developers of the property.

Indeed, it was difficult for citizens at the July 17 public hearing about the controversial project (which would remake the crossroads of our community) to tell the difference between Mr. Webster's statements to the Council Members and the defiant words from the developer. Both argued that the City's legally authorized Design Review Board had exceeded its authority by daring to judge the project's design. Both claimed, with full assurance, that the developer had adequately responded to each and every one of the concerns that the City Council had expressed in an earlier assessment of the project. And both asserted, with great certainty, that our City Council must approve this project without further delay.

If Sebastopol's City Council members feel like their hands are tied and that they have no legal discretion but to rubber stamp this project, then, it seems, Kenyon Webster will have done his job well. From the perspective of Armstrong Development.

The problem is, Kenyon Webster works for the taxpayers of Sebastopol, not Armstrong Development. Our cash-strapped city spends more than $280,000 a year for Mr. Webster's salary, and that of his two part time assistants. (1)

I have been an investigative financial reporter for decades, analyzing and publishing articles on major real estate projects and financial scandals for magazines like Forbes and New York. An examination of Mr. Webster's actions in the course of the approval process for the CVS project suggests that at every critical juncture, the City's Planning Director has acted in a pro-developer advocacy capacity, as opposed to the professional analytical capacity to which he is legally and ethically obligated.

Instead of enabling a fully informed review of this critical project by our democratically-elected, legally empowered City Council, Mr. Webster has acted in a dictatorial, domineering manner to push the approval of this critically located, enormously unpopular project.

Our Council has been advised that it is "not allowed" to consider the traffic impact of this project because a traffic study with a "negative declaration" of its impact has been issued. But it seems that this negative impact may have been built upon a Kenyon Webster rigged foundation from the start. It will surprise Sebastopolians that of the ten sites which Mr. Webster selected for the traffic study provider to assess, the Bodega Highway eastbound access point, one of the most backed up traffic choke points in West County, was only measured from High Street. No further western points, especially the long area to Jewell Avenue, where traffic backs up every rush hour, were assessed. Because any projected traffic delay of more than five seconds from the CVS project would be "significant," and prevent a negative declaration, Mr. Webster seems to have removed this "problem," by limiting the traffic sites that the study would assess.

Source: Mitigated Negative Declaration

As a result, the citizens of Sebastopol and our City Council are told they must now legally believe what on the face of it is unlikely and unbelievable: that adding 2,000- car trips every day to the proposed CVS site will NOT CAUSE AN ADDITIONAL FIVE SECOND DELAY heading east on Bodega Avenue.

Few of the scores of Sebastopolians that I spoke to believe this. Yet this is the stacked deck that Mr., Webster has dealt our city.

And it gets worse.

In his recent report to the City Council, Mr Webster stated, "As was the case for the Design Review Board's review, the Council's review parameters in this appeal are limited to the design issues identified in City council Resolution 5864, and does not include new design issues.”

The problem is, that this is not what the law states. This is Mr. Webster's professional opinion, which flies in the face of legal decisions about the discretionary approval powers of local government. Had Mr. Kenyon written that the Council's review parameters "SHOULD BE limited to the design issues identified," he would be acting in his proper capacity. But for someone who is not an attorney, speaking in his official capacity as Planning Director, to state that the Council's considerations are limited, is a disservice to our City's elected government. It improperly blocks them from performing their legally sanctioned role. And Mr. Webster expressed this opinion masquerading as fact in a manner which will be cited as Exhibit 1 in Armstrong's lawsuit against the City of Sebastopol, should our Council members exercise their responsibility and uphold the determination by Sebastopol's thoughtful, professional, duly-authorized Design review Board.

In the same opinion, Mr. Webster goes further from the purview of his proper office to state additional "findings of fact," which are even more limiting and suspicious. He declares (not suggests, but declares) that the developer HAS MET EVERY ONE of the concerns which the City Council has suggested, except a few minor details which the City can add as conditions of their inevitable and, according to Mr. Webster, indisputable, approval of the CVS project.

Mr. Webster's report finds that this design will conform to the General Plan and "maintain Sebastopol as a small town."

Source: Staff Report

Really? A suburban style building that opens to a huge parking lot, without a single door into the street it faces, is far from a small town feel in most people's view-and more importantly, in the view of four of the five professionally qualified members of our City's Design Review Board. Yet somehow Mr. Webster does not report that in his OPINION this conforms to a small town feel, while acknowledging that this assessment by law needs to be made by our City Council in their discretion. Instead, he reports this as a finding of fact.

Mr. Webster's commentary like this blocks our Council from doing their duty, and leaves Council Members feeling like their discretion--which has been supported in court findings again and again, is limited.

In another example, Mr. Webster finds that the Council's concern that the architecture of the project reflects styles of the early 20th Century "has been met."

Source: Staff Report

Really? A suburban box with no doors on the street that opens into a large parking lot with a drive through window reflects styles of the early 20th Century. Not as Mr. Webster's opinion, but as a fact. Really?

I spent one year serving on the staff of City Government for the New York City Council. In the year following 9-11, I was Policy Director for Lower Manhattan Redevelopment, charged with providing the Council with assessments, analysis and recommendations for the oversight of more than $2 billion in rebuilding programs for residents and small businesses in Lower Manhattan, where I lived. I worked with many other staffers of the Council and Mayor's office, and understood, as they did, that my job was to provide information for the elected public officials to exercise their discretion and do their jobs better.

I am shocked, and saddened when I review the actions of Mr. Webster in this matter. It seems that at every turn, he has seen his role as boxing in the deliberative role that our elected and appointed city officials are supposed to perform. I feel that the City Council should initiate an independent investigation into the role of city staff regarding the CVS project. And, if the investigation finds improper conduct by Mr. Webster, our Council should publicly censure him for interfering with the transparent, responsive local government processes which we, as taxpayers, finance and deserve.

I am further concerned about the role that Council Member Kathleen Shaffer has chosen to play in this process. In her own words six months ago, she was "working under the radar screen" to organize support for this project, sending out the developer's promotional brochures to assist citizens willing to write to the City Council about it to "understand" the project. Her support for the project from the onset has limited her ability to serve our city by withholding judgment until assessments and negotiations over the project could be made. The role of a Council member ought not be to act as a lobbyist, or cheerleader, for whatever party is willing to pay the highest price to the owners of a critically located parcel of land.

Council Member Shaffer's actions appear to have been coordinated with Mr. Webster's to "guide this project" through the review process. Mr. Webster's actions, in working ardently to block the decision of our Design Review Board, force an independent traffic study's findings to support a "negative declaration," and state opinion as fact in finding that the developer complied with all Council Member concerns, have disempowered the role that our local ELECTED officials are empowered to perform.

It feels as though a shadow government, working for the benefit of one of our wealthiest landowners and a few enormous corporations, has taken control of our city's future.

In voting to deny Armstrong's appeal and uphold the Design Review Board decisions, the City Council would make a stand for our real local democratic government, by the people, of the people, and for the people.

(1) In the 2010-2011 Sebastopol city budget, posted here

Page 28 notes the size of the existing staff:
"With a small staff (full-time Director, reduced-time Associate Planner, and part-time Administrative Assistant shared with the Public Works Department), the Department has a challenging workload."

Page 31 reports the cost of the Sebastopol's Planning Department:
The first budget line, item 6010, reports total salaries for the one full time and two part or reduced time positions as $197,594. Two lines down, item 6023, reports benefits of $82,790.

A breakout of the Planning Director Kenyon Webster's salary plus benefits could not be located in public documents by this reporter, but my estimate would be that Mr. Webster's annual compensation, including benefits, amounts to more than $150,000.

Jonathan Greenberg is founder and CEO of Progressive Source Communications and TV1.com. An author and investigative journalist, his work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic, GQ, New York Magazine, Forbes and Money. Jonathan resides in Sebastopol.

[eeeeeeow]

Jonathan, Thank you for this. I hope you sent this to the City Council. I pray that it appears in other venues to be read by more people. I urge everyone to forward this article to anyone living in Sebastopol. You seem to have left out the act of City Staff conveniantly neglecting to bind the Planning Commisions intial denial of this project making that decision unenforceable. This guy Webster has to go.

[Barry]

The article is on the WaccoBB Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/WaccoBB
You should be able to like and share it from there.
And be sure to the WaccoBB page if you haven't already!

Jonathan, Thank you for this. I hope you sent this to the City Council. I pray that it appears in other venues to be read by more people. I urge everyone to forward this article to anyone living in Sebastopol. You seem to have left out the act of City Staff conveniantly neglecting to bind the Planning Commisions intial denial of this project making that decision unenforceable. This guy Webster has to go.

[seamonkey]

Anyone who knows Kenyon Webster personally (rather than making assumptions about him because you don't like the facts that he states in the City Council meetings) knows that he is a man of real integrity who has worked extremely hard in the service of the people of Sebastopol. There simply isn't an unethical bone in his body. It is so disappointing that the City Council, in particular, would not defend Mr. Webster from these ridiculous accusations. They must know of the tireless work that he has done to improve this town while making sure always to follow the law. Please be careful before you unfairly attack the character of a good man.

[eeeeeeow]

Kenyon Webster seems a very likeable guy. But I'm afraid these accusations aren't as ridiculous as Seamonkey tries to label them. From the very beginning, City staff, conveniently neglected to bind the findings of the Planning Commission, making their decision unenforceable. The failure to conduct an EIR for a project so close to the Laguna, particularly for a company who has a less than stellar track record when it comes to the environment, is a ludicrous notion. The limited traffic study is an affront to a community that would be subject to driver's tearing through their neighborhoods to avoid downtown. Mr. Webster has ignored our geography and is still encouraging developement of projects that will bring the wrong kind of traffic through a small town that can't support it. And he has conveniently sidestepped the proper procedures to do it. His distortion of the facts re: DRB's ruling, his dictating to Council as to their guidelines and his assuming the role of decision-maker in the process are shady at best. Nice guy? Probably. In the back pocket of a corporate entity? Seemingly so.

And I would've relished the opportunity to be a fly on the wall at that Armstrong/Kathleen Shaffer meeting!

Government should be transparent. Elected officials should operate above board. Period.

[Barry]

Kenyon Webster seems a very likeable guy. But I'm afraid these accusations aren't as ridiculous as Seamonkey tries to label them. .... In the back pocket of a corporate entity? Seemingly so.

While I think that Jonathan's article has raised legitimate questions about Mr. Websters handling of this project, he could easily be acting with the best interests of the city at heart (as he sees them), without the slightest inappropriate influence, financial or otherwise, from Armstrong.

[jewelbridge]

Jonathan: Thank you for the hard work and insight of your article. The chase/cvs project is enormously unpopular and would destroy the character and soul of beautiful Sebastopol ...

Jonathan Greenberg
WaccoBB.net

This week's Agenda Report about the CVS development by Sebastopol Planning Director Kenyon Webster to five City Council members reads like a legal brief on behalf of the developers of the property. ....

[Peacetown Jonathan]

Seamonkey's defense of Kenyon Webster is notable in that it does not respond to a single one of the handful of LEGAL objections I have to what Kenyon Webster wrote, in his own words. While I admire the loyalty with which you defend his character, Seamoneky, I think you would be doing him a greater service if you defended Kenyon Webster's actual actions, and written words that he set forth in his "Agenda Report."

You suggest that I make assumptions about him because I do not like "the facts that he states." The purpose of this article is to explore whether Mr. Webster is performing his job properly, legally and ethically, by presenting opinions as facts. Please read what I wrote and the citations of his "Agenda Report, in which he states his opinions as facts, and does it in a way that suggests that our duly elected City Council members have "no choice" but to pass this, that the Design review Board ruling MUST be ignored, that all the Council's concerns HAVE BEEN met. These are not facts; this is his advice, and by stating his opinions as fact, he is, in my view, exceeding his legal authority, and providing a legal edict that has nothing to do with his legal role in our city.

Our City Council should know that they have every legal, ethical, and moral right to deny the developer's appeal if they choose to do so, They have every legal right to uphold the Design Review Board. And to find that the design does NOT adhere to the General Plan's guidelines for a "Small Town" Sebastopol, despite Mr. Webster's "statement of fact" that it does. A large majority of the citizens who voted for them will agree with their conclsuions. On what planet does a design without a door into the street, which opens into a suburban parking lot, feel like a small town??

Ethics are not bones in a body, Seamonkey. I am not reviewing Mr. Webster's bones, or his character. Ethics are practices, words written and actions taken. I am assessing Mr. Webster's actions, as I would like our City Council to do, in an independent investigation about whether Mr. Webster exceeded his authority in his agenda report, and whether he provided inadequate information to the traffic study company in order to assist with a "negative traffic declaration."

I also believe, (and dozens of people who have spoken to be since this article appeared concur) that Council Member Kathleen Shaffer has acted unethically in lobbying for the CVS project "under the radar," and as a result, should recuse herself from voting on this critical matter.

I think that Sebastopol's City Council should delay this vote until an independent government ethics expert can look at Mr. Webster's job description, his written agenda report, Ms. Shaffer's lobbyist-like role in advancing this project, and the CIty Council's legal discretion in denying this appeal. I have found a list of Berkeley Law Professors who specialize in this, and one of them might volunteer a few hours to advise the Council on the legal discretion that a City Council has on votes like this regarding adherence to design issues, and on the proper role of a Planning Director.

A number of Sebastopol citizens have approached me since this article was written and suggested similar over zealous pro-development actions by Mr. Webster that go back for decades.

I agree with Barry's comment above, that Mr. Webster might very well believe that this actions are in the best interest of the city. It certainly seems to have been his political and personal view that development is almost always good, and that its effects on traffic and the environment and feel of our city can always be mitigated. I am not a shrink questioning his intentions, nor am I the F.B.I. assessing whether he took bribes to influence his decisions. I have no reason to believe that Mr. Webster is a "bad" person, or a corrupt official.

I am simply a concerned citizen who is questioning the legal and ethical frame that Mr. Webster has forced into this process, as he dictates how the City Council "must" vote. We elect Council members to make that decision, not Mr. Webster. I believe that "sunlight is best disinfectant" for good government. I am using my analytical and reporting capacity to try to bring some sunlight to what feels to be a shadowy situation.

[eeeeeeow]

I invite everyone to read the Brown Act. PLEASE. Once that is done, consider a class action suit to reverse the original decision by the City Council to override their Planning Commission and approve this thing. Procedure was distorted, at best. And speaking of lawsuits (and this should probably be a new post)...

It struck me on the meeting of the 19th when a Pellini family member got up to speak. She said that from their vedry first meeting, Armstrong promised they would not build a typical, mall-like box store on that property. Has anyone ever seen the original drawings? It seems that the Pellini family has been lied to from the start.

She closed her 3 minutes by noting that there has already been a lawsuit filed against the city already. The difference is that the current lawsuit was filed to protect the city and the Laguna de Santa Rosa. It wasn't filed to pave the way for the Walmarts and Costcos of the world.

[AllorrahBe]

There are none so blind as those who will not see!

I congratulate his integrity, in sticking to his guns and doing what he believes in ~ I cannot believe that project would have no traffic impact!

I live on Bodega Avenue. Will they have to put a 4-way stop at the driveway for the nearly 200 senior residents of this complex, to be able to get out the driveway onto Bodega? It's already extremely difficult to get out to Hiway 12 to Santa Rosa, or even to #116 south, because of all the summer traffic, the Farmers Market on Sundays, and all the other wonderful places downtown, now jammed with traffic frequently. And how in the world will the fire trucks get through, and the inevitable ambulances?

There truly MUST be a better plan, one that we'll all be proud of for years to come, one that we'll support and welcome in our unique little downtown. Please keep me advised of the first meeting of the committee to find a better plan!

Rev. BE

Anyone who knows Kenyon Webster personally (rather than making assumptions about him because you don't like the facts that he states in the City Council meetings) knows that he is a man of real integrity who has worked extremely hard in the service of the people of Sebastopol. There simply isn't an unethical bone in his body. It is so disappointing that the City Council, in particular, would not defend Mr. Webster from these ridiculous accusations. They must know of the tireless work that he has done to improve this town while making sure always to follow the law. Please be careful before you unfairly attack the character of a good man.

[Barry]

Is the Sebastopol Planning Director Rigging the CVS/Chase Project?

Jonathan Greenberg
WaccoBB.net

I want to post publicly what I said to Kenyon in person recently, which is that I offer my apologies for the tone of this article. While I still think the main point of the article, stating judgement as fact in staff reports, is a worthy concern, the tone and generally accusatory nature of the article was un-called for and inappropriate.

I will leave the article up, as it the viewpoint of one of our members, but I want to make clear where I stand on it.