HMB’s lobbyist was also getting paid by Keenan

We’re working on our own story about this situation, but in the meantime, read the story at Capitol Weekly and the one at the Half Moon Bay Review.  We’ll post a link to the County Times story when it appears.

At Tuesday’s city council meeting, after questioning by council member Jim Grady, it was revealed that Half Moon Bay’s lobbyist in its efforts to get AB1991 passed was also being paid by developer Charles "Chop" Keenan. This revelation has damaged the city’s chances of getting any sort of relief from the state toward the $18 million settlement it has agreed to pay Keenan.

The city council authorized city manager Marcia Raines to pay California Strategies up $100,000 to lobby for the passage of the bill that would ease its settlement with Keenan in the Beachwood lawsuit.  AB1991 was intended to remove environmental and other regulatory restrictions that were keeping Keenan from developing the parcel. Raines agreed to pay Capital Strategies $20,000 a month beginning in mid-April.

What the city council apparently didn’t know until Tuesday night was that Keenan was also paying California Strategies $20,000 a month, reports the Capitol Weekly:

This allegation drew a sharp rebuke from [State Senator Leland] Yee. While Yee said "you could paint a pretty picture" about how the city and Keenan are now working together to pass a bill that will work in both of their interest, he was troubled that California Strategies lobbyist Rusty Areias met with him in May and June without disclosing they were also being paid by Keenan.

"I was shocked and dismayed that something like that would have happened," Yee said. "At the very least, you would think that California Strategies would reveal their potential conflict of interests."

Yee also noted that until the bill took its final form, it wasn’t clear that the city’s and Keenan’s interests were identical. California Strategies says it wasn’t being paid by Keenan to lobby:

California Strategies, he said, maintains separate consulting and lobbying businesses. Areias and other lobbyists have been working to ensure the passage of AB 1991. Meanwhile, the settlement agreement with the city required Keenan to work to make sure the settlement is successful. His development company signed a separate consulting agreement with consulting side of California Strategies. Kinney said they talked to Keenan about the "legal principles" of the agreement and what "would pass policy muster."

This mess further clouds the future of AB1991, which now sits in the Senate Rules Committee, with the legislative clock running out. According to Capitol Weekly, Yee said the bill will likely have to be amended in order to get out of the Senate.

And the city’s bill is unlikely to go any anywhere without the support of the Half Moon Bay’s senator, Leland Yee.