Keenan told County Times he was paying for city’s lobbying

In today’s County Times, Julia Scott quotes developer Chop Keenan say that his payments to Half Moon Bay’s lobbyists were intended to support lobbying for AB1991. This is consistent with his statements to the Review, but not those to Capitol Weekly on Friday.

If he was paying for consulting, as California Strategies (and later Keenan) insists, he says he received a phone call every couple of weeks for his $50,000.

"I think it’s pretty clear that AB1991 is in both of our interests, so I don’t know where the conflict is. It’s not like the city or I am telling them how to do their job. Every couple weeks somebody calls (from the firm) and tells me what’s going on," said Keenan, who said he decided to support the city’s efforts at an early meeting with the city manager and representatives of California Strategies at the law offices of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, the city’s legal team.

"It was very informal and I decided it was in my self-interest to put some horsepower behind California Strategies’ efforts," he said.

That’s a juicy new detail: the arrangement was worked out at a meeting at the offices of the city’s attorneys between California Strategies, city manager Marcia Raines, and Keenan.

Half Moon Bay Councilmember John Muller said none of his colleagues on the council knew of Keenan’s payments prior to Tuesday’s meeting, but that he was neither surprised nor troubled by them.

"It wasn’t like he was opposing us in the settlement agreement. We agreed he would support us in passing AB1991. That’s all in the agreement. It says he’s going to help us pass the legislation," Muller said.