The
City's $4.8 Million contract with Project Design
Consultants (PDC)
For Final Design of the Proposed Regents Road
bridge project
Legal Problems
I. The PDC contract violates CEQA,
California’s environmental law.
The new EIR must be completed first.
Final design is not necessary to do the EIR. In fact, Caltrans and the Federal
Highway Administration both prohibit final design of projects before environmental
review is complete
.
Read the letter from our attorneys, Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger.
II. The City Attorney’s office has determined that the PDC contract constitutes a violation of 1090, the state’s
conflict of interest law.
Sections 1090 of the California Government Code prohibits public officials,
including consultants, from participating in the making of any contract in
which they have a financial interest. The City Attorney’s office has found
that when they were hired to do the old EIR, PDC was supposed to evaluate all
alternatives equally. However, at the same time they were promised a contract
to design whatever alternative was selected. Hence, it was in their interest
to steer the City toward selection of the Regents Road bridge project, which
would involve the most lucrative follow-up contract for PDC. The City Attorney’s
office has written three memos to the Mayor and City Council on this 1090 violation:
April 4, July 24, and Oct. 12.
Read the City Attorney’s memos on the 1090
violation,
which includes emails by PDC and by city staff.
PDC’s Celebratory
Email the night of August 1, 2006
after the City Council vote to certify
the EIR and
implement the Regents Road bridge project.
This email shows how deeply involved PDC and their sub-consultants were in
promoting the selection of the alternative that would bring them the biggest
follow-up contract. Gordon Lutes was PDC’s project manager. He mentions the significant
role that contractors played in getting the City Council to approve the bridge
project: Andy Schlaefli (traffic consultant), Keith Merkel (biology consultant),
Bruce McIntyre (PDC), and Theresa McAteer. McAteer is an attorney PDC hired
as a subcontractor without City Council approval. Note that Theresa was “a
key player behind the scenes” as she and Bruce wrote the findings.
Read PDC’s Celebratory Email.
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