If all of these facts are true and applicable in Alameda County, then I would ask one simple question: why don’t we do it NOW?

Marc Crawford, that mild-mannered paragon of virtue who chairs the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) was appointed by the Board of Supervisors today (September 23, 2014) to yet another four-year term.

Supervisor Nate Miley nominated Crawford and the other two supervisors present dutifully voted in favor of the appointment. The vote was a foregone conclusion. Supervisors never refuse to rubber stamp nominations to any local board or organization made by their fellow supervisors.

The MAC, with tongue in cheek, purports to represent the citizens of Castro Valley, even though it is not elected, answers to no one and is sometimes largely composed of petty tyrants so proud of their lofty position that they waive off local citizens and their concerns like so many pesky flies.

And speaking of Marc Crawford, he is also running for a seat on the board of directors of the Castro Valley Sanitary District. While there is nothing we can do about the MAC — it doesn’t belong to the voters and doesn’t represent the voters — we can deny him this seat as we did when he ran for school board some years back.

And when I say “we,” I mean your organization, myself, and all of the other voters. I am not a member of CV Matters or of any other local organization. But I agree with your concern about Crawford. And I know a little bit about his background. Some of the information was told to me in confidence, but some of it is a matter of public record.

Because of his recent actions and his complete unsuitability for service on the MAC, I wrote a letter to each member of the Board of Supervisors urging them to deny him another term. The letter was, of course, ignored. But I have been asked to post it here because some of you are curious as to what I had to say. Unfortunately, this site does not allow me to indent quoted paragraphs or use italics for emphasis, so it loses a bit in the translation. But here it is:

Dear Supervisor _____ and the Board of Supervisors:

As a Castro Valley resident of more than 30 years and a staunch proponent of democratic, accountable governance, I strongly protest one of the items on which you are being asked to vote on September 23. This item is the reappointment of Marc Crawford to a seat on the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC), after it has been discovered that he has hidden a serious conflict of interest from that body and from the public for more than a year.

During that time the MAC, led by its chairman, Marc Crawford, has studied, debated and voted on various aspects of a proposed new building project in Castro Valley called the Proctor Court subdivision. Mr. Crawford has participated in these discussions and votes, and even served on a subcommittee of the MAC specific to this project.

Never once throughout this process did Mr. Crawford disclose – either to the public or to his fellow council members – that he owns property immediately adjacent to the proposed project which will be impacted by any new development in that area. Never once did he recuse himself from discussing, voting or participation in setting requirements and restrictions on the developer.

It was not until the MAC meeting of September 8, 2014, when a homeowner near the project publicly confronted Crawford and Supervisor Miley’s staff with a map of the project area showing the owners of the parcels that Crawford suddenly recused himself.

Crawford’s actions are a flagrant violation of the conflict of interest rules authorized by the California Government Code and set forth in the California Code of Regulations, Sections 18700 and following, pertinent sections of which follow.

“No public official at any level of state or local government may make, participate in making or in any way use or attempt to use his/her official position to influence a governmental decision in which he/she knows or has reason to know he/she has a disqualifying conflict of interest. A public official has a conflict of interest if the decision will have a reasonably foreseeable material financial effect on one or more of his/her economic interests… ” §18700 (a).

“A public official ‘makes a governmental decision,’ … when the official, acting within the authority of his or her office or position … (1) Votes on a matter…” §18702.1 (a).

“(a) Real property in which a public official has an economic interest is directly involved in a governmental decision if any of the following apply:

“(1) The real property in which the official has an interest, or any part of that real property, is located within 500 feet of the boundaries (or the proposed boundaries) of the property which is the subject of the governmental decision. §18704.2(a).”

(Subsection (a) was repealed earlier this year, but was in place during much of the time when Mr. Crawford participated in discussions and voting on the subject project. Further, this subsection gave rise to a presumption of conflict (if within 500 feet) or a presumption of no conflict (if outside of 500 feet) and was, thus, not a hard-and-fast rule, but rather a guideline. The basic rule of §18700 (a) has not been amended or repealed. C.f. §18705.2 (a).)

“A public official or his or her immediate family are deemed to be directly involved in a governmental decision which has any financial effect on his or her personal finances or those of his or her immediate family.” §18704.5.

See also §§ 18703.2, 18703.5, 18704.5, 18705 and 18705.2.

For statutes and regulations showing that members of the Municipal Advisory Council are covered by these conflict rules, see Government Code §§ 87100 and 87103, and CRC § 18701, regarding a committee, board or commission possessing decisionmaking authority, as defined therein.

Mr. Crawford is well aware of the ins and outs of conflicts of interest. For reasons purely personal to him, he wrote a letter to a former board member of the Castro Valley Sanitary District threatening legal action unless that member resigned. He followed this up with a request to the Attorney General’s office for leave to file suit against the board member. The grounds? Conflict of interest.

It cannot be said that Mr. Crawford was in the dark about his own conflict of interest in the Proctor Court matter, having delved into the subject so deeply only a few short years ago.

It can be safely assumed, however, that he believed his personal interests would never come to light until he could turn a tidy profit from the eventual development of this project.

These conflict of interest rules are not to be taken lightly. They actually serve to protect the County of Alameda. At this point, the County is open to litigation from the developer because Crawford may have acted with self-interest to impose requirements or restrictions above and beyond those that a reasonable person would require without such self-interest.

Even more seriously, by not recusing himself from this matter, Crawford has raised suspicions in the community of bribery, under-the-table deals, coercion, and corruption. This stain on the democratic process is spread to the entire MAC, to Supervisor Miley, and to the County of Alameda and blemished them all. As long as Crawford serves on the MAC, there will be suspicion as to his motives in all future matters and, more than likely suspicion on any action of the MAC on any controversial or disputed matter.

Nobody I know is quite sure why Mr. Crawford is Supervisor Miley’s fair-haired boy. Equally, nobody I know who has ever crossed swords with Mr. Crawford or incurred his personal wrath has anything whatsoever positive to say about his moral character.

In addition to pursuing a personal vendetta against a Sanitary District board member, he led a personal attack against an EBMUD director because of a business dispute. He led a similar personal attack against the Castro Valley Superintendent of Schools for similar reasons. He actually threatened the board of directors of the Castro Valley/Eden Area Chamber of Commerce because of a disagreement over one of his personal pet projects, a classic car show. He told that board in writing that if it did not vote its president out of office and fire its Executive Director, he would lobby local businesses to drop their memberships. His retaliatory threats amount to nothing less than blackmail. And there are other stories.

Supervisors, this is a person who could never be elected to serve the citizens of Castro Valley – if the citizens of Castro Valley were able to vote on such matters. His actions over the years, topped off by his nose-thumbing at the conflict of interest rules, show him to be a man without scruples, without shame and without principles. Why then, our community wonders, is he appointed and then re-appointed to a council that makes decisions for us?

I urge Supervisor Miley to withdraw this nomination so that there will be no vote on Tuesday. If he declines to do so, I respectfully request that you refuse to approve this nomination. I also ask that this letter be read into the minutes of your September 23, 2014, meeting.

Thank you for your consideration of this very serious matter.

*******

One final note: I included the following paragraph in my letter to Supervisor Miley:

“Nate, you know I love you, but whether you like it or not, the MAC is your baby and you must raise it right. You can’t just look the other way when your baby lies, or dips its hand in the cookie jar, or lifts its middle finger to California law. Parents have a responsibility to teach their children to be honest, open, law-abiding citizens and not the type of citizen who is only honest when people are looking and who only become law-abiding when they are caught out.”

*******

Welcome to another four years here in Crawfordsville. Unfortunately, we don’t have George Bailey and Clarence the simple-minded guardian angel to put things right.

scd