Carmel City Council contemplating what steps to take after city administrator is in altercation with a gallery owner.

An argument that for a moment turned physical between Carmel City Administrator Chip Rerig and the owner of the Nematic and Daisy Rose Galleries in Carmel that took place on Thursday, Sept. 28, and was caught on video, has Rerig’s behavior under scrutiny by his bosses at the Carmel City Council.

The council met in closed session just a day after the incident and are meeting again in closed session at 4pm today, Monday, Oct. 2. 

"We're concerned about the situation as it appears, but we're doing our due diligence in separating the facts from the fiction," says Carmel Mayor Dave Potter.

The argument took place outside of the gallery owned by Craig Rose, located on Dolores Street between 5th and 6th avenues. Rose was angry over the recent Carmel City Council decision to save a decorative concrete wall a few blocks away from his gallery that the council deemed historic. The decision negatively impacts developer Patrice Pastor who is planning a new building at the site, near the corner of 7th Avenue and Dolores Street. Rose has been a passionate supporter of Pastor in recent weeks.

Carmel Police were called to the scene but no arrests were made. Rose said in an email sent to the Weekly on the day of the incident that he planned on filing charges against Rerig. The Weekly was unable to confirm with the Carmel Police Department if any charges were filed.

Potter says he knows of no charges being filed and says Rerig has not been placed on any kind of leave or probation. Rerig is not at City Hall today due to serving jury duty. In a situation of sheer coincidence, the council was previously scheduled to meet in closed session on Friday and today for Rerig's annual review. 

Since the incident with Rerig, Rose has been emailing people asking them to show up to the council meeting at 4:30pm, tomorrow, Oct. 3, to call for Rerig’s dismissal, as well as protest the council's wall decision.

From a four-minute video sent to the Weekly by Potter, it appears that during a verbal argument between Rose, Rerig and Carmel Community Planning Director Brandon Swason, Rose makes the first move, pulling off Rerig’s hat and glasses. Rerig then reaches out toward Rose, as Swason steps in between the two men. In his email, Rose claimed he was “punched in the face,” although it’s not clear from the video.

In the early stages of the argument, Rerig and Swanson attempt to explain to Rose how the city’s official decision process works, which Rose seems to dismiss, instead arguing against the council’s decision over the wall.

“Look, Chip and I walked up here and you were hyper-aggressive right away,” Swanson says. Rose continues to angrily make accusations of racism against Pastor by the city by “slow-rolling” his development project. (The Weekly was unable to confirm Pastor's racial identity.)

As the interaction deteriorates, Rerig can be heard saying, “This is bullshit. This has been a horrible meeting. You are being detrimental to your cause by your attitude. Good luck.”

Rerig starts to walk away, mentioning something about calling the owner of the building where Rose’s gallery is located to report Rose's behavior during the argument. Rose asks what he’s going to say to the owner and Rerig turns around. As he approaches Rose, the argument suddenly turns physical.

It’s not totally clear the exact point of contact, but it appears Rose took Rerig’s hat and glasses, prompting Rerig to take a swing toward Rose, but it’s also not clear if contact was made.

A few moments later Rerig can be heard telling Rose, “You fucking head butted me,” which Rose denies, claiming Rerig hit him. Rerig and Swanson ask repeatedly for Rerig’s hat and glasses to be returned, which Rose eventually does.

“This city has a racism problem!” Rose yells, based on his claim that Carmel officials are being racist toward Pastor.

“Come on, let’s go home,” Swanson says to Rerig, as they walk away.

Rose complains to the assembled crowd about city officials not doing anything about the Pastor situation, to which a woman, off camera, says, “Yes, but you hitting him and fighting him is not going to help.”

In the email sent by Rose he states: “I have been told to stay away from this issue as I’m knew (sic) to town but I stand with the artist Patrice in this artist colony and do believe this is an issue of racism not anything to do with history and a wall.”

Pastor, described in European press reports as a powerful billionaire developer in Monaco, has been buying up properties around Carmel since 2015. He has not had an easy time getting developments approved. It took his company, Esperanza Carmel, three tries before the Carmel Planning Commission to get a proposed mixed-use building called Ulrika Plaza approved to fill in “The Pit,” as residents call it, a hole at Dolores and Fifth that’s been sitting vacant for several years after a previous developer ran out of money.

Planning commissioners were unimpressed with the first two design proposals from Esperanza Carmel and encouraged the architect to redesign the project both times. The third attempt was successful, with developers complimentary of the new design and the process that got them to design they could approve.

The second proposed mixed-use building, named for Pastor’s father, JB Pastor, also on Dolores, south of Ulrika Plaza near the corner of Seventh Street, is going through the planning process. Pastor wanted to tear down a former bank community meeting room on Dolores to create a larger building, but he was denied by the Historic Resources Commission and the City Council.

The HRC did not deem historic a decorative stamped concrete wall that borders the meeting room and a driveway to the current office building which will be demolished for the JB Pastor development. Councilmembers Karen Ferlito and Alissandra Dramov appealed the HRC decision and on Tuesday, Sept. 12, the council voted 4-0 to keep the wall. In addition, councilmembers said they wanted Pastor’s new building to be further setback from the street and the wall, which would result in the building losing some square footage.

Potter, responding to those who might think the council was discriminating against Pastor, said during the meeting that the wall was worthy of protection.

"I do not want to have anybody think that anybody else would not get the same [critique]," Potter said. "It's a good process and I'm sorry it took so long but that's the nature of the beast here in Carmel."

Rose, whose gallery sits across the street from Pastor’s future Ulrika Plaza, defended Pastor during the meeting and even offered to have the wall moved into his gallery. After the meeting, Rose launched a public campaign against the council.

In a phone interview with the Weekly two days after the meeting, Rose was emphatic that the wall was not historic, and suggested it was racism that was motivating the council to impede Pastor’s development.