Former Del Rey Oaks city manager Daniel Dawson's arraignment delayed.

Daniel Dawson, the former city manager of Del Rey Oaks, who had a stormy departure from the city in January, made his first appearance in court facing felony and misdemeanor charges on Wednesday, but he'll be back in November to enter a plea. 

At his hearing Oct. 18, Dawson was clean-shaven and appeared in good spirits as he stood next to his attorney, Juliet Peck, who told Monterey County Superior Court Judge Mark Hood that she had not yet read the District Attorney's complaint against her client.

Peck acknowledged that she had received CDs from the DA's office, but if the complaint was contained on those discs, she said she hadn't yet seen it. 

She asked whether Assistant District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni had a paper copy available. Pacioni said she did not, but added that the complaint was included in one of the CDs. 

Without being able to read a paper copy of the complaint in the courtroom, Peck asked that the arraignment be pushed back. Hood granted her request, and the parties settled on Nov. 15 at 8:30am.

On Sept. 21, the Monterey County District Attorney's Office filed charges against Dawson alleging felony violation of state conflict-of-interest law as well as an alleged misdemeanor violation of the California Political Reform Act. 

The charges center around an audacious plan to transfer water credits to a parcel of land in Del Rey Oaks he owns at 815 Portola Drive—which, according to the DA's office, is "the last buildable lot" in the city—that he bought in 2014 for $50,000.

The Weekly reported on the plan last May. 

According to the DA's office, Dawson did not report his ownership of the property in his 2015 and 2016 statements of economic interest, a violation of the Political Reform Act, a misdemeanor punishable of up to six months in the county jail. 

Additionally, the DA's office alleges that he contracted a well-drilling company in February 2016 to drill a well on city-owned property at 899 Rosita Drive—the Del Rey Oaks Garden Center—at a cost to the city of $25,000, and then tried transfer water credits on Jan. 27 from that property to his own, which has none. 

This is despite the fact that, after City Council accepted his resignation Jan. 3 and Dawson was put on administrative leave, he no longer had authority to act on behalf of the city. 

In trying to transfer the water to his own property while purportedly acting as a city official, the DA's office alleges he violated state conflict-of-interest law, punishable by up to three years in state prison. 

Dawson is currently free after posting bail for $25,000.