New Seaside city manager about to meet Monterey Downs report.

Based on his reaction to Monday’s Squid column, it would seem that Craig Malin has a decent sense of humor. And based on the job he’s just signed up for, God knows he’s going to need it.

Malin is the former Davenport, Iowa, city administrator who’s been tapped to be the new city manager of Seaside, a move Seaside announced Friday Nov. 20, at 4:59pm, just in time for everyone to flee City Hall for the weekend and thus not be around to answer any questions about Malin’s hiring.

Squid chronicled Malin’s controversial departure from Davenport, which according to the local newspaper Quad City Times came at the behest of the City Council. In June, they voted 9-1 to wish Malin into the corn field after he refused to resign.

That vote, the Times reported, came because a deal Malin negotiated (and City Council approved) left taxpayers holding a $2-million bill for grading – the movement of dirt – on a casino project. Malin said it came down to a matter of the casino developers outlawyering the city’s legal department, according to local television station KWQC.

The Times also reported Malin left Davenport with a severance package that could reach $310,000.

In a comment left on the Squid column, Malin told “Squidster” he appreciated the wit and trying to make sense of Quad City Times reporting, and he went on to call that reporting wrong. “Perhaps,” he wrote, “[it’s] why the editor, editorial page editor and publisher have all moved on? Who knows.” And in an email sent to me, he said culling from “inaccurate stories from the QCTimes may not be your best bet… Casino pun.”

I like it. Aggressive and immediate, and with just a hint of menace. I would expect nothing less from a Chicagoan, even one who grew up on the North Side and is an admitted Cubs fan.

Malin starts his Seaside gig in January and will earn a “starting salary” (as the press release put it) of $212,668. But before that happens, he’s going to hang out in Seaside from Dec. 4-16 to get a head start on meeting people and “reviewing city plans” (as the press release put it).

I would guess those plans might include Monterey Downs.

There is much negotiating yet to be done when it comes to Monterey Downs. Seaside still needs the county to turn over the majority of the land for the 555-acre horse racing track, hotels and homes development, and those negotiations are still taking place between the city and the Board of Supervisors in closed session. Since a 2010 agreement guaranteeing a land transfer expired, the supes may not go forward with annexation at all.

Meanwhile, a Public Records Act request by the anti-Downs activist group Keep Fort Ord Wild has brought forth a seventh (!) draft version of the Monterey Downs economic impact analysis that includes something new: an analysis of what happens if the hotels planned for the development are never built. (The result: Downs is negative forever without the hotel tax).

In an Aug. 6 letter to the city, though, Beth Palmer, Downs’ chief operations officer, writes there is an existing market for the first hotel in Downs’ plan, but the second hotel may require additional development to support it – development such as Downs’ proposed tennis/swim center, horse park and/or a sports arena/training track. And it may require further development not related to Downs, like East Garrison, The Dunes and CSUMB expansion.

Malin says he’s not concerned about coming to Seaside at a time when Downs will likely reach a head, with a final economic impact report and environmental impact report in hand, and all those deliciously heated meetings where the City Council calls the Weekly a bunch of liars and Downs supporters and opponents snipe at each other in the halls.

“I’m a certified planner in addition in addition to being a certified city manager, so I’m not too worried,” Malin says. “I know my way around development and how to make it better, not just for developers but for the community. Development has to contribute to the quality of life.”

But he admits he’s not ready to talk about Downs, yet: “I have some thoughts but they’re not ready for sharing.”

I can’t wait until they are.

MARY DUAN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com.