The Del Rey Oaks city manager tells us we can’t have it and eat it too.

I was sitting at the dining room table last week, rubbing my temples and muttering (both normal occurrences at my house). Our friend/dinner guest heard me mutter “tank” and “Del Rey Oaks,” and his ears perked up.

“Wait, why does Del Rey Oaks need a tank?” he asked.

“It’s not actually a tank… ” I started to explain.

“What is it, then, a half-track?” my husband chimed in.

“No, no, it’s a big armored troop carrier, this massive mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) thing that they got from the military for free, and some rich guy is paying to have it spruced,” I said.

“Why does Del Rey Oaks need an MRAP?” they asked.

After studying this thing hard for a week, I still don’t know why Del Rey Oaks, population 1,775, needs an armored truck. I do know this: Del Rey Oaks officials really don’t want to talk about it.

We first started thinking about doing an MRAP story after the Aug. 26 City Council meeting, which was standing-room only because a lot of people were ticked off about the proposed dog park fee ($120 per dog per year). That was Item 7 on the agenda. Item 4 was a presentation on the acquisition of the “regional rescue vehicle.”

Included in the presentation: No turret or weapons ports are on the MRAP; blast capacity is classified; and Del Rey Oaks PD has acquired private funding to cover all costs associated with it.

The word “private” is key, because when Weekly reporter Sara Rubin started asking questions about the wealthy donor (Jim Hill, a reserve officer on the Del Rey Oaks “Special Response Team”), things went from friendly to hostile, and fast.

Rubin filed a Public Records Act request seeking correspondence about the MRAP, communications between DROPD and Hill back to 2013, documents pertaining to financial contributions from Hill to DRO, and correspondence between DRO Police Chief Ron Langford and City Manager Daniel Dawson for the past six months.

The city responded by asking Rubin to narrow the scope of her request – not an unusual move, and she was willing to do it. But then she tried to arrange a lunchtime chat with Dawson and Langford for Sept. 3.

Dawson replied: “You can’t have your editorial cake and eat it too. Either you withdraw the PRA and we talk candidly one-on-one, or we can go down the long and dusty road of the PRA, which could take several months and yield very little, since 99 percent of the correspondence you request happens face to face (what a concept!) and not in a written recordable form.”

Rubin withdrew the PRA on the premise that she could always refile it, and on the premise that a sit-down interview might get her what she needed. But after the conversation with Dawson, she contacted Hill, the railroad scion whose $100,000 donation paid for the MRAP’s refurbishing and transport from Texas to Monterey County, and who plans to pick up all MRAP bills for the next five years.

Hill talked to her, but he wasn’t particularly happy about it. A few hours later, Dawson emailed Rubin: “I am a bit perplexed as to why you would be trying to contact Mr. Hill after I expressly told you he is a private man! What gives?”

Since I was copied on that and the previous emails, I stuck my nose in:

“Respectfully, Mr. Hill may be a private man, but he’s a private man donating a lot of money to a very small police department. Those donations are public record. It would be irresponsible of Sara NOT to contact him. Whether or not he chooses to comment, of course, is entirely up to him.”

That’s when the dinner-table muttering started. As I ate the sandwich lovingly crafted by my spouse, I received Dawson’s email response: “No comment.” To which I responded, “I didn’t ask you for a comment, but thanks?” To which he shot back, “That makes 2 of us then.”

I’ve had a lot of bizarre encounters with public officials over the years, but this one is up there. I don’t know Dawson well enough to know whether he was joking, but I do know that a city that states it will drag its feet on giving public information to the public is a dangerous thing.

That’s why we’re refiling the PRA request. Mr. Dawson, the ball is back in your court.

MARY DUAN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com or follow her at twitter.com/maryrduan