SQUID FRY 01.26.17: Private Eyes

PRIVATE EYES… Every time Squid drives along Canyon Del Rey, Squid dreams of taking a ride in the Del Rey Oaks Police Department’s MRAP – the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense’s surplus program and railroad heir James J. Hill III. As a DRO PD volunteer reserve officer, Hill agreed to pay for maintenance of the MRAP, promising it wouldn’t cost the city a penny. Hill, it turns out, is also helping finance Monterey County Sheriff’s Office deputies. Since 2012, his El Sur Ranch – 7,000 acres in Big Sur – has had an agreement with the county enabling private El Sur Ranch patrolman Don Smythe to serve as a reserve deputy sheriff in Big Sur. Per the MOU, El Sur Ranch pays for Smyth’s 4x4 pickup, two-way radio, shotgun, rifles, flares, “and such other equipment as reasonably deemed necessary.” The county Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 on Jan. 24 to extend the MOU another two years. While Squid thinks it’s a fine idea to have a deputy at the ready in a remote region, Squid wonders: If this has been quietly happening for years, how many other private projects with public personnel are being paid for by Hill?

STIRRING THE POT… Even Squid’s primitive ears picked up the sounds of a rumor swirling at Carmel City Hall last week, that a resignation was forthcoming from City Attorney Don Freeman. Squid’s colleague called Freeman, who said there was nothing to it, and he wasn’t sure what games people were playing. Both Freeman and City Administrator Chip Rerigposited that the Carmel rumormill cranked into gear after Freeman recommended (and Rerig approved) some work by an outside attorney, Glen Mozingo, on the city’s contract with the Sunset Center. Rerig, sounding frustrated, put it this way: “If our community doesn’t have drama for eight hours, there’s this need to stir the pot. It’s odd at best. And you can quote me on that.”

OPEN SECRET… Speaking of secrets, Squid was amused by an item in the Dec. 23 Carmel Pine Cone, about Monterey Peninsula College Trustee Margaret-Anne Coppernoll, who settled a lawsuit against the school in 2012 related to her slip-and-fall injury during a tap-dancing class. What amused Squid was that the article stated the settlement was “confidential,” and its “terms won’t be made public.” Knowing that a legal payout by a public entity is a matter of public record, Squid’s colleague filed a Public Records Act request to MPC. Weeks passed, Squid forgot about it, and then on Jan. 23, Mark Davis, an attorney representing MPC, called. Davis says MPC settled with Coppernoll for $45,000 and gave no admission of liability, and says that its terms also included none of the parties initiate a disclosure of the settlement terms. But, he adds, “If someone makes a proper request, you have to turn it over.”