SQUID FRY 06.27.13 - How Not To Win Friends…

HOW NOT TO WIN FRIENDS… Squid’s seen enough riled-up activists to know they smell a flim-flam artist (deserved or not) in every developer who comes to town – even if it’s a nonprofit.

The Washington, D.C.-based National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns the Cooper Molera Adobe in downtown Monterey, is partnering with Doug Wiele of Foothill Partners to make the house museum lively: restaurant, cafe, retail. Volunteers and history buffs don’t like it. At all.

National Trust head honcho David Brown and PR sidekick David Armanasco met privately with their detractors this month in hopes of a peace treaty, but Brown’s follow-up email to Alliance of Monterey Area Preservationists board member Nancy Runyon shows they have a long way to go. “The trust was told very directly that we should find another developer,” Brown wrote.

His best efforts to absorb the criticism apparently fell short. “I had the impression that the alliance feels that Cooper Molera requires museum-quality attention to be an effective historic site, but I may misunderstand your point on this,” he wrote.

Runyon’s response: “You did not hear correctly my opinions on this matter.”

Now Squid understands how John Kerry feels negotiating with Russia in the game of Where In The World is Edward Snowden.

HEARST CASTLE… Squid once spent a weekend visiting relatives who had no interest in keeping the lair tidy. But by the end of the visit, Squid had become just as slobby – the old Stockholm Syndrome, by which hostages come to empathize with captors. It’s something one former Carmel building official just might be experiencing.

This is the latest in the bizarre saga of Rudy and Terry Canchola, nice folks who did quite a bit of work on their fortress-like Seaside home without the permits. The city sued, bringing in former Monterey City Attorney William Conners who, in turn, hired former Carmel building official Tim Meroney to inspect the property and be his “expert witness” in court. A funny thing happened on the way to those billable hours: Meroney became less of an expert witness and more of a friendly buffer between the Cancholas, Conners and Seaside building official Mark McClain. In an email to the Cancholas, Meroney writes, “Mr. Conners and Mr. McClain are not willing to cooperate… It appears they misrepresented their intentions.”

In Superior Court June 25, a flustered Conners told Judge Kay Kingsley, “Quite frankly, his [Meroney’s] involvement in this is irrelevant.”

From hired gun to irrelevant in one fell swoop. If only there were more of that going around.