SQUIDFRY 06.07.18: Mo’ Money

MO’ MONEY… Squid isn’t a big spender – except when it comes to top-shelf kibble for Squid’s English bulldog, Rosco P. Coltrane. Carmel City Council seems to have a different approach to spending, at least when it comes to lawyers. The latest bills, released June 1, show the investigation into allegations of misconduct by Mayor Steve Dallas has cost $49,000, paid to the law firm of Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo in two installments in March and April. City Attorney Glen Mozingo says there will be no more checks to the investigating law firm, but it's not clear what the total cost to the city will be.

Carmel pays Mozingo $13,000 a month, plus $275 an hour for extra work. Since January, Mozingo has contracted with two more attorneys, Assistant City Attorney Jon Giffen and Deputy City Attorney Gerard Rose, who are paid by Mozingo, rather than directly by the city, so Squid doesn’t know how much they earn. In February – back when the investigation into Dallas’ “boorish” behavior toward women was in full swing – Mozingo charged the city $29,877. He charged another $32,000 in March. It’s not clear how much is directly attributed to the investigation, and how much is for other legal services, and Mozingo says those payments fall under attorney/client privilege.

What Squid does know is that translates into a lot of top-shelf kibble. Carmel is known for taking good care of its pets; Rosco would fit right in.

FOR THE BIRDS… Squid has long teased Seaside that, for all the abundant marine life offshore, the city still chose a mascot – a seahorse – that doesn’t live anywhere near Central Coast waters.

Yet it recently came to Squid’s attention that the city is home to a curious pioneering species from down south – Heermann’s gulls, a migratory seabird that almost exclusively breed on a single island in the Gulf of California. The curious thing about these gulls, whose food sources are increasingly threatened by warming waters due to climate change, is that for the last two decades, a tiny colony of them chose to make Seaside their permanent home, and are the only known Heermann’s gull colony – in the entire country. Initially, they nested on an island in Roberts Lake, but the island eventually eroded and sank below the surface. They then made nests atop an auto shop behind Spas by the Bay, but most of that real estate was lost when the owner put up netting to deter them.

This year, most of those gulls chose to make nests atop the McDonald’s on Canyon Del Rey, the same one that burned to a crisp June 5 after an out-of-control car hit a gas line and sparked the blaze.

It all seems to Squid like an allegory of sorts, or perhaps another sign of the apocalypse.

As if the McRib wasn’t ominous enough.

Editor's note: This post was updated to reflect information from Carmel City Attorney Glen Mozingo that came after the Weekly's print deadline.