As the city reorganizes, reviews, hires and terminates staff, the controversial city attorney has been left untouched.
Interim City Manager Charles Long has either addressed or begun to address big issues facing the city in his first month on the job–reorganization at city hall, tearing up the NEO affordable housing contract, examining the funding woes for the Intermodal Transit Center and Sycamore North projects, and restarting negotiations with the waterfront developer. However, one item seems to have escaped his attention– the fate of the city attorney.
Long’s predecessor, Nelson Oliva, is still on the payroll and retains the official title of city manager, and it is now apparent that his ambitious activities as executive director of the redevelopment agency was a shell game, or a disorganized Ponzi scheme. It is surprising then that the attorney that provided the legal basis and protection for the actions taken–City Attorney Alfred “Mick” Cabral–has retained his position. And it is not as if Cabral has a reputable tenure.
The best-known case is the city’s battle with Walmart. Cabral led the city council into troubled waters when he advised the city to invoke eminent domain over Parcel C, where the big-box retailer had proposed to construct a 99,000 square foot supercenter. Although members of the city council had invited Walmart into the city in 2004 and assisted in the retailer’s purchase of the property, the retailer’s plans resulted in an uproar from residents who campaigned to halt the project, and the council was forced to reverse course and commence eminent domain proceedings in 2006, under legal guidance from Cabral. The city council’s decision made national news.
Unfortunately, the city didn’t have the right to invoke the power of eminent domain–the right had been long expired–and a county judge eventually ruled that the city’s ordinance was invalid. It was a costly oversight by Cabral that placed Hercules, again, in a difficult position. The city ultimately convinced Walmart to sell the property to the redevelopment agency, which purchased Parcel C in 2009. While the site remains vacant, the only winner in the entire four-year saga seems to be Cabral, who racked up unknown amounts of legal fees. That is only one example of Cabral’s history of encouraging the city council into unnecessary legal proceedings. More recently, Cabral has been a key player in the city’s threats of eminent domain of the waterfront property.
Cabral also is no stranger to a conflict of interest. The city has recently begun efforts to withdraw from the jointly-operated wastewater treatment facility in Pinole at a hefty cost. The plan is to send the city’s waste to the larger West County Wastewater District (WCWD) in Richmond with the city footing the bill for the installation of needed infrastructure (upwards of $70 million). The attorney representing the city in the Pinole-Hercules Joint Powers Authority is unsurprisingly Mick Cabral. The attorney for WCWD? None other than Cabral. It’s a conflict of interest made in heaven. No matter what the city ultimately decides–or how much it pays–Cabral will benefit.
It is a pattern of behavior not fit for civil service, although Cabral is a contract employee. The city attorney must provide legal guidance in the best interest for the municipality–which he has failed to do–and not for the personal benefit of a city manager. Cabral has provided inadequate counsel on issues of great magnitude, to substantial cost to the city, and has, on occasion, shown great disregard for open government meeting laws (conducting city business in closed session) and even contempt for the community for which he serves.
When the new council sits for its first meeting in January, its first order of business should be the dismissal or demand for resignation of its city attorney. It is long overdue.