The Nov. 2 Hercules City Council election is shaping up, in broad terms, as a contest between two incumbents who think the city’s government is open, transparent and responsive to residents, and two challengers who think it has some ethical issues that need to be addressed.
The candidates are Mayor Kris Valstad, Councilman Joe Eddy McDonald, Planning Commissioner Myrna de Vera and John Delgado, a San Francisco assistant district attorney who missed getting elected to the council in 2008 by a mere 26 votes after running a minimalist campaign.
The upcoming election, in which two seats are at stake, will follow two years of public and media scrutiny of the city’s affordable housing program, run by a company founded by City Manager Nelson Oliva, who transferred ownership to his two daughters shortly before he assumed the top administrative post in April 2007.
The daughters recently sold the company, NEO Consulting Inc. D.B.A. Affordable Housing Solutions Group, to its general manager, Walter McKinney, after the Contra Costa County civil grand jury found an appearance of impropriety.
The four candidates faced off at a debate last month at the Contra Costa TV studios in Martinez sponsored by the League of Women Voters and Bay Area News Group. The debate will air several times this month and in October.
Valstad and McDonald each used the phrase “very successful” to describe, respectively, the affordable housing program overall and the Homeownership Retention and Loss Mitigation Program in particular. Regarding the grand jury report, Valstad said the issue of an appearance of conflict of interest has been corrected; McDonald said the grand jury found no evidence of any wrongdoing.
Delgado, however, said questions such as “why it happened” and “how it happened” had yet to be addressed. And de Vera, who cites “Ethics Reforms” at the top of her campaign platform, said a citizens advisory board should examine the matter.
The candidates also discussed the pace of development of the Hercules waterfront and a planned intermodal transit center.
This fiscal year, NEO/AHSG has more than $1.1 million worth of no-bid contracts with the city related to affordable housing as well as business development, construction oversight, neighborhood beautification, wastewater treatment and general administrative support. The company administers the Homeownership Retention and Loss Mitigation Program, which arranged a $460,000 underwater mortgage bailout loan, on top of two previous Redevelopment Agency loans totaling almost $75,000, on the house of Oliva’s administrative assistant. The program also arranged a $295,000 mortgage bailout loan, on top of a previous $50,000 loan, on an affordable housing project manager’s condo; and a $297,500 mortgage bailout loan, on top of previous loans totaling $70,500, on a city recreation employee’s condo.
Contact Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760.
