San Carlos treasurer censured

Following an internal investigation by City Attorney Greg Rubens, councilmembers unanimously agreed with findings in a report that Tiegel likely violated a number of standards in the city’s code of conduct when in April she used her elected title to drum up opposition to a development moratorium in North East San Carlos.

The 120-acre section of town historically referred to as the Harbor Industrial Area has become the focus of a $1.5 million specific plan that’s meant to determine the type of growth and community benefits residents would like to see in the area. Since being annexed in 1997, the city has not developed planning guidance for the area but prohibited nonindustrial uses in its 2030 General Plan, a guiding document prepared in 2009 that includes an environmental study for future development.

Before the council was to consider implementing the moratorium, Tiegel sent an email from her personal account to City Manager Jeff Maltbie asking if there was anything he or city staff could do to “convince the City Council that a moratorium on the East Side is a bad idea,” and questioned if there where any fiscal or financial repercussions to the moratorium that she could speak on during the meeting as city treasurer “to help oppose this item.”

Maltbie forwarded that email to City Attorney Greg Rubens who advised Maltbie to not respond. That email also contained a forwarded email from Tiegel with the subject line “HIA - Important Notice to All San Carlos Property Owners” and signed “3rd generation property owner and current San Carlos City Treasurer,” that informed email recipients of the potential moratorium and encouraged them to email their concerns to McDowell, Vice Mayor Adam Rak, Rubens, Maltbie and the Planning Department.

Later, Tiegel was also accused by former Councilmember Mark Olbert of using her position to improperly question him over social media about whether he properly rented a city-owned room for an event he was hosting.

The investigation found that Tiegel likely violated five sections of the code of conduct by failing to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, attempting to direct the city manager, retaliating against a member of the public, using her official title when seeking personal gain and using her title when sharing her personal opinions on a city policy.

“As a community member of San Carlos, I feel a loss of that trust. I’m disappointed at how many actions were taken when this revelation of the potential moratorium was presented and I’m worried this will erode the public’s confidence in all of us,” Councilmember Laura Parmer-Lohan said.

When accepting the report crafted in collaboration between Mayor Sara McDowell and Rubens, the council also unanimously agreed to censure Tiegel. The censure is a formal message of disapproval for her actions that does not remove her from her duties.

Tiegel, also a former councilmember who help craft the code of conduct and co-chair of the annexation committee that helped broker the deal between the Harbor Industrial Association and the city, apologized to the council, city staff and Olbert during Monday’s meeting.

“I realize it was an emotional response not well thought out and I want to apologize for sending it in the first place,” Tiegel said. “In hindsight, it was clearly an error in judgment. As people, we all at some point have made mistakes and especially ones we wish we could kind of unwind time. Unfortunately, a mistake was made.”

Following that decision, councilmembers voted to extend the development moratorium for 22 months and 15 days, giving staff time to complete the Northeast Area Specific Plan. The moratorium was amended to allow applications to be submitted and to allow for some projects to move forward if it’s found that the ordinance unlawfully prohibits the project from moving forward.

A planning application from Pacific Gas and Electric Company was also added to the list of projects exempted from the ordinance given that staff and the council agreed that whatever upgrades the service provider is seeking will be of value to the city and the facility is expected to remain in the area for decades to come.

Given sustained concerns from the business community in the area, councilmembers also requested that staff return within a year to present on the implementation of the ordinance and any connection issues that arise from it.

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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