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T he C oast News
NOV. 4, 2016
NCTD, design team, council members respond to allegations By Bianca Kaplanek
SOLANA BEACH — The design team in negotiations to develop the train station property, officials from North County Transit District, which owns the site, and two City Council members are disputing allegations of a “backdoor deal” and conflicts of interest made by a City Council candidate. Ed Sigel, M.D., claims Rhodes Moore LLC, which includes people with “little experience” and “no contractor’s license … beat-out a very well-respected developer.” He also alleges current council members Lesa Heebner and Mike Nichols are not running for re-election so they can “take the design jobs for the redevelopment project.” NCTD officials have been working with the city for years to create a project that will be acceptable to the community but, more importantly, financially feasible for transit operations, NCTD Executive Director Matthew Tucker said. NCTD received four submittals in response to a request for proposals released last year. Last month a selection committee — made up of Solana Beach residents Tim Coughlin and Gary martin and two NCTD representatives — announced the Rhodes
A Solana Beach City Council candidate is accusing current council members and a design team in negotiations to develop the train station property of making a “backdoor deal.” Courtesy rendering
Moore design received the highest ranking. The conceptual plans were presented to council members in September. Tucker and Samuel Elmer, the district’s chief procurement and contract administration officer, stress that the deal is still being negotiated. The NCTD board of directors “has not taken any action to approve a developer for the Solana Beach Train Station project,” Elmer stated in a letter to the Siegel’s campaign. “Currently, the project is within the negotiations phase with the highest ranked proposer and assuming successful negoti-
ations with that proposer, NCTD staff would make a recommendation to the Board for consideration.” The board is made up of City Council members from eight North County cities, including Nichols. Elmer said Nichols, or any other representative from Solana Beach, would “likely be precluded from voting” on any project for the 5.6-acre site on North Cedros Avenue at Lomas Santa Fe Drive. Nichols said if he is still on the board when a developer is chosen he will recuse himself from the vote. “I always check with legal if there is even a re-
mote chance of a conflict of interest,” he said. Nichols, a landscape architect, is not currently up for re-election. He said he has no personal or professional relationship with Rhodes Moore and was never contacted by the company to work on the project. “The whole thing is just totally fabricated,” Nichols said. “It’s an attack on my professional livelihood. It’s just disappointing when someone blatantly makes up something that can be harmful to (someone else’s) professional life with absolutely no proof.” Heebner, who is not seeking a fourth term in the Nov. 8 election, once worked for a residential kitchen design firm. Siegel claimed she was being considered to design a kitchen for the project, known as Cedros Market. “What kitchen?” Heebner asked. “I retired from Kitchen Design/Space Planning in 2008, and it is doubtful a largely commercial development would have any need for my residential kitchen expertise.” Heebner called the allegations “baseless,” “totally fabricated and absolute fiction.” “If not so serious, they’d be laughable,” she said, noting that she was never contacted by the TURN TO ALLEGATIONS ON A21
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fect example of this would be the rail corridor, he said, where a one-size-fits-all solution to dealing with the issue of crossing the railroad won’t fit. “In some communities, trenching might work but in others, that’s not what the community is interested in,” Graham said. “You have to be able to listen to the community and what they want, I think too often that city government says ‘We know best and we are going to create a solution for you.” Another area he said a listening ear would change city priorities is in Leucadia, where the proposed overhaul of North Coast Highway 101 has languished for nearly nine years since its inception. “Too often, it seems that the past city councils have not had Leucadia’s infrastructure needs as a funding priority,” Graham said. “This needs to change because the streetscape promises great things for our city and our citizens.” Graham, like many of his colleagues, has taken a position in support of Measure T, the city’s housing element initiative, which he called flawed, but better than the alternative. “When you look at all of the potential alternatives of not passing the housing element, they are all far worst than if you were not to pass one,” Graham said. “We need to stop putting ourselves in this legally untenable position that will lead to more lawsuits and potentially being stripped of our land-use decision making authority.” Mark Muir: “Tested, proven and trusted” record Incumbent Mark Muir has served on the City Council since 2011, when he was appointed to serve out the term of the late Maggie Houlihan, and re-elected to the post in 2012. Muir said that if voters want to know about him, check his voting record — it speaks for itself. “I’ve constantly made decisions that I believe reflect the values of the community,” Muir said. Muir said he thought of the city’s youth when he facilitated the acquisition of a key grant that paved the way for Leo Mullen’s dilapidated soccer field to get replaced. He thought of the high value that residents in Encinitas place on trails and open space when he made a proposal to set aside 10 percent of the city’s budget surplus toward acquiring more open space. And, he said, despite being considered as a “developer friendly” candidate, Muir said his record will reflect that he has voted against developer interests more than his other
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council colleagues. In addition, Muir, who previously oversaw the fire agency that encompasses Encinitas, Del Mar and Solana Beach, touts his record of fiscal responsibility, pointing to his efforts in balancing both the fire departments. He said his biggest goals upon re-election are to complete the city’s general plan update in its entirety, which includes the housing element update but also includes the circulation element and overhaul of the city’s land-use map. “Achievements should be community based, which should include more outreach, participation and consensus building at the community and council level,” Muir said. The former fire chief also said that he wants to place a priority on the city’s core services, including public safety, fire, road repairs and open space. He, like Graham, pointed to wasteful spending as something he wants to end at City Hall. As a minority on the council, he voted against the purchase of Pacific View, arguing that the city overpaid for the property. Moving forward, however, he said that city has a fiduciary duty to its residents to realize the dream of transforming the property into a performing arts center. “Now that the city has purchased this land, we need to clean it up and develop a shared community arts facility vision with a strong financial plan that matches the core goals and objectives of the work plan,” Muir said. “A more aggressive marketing plan with the private sector, may be a way to identify additional funding opportunities.” Tony Kranz: A defense for Pacific View Incumbent Tony Kranz said the election campaign has been “strange,” as he’s felt that a lot of the acrimony of the national race has trickled down to the local election. One issue in particular, Kranz said, is the resurfacing of the city’s purchase of Pacific View Elementary School for $10 million as a campaign topic, two years and one election after the decision had been made. Kranz, one of the three-member voting majority that green-lighted the purchase and the use of bonds to pay for it, said that opponents are grasping at Pacific View because it is the only tangible argument they can make against him being re-elected to a second term. “I think it lends itself to classic political divisions, it is a conservative cause that is to make the argument that we borrowed money to make the purchase and that we paid too much,” Kranz said. “It really is TURN TO RACE (CONT.) ON A23
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