District 2 Councilperson Ed Harris.
By Frank Gormlie / OB Rag
Councilman Ed Harris’ office abruptly cancelled a meeting that had been scheduled with OB planners to discuss the OB Community Plan. The meeting had been set for Thursday, June 19th.
While the Plan goes before the full City Council on June 30th, OB planners had expected to be able to have a sit-down with the Councilman of OB before the hearing in order to explain in detail why the Community Plan is a good deal.
Harris had earlier met with the leader of the opposition to the Plan, property investor and owner, David Stebbins.
The two members of the committee responsible for the Plan Update and who have been working with City staff and who were expecting to meet with Harris, Gioivanni Ingolia and Peter Ruscitti, both were notified by Harris’ staff on Tuesday, June 17 about the cancellation. Ingolia is the Co-chair of the Update Committee and Ruscitti is the current Chair of the Planning Board.
The reason for the cancellation? It’s unclear.
Anonymous sources familiar with the details said that the Ocean Beach planning reps were told that Harris’ office had been advised by the City Attorney’s Office not to meet privately with people on one side of the dispute regarding the OB Plan, as that would constitute an ex parte meeting that would then require Harris to recuse himself from the vote on the 30th.
This same source said that the City Attorney has advised all councilmembers not to have this meetings as the OB Community Plan issue is now in the “quasi-judicial” realm.
However, the City Attorney’s Office has denied that they had given Councilman Harris that advice.
Late on Tuesday, after being contacted by the OB Rag, the City Attorney’s Office would not confirm that such advice had been given. In an email to me from Tom Mitchell the media relations rep at the City Attorney’s office, he stated “no” to my question:
“Can your office confirm that the city attorney’s office advised City Councilman Ed Harris of D2 not to meet with OB planners regarding the OB Community Plan Update that had been scheduled for Thursday, June 19th?“
The OB Rag made several calls into Mr. Harris’ office during the late afternoon of June 17, but as of this writing, none have been returned.
The meeting with OB’s councilman had been planned for some time, and had been announced at Monday night’s public meeting of the committee. The cancellation took our local planners completely by surprise. None of them wanted to make a statement to the OB Rag about this.
The OB Rag did ask around to other sources about the reasons for the cancellation. A member of Councilman David Alvarez’s staff reported that Mr. Alvarez met with members of both sides of the Barrio Logan plan dispute, both privately and together.
To lend some background to the abrupt cancellation, another knowledgeable source who wishes to remain anonymous told me that David Stebbins – the head of the opposition to the OB Community Plan – had threatened legal action if Councilman Harris met with the planners.
We also asked this of Tom Mitchell, PR guy for the City Attorney’s Office. We asked him:
OB Rag: “Secondly, can you confirm that your office received a letter from a David Stebbins threatening legal action if Mr. Harris met with the planners?”
Answer: we are not aware of such a letter, but are still checking to see if one of our lawyers received something of that nature.
So, why did Councilman Harris cancel Thursday’s meeting with the planners from OB?
Here is the entire email exchange between me and City Attorney PR Mitchell:
Q: Can your office confirm that the city attorney’s office advised City Councilman Ed Harris of D2 not to meet with OB planners regarding the OB Community Plan Update that had been scheduled for Thursday, June 19th?”
Answer: no
Q: “Secondly, can you confirm that your office received a letter from a David Stebbins threatening legal action if Mr. Harris met with the planners?”
Answer: we are not aware of such a letter, but are still checking to see if one of our lawyers received something of that nature.
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In the movie, Stebbins would be offering Harris a snug job for when his interim appointment terms out. Then, a year later, when Stebbins hears Harris is meeting with the OB Town Council in his soon to term out Council office, the developer, Stebbins, jumps on Harris.
“I could make you another offer,” Stebbins says. “I could drop a mattress with an anchor off Pt. Loma so you didn’t have no fishes sleeping with you.”
Everyone, except those truly diagnosed as a sociopath (Machiavellian in nature, as an example), knows right from wrong on their inside conscience. It is the “doing the right thing” in actuality that is sometimes most difficult. Empathy plays a strong role in keeping most of us on the road to sympathetic do-gooding. Mr. Harris seems to be struggling with this concept. Perhaps he has (as many others do) forgotten whence he came. I am hoping (but not with rose colored glasses) a complete forthright explanation that is both credible and TRUE. Until then, I am in the camp of those that are disappointed. And yes, with the not far off coming of Zapf, we can expect more of the same, but with cruel intent included and not disguised.