Editorial: Quilter’s parting excuse over RDA loss

In order to learn from your mistakes, you have to own up to them. That holds true for individuals and organizations. It is too bad that departing Hollister City Manager Clint Quilter chose his last official Hollister City Council meeting to shrug off a potential $3 million loss by the former Redevelopment Agency and its successors. On the other hand this has been his regular M.O. when confronted by bad decisions. He has always counted on disinterested city councils to accept every glib explanation.
In April 2008, during the depths of the recession when property values had taken a steep drop, the Redevelopment Agency purchased the former Leatherback tarpaper plant at 111 Hillcrest Road for $4 million. At that time, the RDA fully indemnified the former owner for the cost of environmental cleanup, which officials estimated would be a few hundred-thousand dollars.
Now, after spending five years and almost $1 million decontaminating and cleaning up the site, and after the recovery of much of California’s real estate market, the estimated value the property is only $1.8 million. This is a loss of more than $3 million of public funds.
The RDA made two obvious mistakes. First, they paid far too much for the property unless there is a major reason for the depreciation and the city has offered none.
The second mistake was to indemnify the former owner who had a legal obligation to clean up the hazardous materials. When an estimate of a few hundred thousand turns into more than $930,000, the public has every right to be concerned.
What was Quilter’s comment? He said the RDA was just doing its job getting rid of blighted property. A component of the city manager’s job is to get a fair deal with the public’s money. This inflated price and cost overruns were clear mistakes, but don’t expect anyone to admit it; it’s not their money it’s yours. In order to learn from your mistakes, you have to own up to them. That holds true for individuals and organizations. It is too bad that departing Hollister City Manager Clint Quilter chose his last official Hollister City Council meeting to shrug off a potential $3 million loss by the former Redevelopment Agency and its successors. On the other had this has been his regular M.O. when confronted by bad decisions. He has always counted on disinterested city councils to accept every glib explanation.
In April 2008, during the depths of the recession when property values had taken a steep drop, the Redevelopment Agency purchased the former Leatherback tarpaper plant at 111 Hillcrest Road for $4 million. At that time, the RDA fully indemnified the former owner for the cost of environmental cleanup, which officials estimated would be a few hundred-thousand dollars.
Now, after spending five years and almost $1 million decontaminating and cleaning up the site, and after the recovery of much of California’s real estate market, the estimated value the property is only $1.8 million. This is a loss of more than $3 million of public funds.
The RDA made two obvious mistakes. First, they paid far too much for the property unless there is a major reason for the depreciation and the city has offered none.
The second mistake was to indemnify the former owner who had a legal obligation to clean up the hazardous materials. When an estimate of a few hundred thousand turns into more than $930,000, the public has every right to be concerned.
What was Quilter’s comment? He said the RDA was just doing its job getting rid of blighted property. A component of the city manager’s job is to get a fair deal with the public’s money. This inflated price and cost overruns were clear mistakes, but don’t expect anyone to admit it; it’s not their money it’s yours.