The Presidio of Monterey continues to be cagey about an incident that caused the evacuation of the base back in mid-August.
After months of silence, The Herald was able to determine hundreds of students, faculty members and military personnel fled because officials believed an instructor intended to blow himself up.
This newspaper was only able to figure that out using a California Public Records Act request for all communication from law enforcement to dispatch at the Monterey County Emergency Communications center in Salinas. All the Army said was that a "real world incident" took place, a suspect was in custody and there was no danger to the public.
A Freedom of Information Act request for the Presidio, made at the same time as the state request, came back empty.
The Herald asked for: "All emails, reports and correspondence concerning the
Aug. 8, 2014, incident at the Presidio of Monterey that required an emergency
drill to be halted."
What we received was three press releases without an explanation of why nothing else was included. This would mean: 1) No one sent any emails, made any reports or sent any letters on a major military instillation, and home to the Defense Language Institute, about a basewide evacuation or 2) It ignored the law in its response.
FOIA law says government agencies must give "the reasons therefor" not granting a request. The Presidio's response just says "please find enclosed partial response." The fine print of the act is on the Department of Justice's website.
Above is a high resolution image of the initial design of the Monterey Conference Center that debuted last night.
Architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP sent me the photo around 1 a.m. last night, so it was not able to make print. Designs are not set in stone but the next meeting is fairly soon -- Dec. 23 -- so it is not as if there is no urgency.
There was a lot of concern raised by the business and hotel community at the meeting to get something done because of groups trying to book events. At the same time, the City Council, Planning Commission and Architectural Review Committee are under pressure because of the $32 million price tag.
As the only reporter at last night's meeting, I have already received some backlash for having the gall to put in print some objections by elected officials to the design.
Monterey city manager Mike McCarthy wrote this to my boss: "The article in today's paper left the impression that it was very negative--I think early in the meeting it appeared negative, but by the end of the meeting, it was pretty clear that most agreed the drawings were right on track."
The video of last night's meeting should be uploaded here in a few days for those that want to see comments from officials for themselves.
The hotels might want it done soon, but it is something residents will need to see almost everyday and tourists are paying for.
Three hotels surrounding the center will cover the majority of the cost, with the other 65 hotels, motels and inns implementing a 1.6 or 0.8 percent tax on each bill. That means if you visit Monterey, and stay in a hotel, you are paying for this thing.
I have set up the comments on this site to not require a sign up on Blogger.com or anything like that. Please post your opinion! You might not own a hotel but your opinion is valuable (to me, anyway). Do you think the building is "right on track"?
NOTE: In the comment section, the easiest way to post is to select "Anonymous." But, feel free to leave your name if you want.
I was at Del Monte Beach around 6 p.m. Sunday when one of my friends noticed something in the sky.
It was red and orange and seemed to be moving much slower than a plane, helicopter or drone. I am at least 90 percent sure it was one of those flying Chinese lanterns.
My three friends there were pretty excited about whatever it was so I sent the video to Monterey Regional Airport.
"Our Operations Officer had seen a drone recently but the only other explanation is Santa?" said spokeswoman Jennifer Hickerson.
Unlike the Monterey Bay sea creature that turned out to be a whale carcass, this mystery (probably a Chinese lantern) continues.
Nader Agha stands outside the Holman Building in Pacific Grove in 2005. (David Royal, Monterey Herald)
Another day, another million.
The online auction for the historic Holman Building continued Tuesday with a bid of $5.5 million. The auction ends Wednesday.
On Monday, a bid of $4.5 million was registered on Auction.com. Mike Bitar of Executive Commercial, which is running the auction, said he is prevented from disclosing names of bidders.
The property and 5-story building is valued at $6.5 million, according to the Monterey County Assessor's Office. Owner Nader Agha put the building for sale in 2008 for $17.5 million.
Bitar said most bids come on the last day. He said he is getting several calls a day about the property.
The 120,000-square-foot property was home to the former Holman's department store. It was featured in John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" with the story of a man roller skating above the store as a promotion.
Agha has “sole and absolute discretion” to accept the winning bidder’s offer, say legal documents posted on Auction.com.
The historic Holman Building in Pacific Grove has received an offer of $4.5 million, according to an online auction that started Monday.
The bid is $1 million more than the starting bid. The auction ends Wednesday.
Mike Bitar of Executive Commercial, which is running the auction, said he is prevented from saying yet who made the bid or if there has been more than one.
"God willing, it will be sold this time," Bitar said Monday night.
It appears that the auction is off to slow start; Owner Nader Agha put the 5-story building up for sale in 2008 for $17.5 million. Bitar said most bids come the last day.
Two potential bidders have gone public: Some members of the Shake family (who envision turning it into a marketplace like the San Francisco Ferry Building) and NxGen Capital (that wants to turn it into an assisted living/memory care facility).
Agha has owned the building since 1995 and put the property on the market several times. In 2012, an attempt to rezone the building to allow for development of a 200-plus-room hotel was defeated by Pacific Grove voters.
It is getting a lot harder to be a cigarette smoker, and seller, in Monterey.
Smoking is banned on the Recreation Trail, city beaches, public parking lots and even Fisherman's Wharf. Also, good luck finding an ashtray downtown.
The City Council took it a step further last week by passing a new law to requiring the city's roughly 50 retailers who sell tobacco apply for a $236 yearly permit. The county, which already requires unincorporated areas to get a county permit, would distribute the license on Monterey's behalf.
Permit requirements likely not be needed until mid-summer after the city works out logistics with the county.
The permit may be revoked if a retailer is found to have sold to minors. Fines will range from $1,000 for the first violation to $5,000 for the second violation and suspension of tobacco selling privileges.
Dale Hillard of Monterey County Collaborates has been working hard to get local cities to pass similar permit rules.
Hillard talks about why he thinks the new law is important here:
The historic Holman Building has been put on auction but how serious the attempt is remains to be seen.
Peninsula businessman Nader Agha bought the 120,000-square-foot Pacific Grove building on Lighthouse Avenue in 1995 and has put it up for sale before.
In 2008, he was asking $17.5 million for the landmark hotel. He said, at the time, he put it on the market because he was frustrated by years of delays to build a luxury hotel.
His latest attempt, posted last week on Auction.com, said indicative bids are due by 5 p.m. on Halloween. From there, prospective buyers will be selected by him for a final auction and required to post a minimum deposit of $100,000.
The final auction for the 90-year-old building will be held Nov. 19.
Foreign buyers are permitted to participate but any purchase must be in cash unless otherwise approved by Agha.
The rules for the auction may raise some red flags for potential buyers. In the fine print of the agreement, it says Agha has “sole and absolute discretion” to accept the winning bidder’s offer.
Most people I called about this auction seemed jaded after years of rumors about new buyers for the Holman Building, as well as the frequency it seems to go up for sale.
So far, efforts to reach Agha have been unsuccessful.
Given the importance of the building to downtown Pacific Grove (which even resulted in a 2012 election) it isn't a situation that is likely to go away anytime soon.
Rear Admiral Jan Tighe, former NPS interim president, looks on
at a press conference in 2012 (Dave Royal/Monterey Herald).
U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced a plan Wednesday to increase the amount of women in Navy and Marine Corps, according to Reuters.
Monterey's Naval Postgraduate School counts just ll percent of its student body as women, said school spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Greg Flores.
It is slightly better, 18 percent, for non-resident students; that's civilian and foreign exchange students, as well as those completing degrees with distance learning.
Mabus made his comments at Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington, D.C. He said women represented 18 percent of the Navy and 8 percent of the Marine Corps.
"I don't know exactly what the goal ought to be, but I know those are too low," he said.
Mabus said the Navy was coming up with ways on its own to get more women but some measures would need congressional approval. No word on what that could mean for NPS.
I asked Flores if NPS does anything to encourage women to attend and this is what he said:
"We encourage all interested candidates who meet our enrollment criteria to apply to one of our Graduate or Doctoral programs. Gender is not a criteria for enrollment at NPS. Selection for the Navy's fully funded graduate education program is based on outstanding professional performance, promotion potential and a strong academic background. Officers interested in this program contact their assignment officers to determine their professional qualification and assignment availability. Upon determination of academic qualification, individuals may be eligible for consideration and assignment at NPS."
In 2013, there were 1,633 full-time resident students at the school. Of that, 180 were women and 1,453 men. That's eight men for every one woman.
Best Coast performs on Saturday at First City Festival
As someone who attended First City Festival both days two years in a row, I can tell you attendance was down this weekend from 2013.
I think it is noteworthy a potential major tourism draw for Monterey did not get more popular in its second year (probably not a good sign for a music festival), despite arguably better known acts such as Beck and Phantogram.
This is perhaps why concert promoter Goldenvoice has been ducking me for three days. Despite repeated attempts to reach them by phone and email, I keep being told they are too busy to talk.
This could be some sort of "small town newspaper" scenario. Who cares about the Monterey Herald if you have Rolling Stone on the other line? Yet, last year, I got them on the phone almost immediately.
In that article, Goldenvoice executive Rick Mueller told me the morning after the festival his company's attendance estimates and its hope for future events. I was told Monday by Goldenvoice they could not talk until Tuesday, told Tuesday they could talk that day but then did not respond to my email, and then this morning told they could talk but did not reply to my response.
The festival drew roughly 10,000 people both days in 2013, Goldenvoice told me at the time. My personal guess for attendance this year was around 8,000 on Saturday and 5,000 on Sunday.
A few estimates were made in other media: SF Weekly said the festival "didn't have a huge attendance," Herald freelancer Beth Peerless said she spoke to someone at Goldenvoice on Sunday who put it at 9,000 each day and the San Jose Mercury News made a Saturday estimate of 8,000.
I'm fine just using what Goldenvoice told us Sunday for attendance (although, I would guess that is a bit high) but, for the newspaper, I would like to ask the promoter what it means and why they think it happened.
Monterey police have already told me attendance was down for the festival, which law enforcement statistics at least partially reinforce.
Last year, there were 12 arrests inside the fairgrounds and 23 citations outside during the festival on Saturday and Sunday, Monterey police said.
Lt. Leslie Sonne said there were no arrests inside the fairgrounds this year and just five citations outside.
One person was arrested outside Sunday around 1 p.m. for possession of methamphetamine, Sonne said. There was also a report of a theft of a wallet out of an unattended purse Saturday.
I happened to be there for all the major acts both years -- and took video. Unfortunately, they both look pretty bad but you can see the Modest Mouse crowd was much thicker toward the front.
Here is Modest Mouse closing the show Sunday night in 2013:
Here is The National closing the show Sunday night in 2014:
I guess one could just argue Modest Mouse is more popular than The National, which is another reason why I can't really say for sure what happened on Sunday when attendance appeared to have gone down significantly.
Also, another anecdotal observation that I cannot pin down until I talk to Goldenvoice is the high amount of give-away tickets and last-minute deals on tickets. I ran into three friends that told me they got free tickets and you should have seen my friend Jeff's face (who flew up from Los Angeles and paid full price) when two Santa Cruz women told us they got their tickets for $50.
There are a lot of factors to consider in the success of the festival. Even attendance may not be a fair analysis if you consider all the free tickets. They also could have made a high profit on concessions after it bought out concessionaire services from the Monterey County Fair.
U.S. Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel) met with veterans earlier this week to discuss issues of note to the community, but the talked veered into other areas such as the proposed Monterey Downs project.
Although Farr has made comments regarding a land-use measure designed to stop the equestrian-themed project (he was against it), he typically steers clear of discussing the project directly.
Downs is a major development proposed for 550 acres of Fort Ord straddling the east side of Seaside. The city of Seaside is handling the project application. Developer Brian Boudreau, a major figure in the horse racing world, unveiled the $750 million project in 2010.
The project is somewhat connected to the proposed Fort Ord veterans cemetery because it is included in Downs' environmental assessment and developers plan to buy a 30-acre endowment parcel north of the 78-acre cemetery to help fund the burial place and its roads.
"The developer has an option on that parcel. If he was really sincere he'd just give you the money" before the project is approved, Farr said.
"That's not part of the (veterans) cemetery project. Monterey Downs rises and falls on its own merits," he said. "It's got to go through tons of political issues. It has so many gates it needs to go through."
He said was not sure what the current status of the project was at but he was "not so keen on it anyway."
Downs calls for 1,280 homes and apartments, a horse track, stables, a 6,500-seat sports arena, a horse park, three hotels, a swim and tennis club, offices, a veterinary clinic and commercial space. There would be 73 acres of habitat preservation area and 74 acres of parks and open space.
A federally recognized Native American tribe based in Shasta County has come out against a bill co-authored by Asm. Luis Alejo (D-Salinas) that is opposed by several Monterey County unrecognized tribes.
The Pit River Tribe, recognized by the federal government since 1976, has called AB 52 a "thinly veiled attempt" to cut Native Americans out of the development process in a letter to the main author, Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles).
"Marginalization and cultural extermination of California's surviving Indians seem to have replaced genocide of past centuries," wrote Dolores Raglin, tribal chairwoman for Pit River.
At issue for unrecognized tribes is the bill's Section 1 (b) which says it will "Establish a consultation process for federally recognized Native American tribes in California in the California Environmental Quality Act."
Unrecognized tribes, such as Monterey County's Ohlone/Coastanoan-Esselen Nation, interpret the bill to mean they will no longer be consulted on projects they consider part of their ancestral land, such as the Fort Ord veterans cemetery.
California currently does not distinguish between unrecognized and recognized tribes, according to an analysis by the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality.
Alejo said last week the tribes have misinterpreted his bill and it would not affect their ability to work with developers. However, Gatto told The Herald the legislation would likely not pass if the state's 78 tribal communities petitioning for recognition were added to the mix.
"We have to bite off what we can chew," he said. ". . . Politics is the art of the possible."
In Raglin's letter, she wrote the tribe was concerned a change to the definition of what a Native American tribe is would further past grievances.
"Given the shameful, historical treatment of California's Native Americans at the hands of the U.S. and State Governments," she wrote, "AB 52's proposed removal of many Indian peoples from the CEQA process puts the State of California in the role of continuing that dark legacy."
Gatto said he actually came up with the bill because of a desire to preserve California's history. AB 52 would elevate federally recognized tribes to the same status as other government entities. Instead of just being focused on finding archaeological artifacts, it would force every project under CEQA to be reviewed by the Native American Heritage Commission.
Raglin also opposes the work required of recognized tribes if the bill passes as "an undue burden and unfunded mandate."
The Pit River Tribe plans to attend the Senate Appropriations Committee in Sacramento on Aug. 4 when it is read again, according to Morning Star Gali, the tribe's historic preservation officer.
There are three local unrecognized tribes. The Esselen territory is mostly limited to Monterey County; the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is spread across San Benito, Santa Cruz and northern and eastern Monterey counties; the Salinan Tribe is in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.
At the height of the Monterey County sheriff's primary, I made a California Public Records Act request for documents related to a claim that eventually came out in a last minute attack -- That Sheriff Scott Miller had several official complaints against him.
According to my recently-received response, the Sheriff's Office had 11 complaints with the county Equal Opportunity Office. Of these, seven cases were based on race, national origin and/or gender and four cases complained of discrimination based upon disability and age.
The only thing it proves is the office had complaints, not Miller. Also, there is no way of telling what they were about exactly.
The Californians for Law and Order group, run by a former GOP Central Coast leader, claimed in advertisements Miller has had "13 charges filed for sexual harassment and discrimination" against him.
No evidence has ever been produced to validate that claim.
Here is what Miller wrote about complaints against him at the time:
"None have been shown to have any factual merit," he wrote, "Most of them have been abandoned or lie dormant. The majority of the claims were filed by disgruntled former employees."
I figured this was worth a blog post because 1) It likely will come up again in the campaign and 2) for how long it took my request (attached below) to be filed.
I made the request to the County Counsel's office May 14. I did not get a response until last week.
No explanation was given as to why it took 44 business days to get a response, but I did get an apology. I've never had an issue with County Counsel Charles McKee or his staff; They are usually fast and helpful with requests.
Under California law, public entities have a maximum of 24 days to release records, give a date for their release or explain what exemption allows it to not release it.
I made another request for something else related to the campaign on April 24 and have not received the information I asked for. McKee said they are working on it.
Last week, Miller's challenger in the November election, Steve Bernal, received the endorsement of the Deputy Sheriffs Association. Although it is unclear how much that means to voters, Bernal was very pleased and said it would give his campaign momentum.
A day after some environmentalists raised a red flag over the state not having a public meeting over the draft Fort Ord veterans cemetery plans, two local politicians have announced a meeting.
U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, and State Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, will hold a 1-hour meeting Saturday starting at 9 a.m.
The public gathering is at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Morse B-104, 426 Van Buren Street. If you have questions, you may call Monning's office at 831-657-6315.
Monning's office said the event will be "an informational town hall meeting providing a state and federal update on the status of the California Central Coast Veterans Cemetery."
The public has until next week Friday to comment on the draft plans for the cemetery. The 629-page draft environmental assessment for the cemetery is available online or at the Seaside Library at 550 Harcourt Ave. or Marina Library at 190 Seaside Circle.
There is no public meeting planned to discuss the recently-released Fort Ord veterans cemetery plans, according to the California Department of Veterans Affairs.
The state is not required to hold the meeting, but its absence has increased fear among the Keep Fort Ord Wild, or KFOW, group that the project will get "rubber stamp" approval.
If the state would have done a much longer environmental impact report, instead of an environmental assessment, it would have needed to have a public meeting, according to the California Environmental Quality Act.
KFOW, which plans to ask the state for a full environmental impact report, found about the lack of a meeting through a public records request.
The group gave the response to its CPRA request to The Herald. A few things of note:
The two agencies who will ultimately approve the environmental assessment are the state Department of Veterans Affairs and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.
The representatives for the agencies are David Gerard, CalVet assistant deputy secretary, and George Eisenbach, director of the VA's cemetery grant services program.
The state plans to respond to public comments received during the public comment period (accepted until July 18).
The public will be able to get updates on the Central Coast Veterans Cemetery in two weeks. The Fort Ord Veterans Issues Advisory Committee meets July 24 at 920 2nd Ave. in Marina. It typically meets at 3 p.m., although an agenda has yet to be posted.
At the meetings there is always an update on the cemetery and representatives from the state VA, state Sen. Bill Monning's office, Rep. Sam Farr's Office and the Presidio of Monterey attend.
The 629-page draft environmental assessment for the cemetery is available online or at the Seaside Library at 550 Harcourt Ave. or Marina Library at 190 Seaside Circle.
After more than 20 years of work, cemetery organizers hope they can meet federal deadlines to begin the project in late fall. Besides KFOW, the only other public opposition to the project has come from the Oholone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation which contends the cemetery land is on its indigenous homeland.
"Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation objects to all excavation in known cultural lands, even when they are described as previously disturbed and of no significant archaeological value," wrote Esselen chairwoman Louise Miranda Ramirez to the state.
Ramirez said Monday afternoon by phone it sends a similar letter to all Fort Ord projects because it considers the former base part of its land. Its effort to build an 80-room hotel, wellness center and cultural center has stalled out of concerns a casino could be built -- Despite the tribe voting not to build a casino and saying they are willing to sign an agreement with the county it would not build a casino.
My dream of covering a Monterey Bay sea monster story will have to wait another day.
About a week and a half ago, Michael Bell of Seaside contacted me about a possible sea monster found on the beach off of Tioga Avenue in Seaside.
This is how Bell described it in an email:
"It's about 50ft long &looks as if it had underwater wings :) & it's amazing!! I am unable to tell exactly what it is, yet with Earth's oceans vast greatness, I wouldn't be (sic) suprised if it's an undiscovered creature of the deep seas?!"
Unfortunately for newspaper sales, the good people at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station have cleared up the confusion.
Randy Kochevar, a researcher at the station, looked it over with some colleagues and they concluded it was an old, dried up whale carcass.
"You can see the characteristic folds from the underside of the mouth cavity in some of the photos," he said.
I'm sure there is all sorts of crazy stuff out in the Pacific Ocean we have not discovered. I will hold out hope for the next unique thing that washes up on shore.
The effort to find the company who will build the Central Coast Veterans Cemetery has begun.
In Monday's edition of The Herald, the state Department of Veterans Affairs advertised for bids for the cemetery, which it estimates will cost $6.3 million and take 525 work days to complete.
Prospective bidders must attend the mandatory pre-bid meeting and site inspection tour July 9 at the Fort Ord Reuse Authority office in Marina.
The advertisement said the work involves labor, demolition, excavation, earthwork, storm water pollution prevention planning, monitoring for unexploded munitions, building fences, concrete, asphalt paving, electrical wiring and transformers, interior and exterior lighting, landscaping, installation of PG&E infrastructure and AT&T substructure, improvements to Parker Flats Road and more.
The bid opening will take place July 30 in Sacramento.
Organizers are on a tight Aug. 24 deadline for a $6.7 million grant to be approved, which has been complicated by some environmentalists protesting the environmental review process through comments to the state Department of General Services.
They said the state should complete a much longer environmental impact report, or EIR, as opposed to the environmental assessment the state produced. Although, they have stopped short of saying they will pursue legal action.
Those interested in the state Department of Veterans Affairs' environmental assessment for the Fort Ord veterans cemetery will now have six more days to comment.
The last day to comment on the Central Coast Veterans Cemetery assessment is now July 18.
The change was the result of the assessment accidentally being shipped to the San Francisco City and County Clerk instead of the Monterey County Clerk-Recorder, according to State Sen. Bill Monning's office.
I read the whole 629 pages because I am insane. Trust me on this one: You are probably better served reading a copy at the Seaside Library at 550 Harcourt Ave. or the Marina library at 190 Seaside Circle.
Reading it on an iPad isn't bad, but I found printing it out (I only did that for about 100 pages) was the best.
Some environmentalists plan to ask the state to complete a much-longer environmental impact report. More on that story as it develops.
Valerie Namba, Senior environmental planner Californian Department of General Services RESD-Environmental Services P.O. Box 989052 (MS 502) West Sacramento, CA 95798-9052
Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller, who is seeking re-election in the June 3 primary, had at least five signs vandalized or destroyed in the past few days.
Not surprisingly, no one has come forward to claim responsibility. At the time of this blog posting it was unclear if there was any investigation.
One of the most contentious endorsements of the Monterey County sheriff's race was made by five people.
The 5-person board of the Monterey County Probation Association, which represents 198 Monterey County Probation Department employees, voted to endorse sheriff candidate Fred Garcia in January, according to past president Dawn Allen.
Garcia was the only candidate to speak to the board. Allen said it is not that Garcia was the only candidate allowed to speak, it was that he was the only one to reach out to the association.
The endorsement became an issue last week when Garcia was forced to issue a correction press release after he mistakenly told 12,000 voters in a flier he was endorsed by the county Probation Department, which would have been illegal for the department.
After comments by Miller about the matter in The Herald, Garcia fired back with a press release accusing the sheriff of "dirty politics" and implied the probation department's chief Manuel Real was playing politics.
"Is Mr. Real using his position at the county to campaign for Scott Miller on the public dime?" Garcia wrote.
Allen distanced herself from the comments Monday morning while speaking to The Herald.
"While our Probation Association, not the Probation Department, has endorsed Fred Garcia for sheriff," she said in a prepared statement, "we do not endorse any negative commentary by any candidate about each other, the Probation Department and, especially, our chief."
Allen said the association is considering changing its bylaws to allow all members - not just the board - to vote on endorsements, similar to the Monterey County Deputy Sheriff's Association.
In that association's vote in March, no candidates received its approval because a majority is needed for the endorsement. Miller got the most votes with 49 out of 135 votes cast, or 36 percent of members. Garcia got 21 percent, Bernal got 16 percent and Richards received 9 percent.
All four candidates are expected to address members of the legal community Monday at 3 p.m. at the law offices of Miguel Hernandez at 40 Central Ave. in Salinas. It is open to the public.
A message likely seen by hundreds of drivers between Salinas and Monterey is in the process of being removed.
Sometime around May 6 an individual, or group, hiked up a hill off of Highway 68 near the Reservation Road exit and spray painted a message about Sheriff Scott Miller.
It said, “MEDIA SHERRIFF (sic) MILLER GOT $10,000 FROM P.G. ART HEIST SCAMMERS.”
Whoever wrote the message never came forward or produced any evidence. Miller said he had no idea what the message meant and the other campaigns distanced themselves from it.
The property is owned by Santa Monica-based Domain Corporation and leased to cattle ranchers.
In a letter from Domain Vice President Mark Kelton, he tells the sheriff the matter is a mystery to him too.
“We are very sorry to learn of this incident and have no knowledge about who is responsible for these statements,” he wrote. “. . . Upon discussing this matter with the cattle ranchers, they told us that they were also disappointed that someone would trespass on the property to spray paint any type of message.”
It is impossible to say for sure, but the message seems to point to a two-year investigation by the Sheriff’s Office into stolen artwork from a Pebble Beach home.
Current sheriff candidate Mike Richards said in 2009 (as then-spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office) investigators suspected Amadio and Kennaugh of possible fraud.
Richards, who remembers the case well, said Thursday he has no idea who wrote the message.
There are no records of Amadio or Kennaugh donating to Miller’s 2010 or current sheriff’s campaign.
A day after Sheriff Scott Miller criticized sheriff candidate Fred Garcia for a campaign error, Garcia has accused Miller of playing "dirty politics."
Garcia mistakenly listed the Monterey County Probation Department as his top endorsement in a campaign flier. He had actually been endorsed by the county Probation Association, the union for department employees.
It was a big deal for the probation department, and its chief Manuel Real, because a county entity is forbidden by state law for endorsing candidates. Miller called it an "egregious error."
"(Miller) continues to slander his opponents because of his personal record of failure," Garcia wrote in the release, which is posted below.
A central theme in the release is that Miller somehow gave The Herald a letter the Probation Department had sent to Garcia in order to create a smoke screen from his son's sentencing earlier that day.
I actually got an anonymous email about Garcia's election trouble Friday and had some difficulty obtaining it from the county until Tuesday (mostly because I thought the letter actually came from county counsel). It was me who pursued getting the letter and not Miller who gave it to me. I called him for comment, and the other candidates in the June 3 primary, as I do for every sheriff's race story.
Garcia also implies Real may have an ulterior motive for asking him to correct his flier.
"Is Mr. Real using his position at the County to campaign for Scott Miller on the public dime?" he wrote. I have sent an email to Real to see if he wants to comment about this.
Garcia's press release ends by raising questions about Miller's ballot claim to have saved the taxpayers $500,000 by refusing to "double dip." I have written about that issue here.
Candidates Steve Bernal and Mike Richards are also running for sheriff.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
