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December 21, 2005

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Whistleblower Reports

San Mateo County

 Racketeering & Corruption
December 20, 2005
 

Tom Casey, County Counsel
County of San Mateo
Office of the County Counsel
400 County Center
Redwood City, CA 94063

Attn: Supervisors Mark Church & Jerry Hill

Re: Report of Improper Governmental Activity (Whistleblower Complaint)

Dear Supervisors Church and Hill:

Thank you for the opportunity of having meetings with you in November for the purpose of reviewing preliminary issues and procedures regarding the reporting of improper governmental activity pursuant to the County’s revised Whistleblower Ordinance.

Please find enclosed a “Report of Improper Governmental Activity” for filing pursuant to the County’s revised 2004 Whistleblower Ordinance (Chapter 2.206 of Title 2 of the San Mateo County Ordinance).

Your cooperation and assistance is requested in having the County official or independent authority assigned to investigate this complaint to contact me as early as possible after the investigation file is opened.  As stated in the Whistleblower complaint, I stand ready to provide documents and evidence to support the assertions against County officials and employees as outlined in the report of improper governmental activity.

Very truly yours,

OSCAR A. BRAUN
Executive Director California Watershed Posse
Telephone: 650-726-3307
WWW.CWPOSSE.ORG 


Enclosure: “Report of Improper Governmental Activity”
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

REPORT OF IMPROPER GOVERNMENTAL ACTIVITY
(County of San Mateo Whistleblower Ordinance)

I. Information Indicating Improper Governmental Activity
 
A. Complainant
 
Complainant, Half Moon Bay Coastside Foundation aka California Watershed Posse (CWP) (www.cwposse.org), since 1980 has maintained extensive data bases containing public documents, regulatory investigative reports and court records on County of San Mateo governmental zoning and land use activities impacting the County’s coastal zone.  The mission of the CWP is to act as a public benefit non-profit 501(c)(3) “watch dog” organization to protect the integrity of governmental institutions, report possible violations of the law, regulations and rules governing the conduct of County officials and employees. 

B. Summary of Complaint

This CWP Whistleblower complaint is filed pursuant to the County’s revised 2004 Whistleblower Ordinance [Chapter 2.206 of Title 2 of the San Mateo County Ordinance (Reporting of Improper Governmental Activity)].

CWP’s complaint asserts that County officials and employees have engaged in unlawful activities jointly and in collaboration with private non-profit organizations, including but not limited to, Committee for Green Foothills, Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), and Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD), collectively known as the Coastal Open Space Alliance (COSA), to perpetrate and further the scheme to acquire coastal rural farm and ranch lands at greatly reduced values under the guise of preserving open space for the public. 

The improper County government activities include aiding and abetting and the concealment of the following illegal or improper acts:

· Falsification of public records

. Issuance of improper notices of violations of Local Coastal Program planning and building ordinances

· Misleading Farmland Security Zone contracts

· Irregular public real estate financing schemes

· Depriving the taxpayers out of millions of dollars of state and federal highway, water and natural resource protection bond funding

· Violations of the Clean Water Act (Section 404)

· Violations of the Endangered Species Act

· Violations of CEQA and NEPA environmental review process

· Failure to independently administer LAFCo duties and functions

· Operation of unlicensed illegal toxic landfills on MROSD and POST lands.


II. Names, with Positions, of Persons Conducting Improper Governmental Activity

The following County officials and employees were and have been involved in improper governmental activities as outlined above:

·Richard Gordon, Supervisor

·Jerry Hill, Supervisor

·Mike Nevin, Former Supervisor

·Marcia Raines, Director of Environmental Services

·Terry Burnes, Former Planning Administrator

·Dean Peterson, Director of Environmental Health

·Martha Payotos, LAFCo Executive Director

·Michael Murphy, Chief Deputy County Counsel

·Miruni Soosaipillai, Deputy County Counsel

·Carol Woodward, Deputy County Counsel

·James Fox, District Attorney

·Parker Kelly, Former Deputy District Attorney.

III. List of Names, with Position, of Persons Having Information Concerning Improper Activity

The following is CWP’s contact information:
Oscar Braun, Executive Director,
1589 Higgins Canyon Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019.
Tel: (650) 726-3307; Fax: (650) 726-2799; E-mail: oscar@cwposse.org

IV. List of Documents Indicating Improper Activity

Specific evidence, including names, dates, times, places, incident details, supporting documentation, corroborating evidence and testimony, etc., will be provided to the County’s assigned official or authority delegated to investigate this complaint.

OB:12/20/2005