April 28th, 2011 – 6:16 PM
John Russo is actually finally set to become Alameda’s new City Manager, after months of breathless anticipation. Despite how absurdly scripted and unethical it may look, City Council is set to announce his hiring at their meeting on May 3, 2011. According to the terms of his contract, he will start sometime in June. Mr. Russo, soon to be the ex-elected City Attorney of Oakland, has no experience as a City Manager, nor does he bring any financial management experience to the job, despite Alameda’s impending budget crisis.
March 29th, 2011 – 1:38 PM
Well, whaddya know? Alameda has a new City manager, and it’s someone with no experience managing a city, much less managing a California city. Never mind that the other two finalists were City Managers. Never mind that one of the finalists even had experience managing Alameda.
What does John Russo have to offer? A lengthy political career. Contributions to the majority voting bloc of Alameda City Council. Friends in high places. A history of helping SunCal, despite the hazards to the public.
He’s being hired by a Mayor, Vice-Mayor and Councilmember who claim to “…remain committed to rebuilding trust in Alameda. That requires open dialogue, mutual respect and a total commitment to an open process between citizens and their government.”
But this comes after open disrespect of the community by adhering to the agenda put forth during the political campaign last November by SunCal, a blatant violation of the City Charter in terminating the ICM, and now culminates in the installation of an unqualified Perata associate as City Manager after the most artificial and accelerated beauty pageant in this City’s history.
Who, exactly, thinks they’re being clever here?
Update: speaking of clever, community interviewer Kate Quick, appointed by embattled Lena Tam, has substantiated the reports of Russo’s hiring even though it has yet to be officially announced or confirmed by the City:
February 4th, 2011 – 10:03 AM
Court documents filed late last month in southern California show that SunCal has lost their counter-claim of fraud against Gray 1 CPB LLC and Central Pacific Bank over loans the bank made to SunCal for a development project.
Gray 1 CPB had purchased the loans from Central Pacific Bank in Hawaii, loans that the bank had originally made to Fillmore Sun LLC, and loans that SunCal CEO Bruce Elieff had personally guaranteed. Gray 1 CPB went to court to force Mr. Elieff to make good on the loan guarantees and a jury ultimately found Mr. Elieff liable for for $9 million. Gray 1 CPB is still trying to collect on the judgment.
Mr. Elieff counter-sued Gray 1 CPB and Central Pacific Bank alleging malfeasance on their part, alleging that the bank had acted fraudulent and the guarantees were not enforceable. But a jury disagreed and found that Central Pacific Bank had no intent to deceive Fillmore Sun and found that the Bank made no false representations to SunCal. The jury also found that the Bank intended to keep all promises made to SunCal and Bruce Elieff in the contract documents.
The case is number 30-2008-00112660 in the Superior Court of California, County of Orange.
