While Negotiating Business Deals for Governor Newsom's Developer, Santa Rosa Councilmembers Battling Over City-Owned Garage 5
Carneros Inn and Sonoma Developmental Center Developer Keith Rogal has requested to turn downtown Santa Rosa's parking garage into 'affordable' housing
Santa Rosa Council is currently negotiating the sale and lease of downtown Garage #5 which resulted in an active lawsuit. While these discussions took place, Councilmember Chris Rogers and Jeff Okrepkie appeared to have a potential conflict of interest due to their ties to local law firms, developers, and NGO’s.
As of May 6, 2024, KZST shared the following regarding a parking garage controversy taking place within the City of Santa Rosa:
You may have read the article in the Press Democrat about the city of Santa Rosa’s plan to try and redevelop garage number 5 on Third Street in downtown Santa Rosa. They have entered into an agreement with Keith Rogal from Napa to transform the garage into housing over the objections of downtown business owners and shoppers, who correctly note that losing a parking garage adjacent to Fourth Street and Old Courthouse Square will negatively impact their businesses. Plus, a lawsuit has been filed challenging the city’s designation of the garage as surplus property. There is a hearing on May 24th in Sonoma County Superior Court over that issue.
Who is Keith Rogal?
According to his LinkedIn profile, Keith Rogal is the current owner of Rogal & Partners and Partner to Rogal + Walsh + Mol. As indicated on the Permit Sonoma webpage, “the Sonoma Developmental Center represents the first time the California Legislature has delegated land-use planning responsibility to a local agency for the redevelopment of a state psychiatric facility.”
Through Mr. Rogal’s involvement at Rogal + Walsh + Mol, he has collaborated directly with the Plumpjack Group to provide specialized services. According to Plumpjack’s website, Governor Gavin Newsom is the Founder of the corporation: “In 1992, Gavin Newsom opened his first business, PlumpJack Wines, combining his passion for wine and his driving entrepreneurial spirit. Over the next decade, the PlumpJack Group began to grow under his leadership to include many of the restaurants, wineries, and retail establishments in the current portfolio.”
A 2004 article in SF Gate reported,”PlumpJack Group, the wine, restaurant and real estate company founded by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, has added the Carneros Inn in Napa Valley to its roster of upscale properties, the company said…PlumpJack will take over management of the 96-cottage resort and spa from Carneros Holdings LLC, the developer that opened the resort in November 2003.”
Is Generation Housing Running the Show?
Aside from his involvement with Rogal & Partners, Mr. Keith Rogal served as the former Board Vice President for Ms. Jenni Klose’s Generation Housing (Gen H). He served alongside Ms. Beatriz Guerrero Auna, Equity and Public Health Senior Planner for the City of Santa Rosa, as well as a multitude of local developers.
Gen H appears to be a rent-seeking organization rather than a group providing a legitimate service to the community. They are considered a project of The Tides Center, a 501(c)(3). The Tides Center charges each agent for which it is a fiscal sponsor a cost allocation which is equal to 9% of the project’s gross annual revenue. As reported in The Washington Free Beacon, this group primarily acts as a liberal dark money arm to promote social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter (BLM).
According to Santa Rosa Council Minutes from June 20, 2023, the following conference was held regarding Mr. Rogal’s proposed development to utilize downtown Garage 5:
Property: 625 and 637 3rd Street, APNs 009-013-011 and 009-013-012
(“Garage 5”), 500 5th Street, APN 010-053-028 (“Lot 11”), and 730 3rd Street, APN 009-072-044 (“Lot 7”) Agency Negotiator: Jill Scott, Real Property Negotiator; Stephanie Valkovic, Associate Real Property Negotiator Negotiating Parties: Retirement Housing Foundation; the Danco Group of Companies; Freebird Development Company, LLC; Rogal Projects; Burbank Housing Development Corporation; 10 E Street, LLC Under Negotiations: Price and terms of payment.
Per Generation Housing’s website:
On October 11, 2022 the Santa Rosa City Council held the last of three study sessions which aimed to provide clear direction to City Staff on redevelopment of downtown Santa Rosa – this includes the relocation of the existing City Hall Campus, the surplusing of excess parking assets, and the consolidation of downtown public facilities. The final study session covered the Surplus Lands Act and combined both the information and direction from the prior study sessions. At the conclusion of this study session, City Staff was provided clear direction on which publicly-owned assets should be designated surplus and made available for redevelopment.
So what was the final outcome? After some deliberation, the Mayor and City Council provided the following direction for surplusing publicly-owned assets:
YES to Whitehouse Surface Parking Lot
YES to Garage 5
YES to Lot 11
NO to Lot 6
It was deemed more likely this parcel will be developed in a timely manner if it is done through the traditional design review and permit process
YES to Garage 9
YES to Garage 12
YES to City Hall site
YES to relocating Santa Rosa Police and Fire Downtown Stations
Both facilities currently inadequate to accommodate the need of those departments
Police Department would likely relocate to both a new facility on Stony Point Road as well as make use of office space at the Utilities Field Operations facility
Fire Department would move further into Downtown Core
YES to Central Library
We agree with Mayor Rogers’ who stated “I would rather us try something and fail than continue doing what we have been doing for twenty years which has gotten us nothing.” We need to be bold, depart from the status quo, and embrace new approaches to achieving our shared vision for moving Santa Rosa Forward. #WeAreAllGenH
Per the November 11, 2022 Council Minutes, Mayor Chris Rogers was present and participated in the study session:
On September 11, 2023, Gen H sent the following letter to the attention of Santa Rosa Council:
Can Councilmember Rogers remain unbiased while negotiating property transactions that financially benefit his team’s legal representative?
While actively serving as Mayor in 2022, Chris Rogers’ Sonoma County Conservation Action was contracted with Santa Rosa Metro Chamber CEO Ananda Sweet to collect signatures for the Our Kids Our Future child tax credit campaign.
Leveraging Taxes: Santa Rosa Councilman's 'Nonprofit' Paid to Collect Signatures for Santa Rosa Metro Chamber CEO's Proposed Childcare Tax
Our Kids Our Future, also known as Measure I, or the Sonoma Child Care and Children’s Health Initiative, is a Santa Rosa-based campaign that formed in July 2021. They are leading a push to put a quarter-cent, countywide sales tax on the ballot in the November 5, 2024 General Election.
According to court records, Our Kids Our Future filed a lawsuit against Total Signers LLC on October 10, 2022. They retained Ms. Jenni Klose, Executive Director of Gen H as their legal representative.
Our Kids Our Future, also known as Measure I, or the Sonoma Child Care and Children’s Health Initiative, is a Santa Rosa-based campaign that formed in July 2021. They are leading a push to put a quarter-cent, countywide sales tax on the ballot in the November 5, 2024 General Election.
The initial corporate filing submitted to the California Secretary of State was submitted on September 13, 2021 features Ms. Ananda Sweet, Interim CEO (VP of Public Policy & Workforce Development through Aug. ‘24) of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber as Chief Executive Officer.
Simultaneously, Mr. Peter Rumble, former Santa Rosa Metro Chamber CEO served on the Gen H Board and led the City’s Santa Rosa Tourism Business Improvement Area Advisory Board.
An addendum included additional incorporators as follows:
Ms. Kellie Noe, Program Development Manager for Sonoma County Upstream Investments (spouse of Mr. Dennis Rosatti, Principal of Rosatti Consulting, Executive Director of Sonoma County Conservation Action Fund for Education )
Ms. Maleese Warner, Director Early Childhood Education at Santa Rosa Junior College
Ms. Veronica Vences, Director of Entrepreneurship Fund, Latino Community Foundation
Ms. Jenni Klose, Executive Director at Generation Housing
Can Councilmember Okrepkie remain unbiased while negotiating property transactions that financially benefit his wife’s employer?
The September 2024 active litigation report for the City of Santa Rosa included case #SCV-272714 - Airport Business Center, a California limited partnership v. City of Santa Rosa; City Council of the City of Santa Rosa; and DOES 1 through 2:
Writ of Mandate and Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief relating to designation of a parking garage (Garage 5) as surplus property under Surplus Land Act.
Complaint served on defendant City of Santa Rosa and Santa Rosa City Council on 3/2/2023; Hearing on Writ of Mandate was 5/24/2024; on 5/31/2024, the Court denied writ and petitioner's motion for stay; on 6/6/2024 the Court granted in part petitioner's ex parte application for a stay, temporarily staying enforcement of the Court's 5/31/2024 ruling denying the writ until 8/9/2024; Plaintiff served a Notice of Appeal of the Court's judgment on 7/16/2024; Petitioner's Writ of Supersedeas and request for stay was denied by the Court of Appeal on 7/31/2024.
On August 10, 2024, The Press Democrat indicated that the lawsuit originated from Mr. Richard Coombs, business partner to Mr. Bill Carson and Mr. Jack Weaver. Coombs is a General Partner of Airport Business Center, a major commercial landlord. The property firm has sued the City of Santa Rosa to prevent the sale or lease of Garage 5. Currently, the three gentlemen are developing pickleball facilities throughout the County.
According to his statement of economic interest (SEI), Santa Rosa Councilman Jeff Okrepkie’s spouse is a paralegal for Welty, Weaver and Currie, Mr. Jack Weaver’s law firm.
The Brown Act explicitly prohibits the use of “direct communication, personal intermediaries, or technological devices that is employed by a majority of the members of the legislative body to develop a collective concurrence as to action to be taken on an item by the members of the legislative body” (§ 5495.2(b)). Serial meetings involve communication between members of a legislative body that are less than a quorum, but when all participants are considered, it constitutes a majority. “For example, a chain of communications involving contact from member A to member B who then communicates with member C would constitute a “serial meeting” … Similarly, when a person acts as the hub of a wheel (member A) and communicates individually with the various spokes (members B and C), a serial meeting has occurred.
In addition, a serial meeting occurs when intermediaries for board members have a meeting to discuss issues. For example, when a representative of member A meets with representatives of members B and C to discuss an agenda item, the members have conducted a serial meeting. In Stockton Newspapers, Inc. v. Redevelopment Agency (1985) 171 Cal.App.3d 95, the Court concluded that a series of telephone conversations conducted by the agency’s attorney as an intermediary constituted a meeting within the scope of the Brown Act. (See also, 65 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 63 (1982); 63 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 820 (1980)).”3 Thus, the use of email to create consensus among the legislative members might be in violation of the Brown Act.
As our City staff and Councilmembers make decisions on behalf of the taxpayers, are they serving us or themselves? Are these folks possibly receiving financial kickbacks for pushing these awful projects forward while utilizing serial meetings?
“Greed has taken the whole universe, and nobody is worried about their soul.”
-Little Richard