Schreiber Walks Fine Line to Avoid Conflict of Interest in Planning Post

San Diego County Planning Commissioner Betsy Schreiber and her husband have extensive business relationships with developers and agents who appear before the Planning Commission, but a detailed review of the Schreibers’ business connections, their property records and planning commission minutes shows that she apparently has never voted in a way that state law defines as a conflict of interest.

Schreiber has on several occasions in the past two years voted on matters involving people with whom she and her husband, Fred, have done business. But each time, the vote was either before or after the business relationship, or it was on a matter unrelated to the business in which the Schreibers were involved.

The Schreibers’ most extensive financial ties have been with R. Jerome Stirnkorb Jr., a Cardiff real estate agent and contractor who is registered with the county to represent several property owners. Stirnkorb has served on both the San Dieguito Community Planning Group and the Town Council, and has been an active proponent of private property rights.

The Schreibers have also owned property with Paul Rotsheck, a prominent San Dieguito businessman, and have done limited business with Thure Stedt, a Kearny Mesa planning consultant who frequently appears as a representative of property owners before the commission.

Fred Schreiber and Stirnkorb were involved in business for the first time in early 1983, when as real estate agents they jointly represented more than 150 tenants, including Betsy Schreiber’s mother, in buying an Encinitas mobile- home park--a process much like that of converting an apartment complex to condominiums. Stirnkorb and Schreiber each earned about $50,000 on the deal, and their success prompted the pair later to join in a corporation to perform additional park conversions.

Fred Schreiber was also the agent on the sale of a $600,000 Vista property to Stirnkorb in May, 1983. Schreiber received a $37,000 commission on that deal.

Those connections, however, did not keep Betsy Schreiber from participating in land-use items in which Stirnkorb was involved.

State law prohibits public officials from participating in decisions in which they have a financial interest. That prohibition generally keeps officials from voting on matters affecting their own businesses or businesses in which they are involved, any property they own, and anyone who has been a source of income to them within the preceding 12 months.

Although the Fair Political Practices Commission does not offer informal rulings on specific cases, conversations with an FPPC spokeswoman indicate that Schreiber and Stirnkorb would not be considered business partners in their conversion of the Park Encinitas mobile-home park because the two men worked as independent agents on the project.

In addition, the $37,000 commission Fred Schreiber earned on the sale of land to Stirnkorb would normally be considered income to the Schreibers from the estate that was the seller of the land, but not from Stirnkorb, the buyer, said Lynn Montgomery, spokeswoman for the FPPC. That distinction is important because Stirnkorb came before the Planning Commission on several items in 1983--items on which Schreiber would have been legally obligated to abstain had Stirnkorb been a source of income to her or her husband within the preceding 12 months.

On Sept. 22, 1983, Schreiber was the maker of the motion to approve Stirnkorb’s application to change the general plan on a piece of property in Encinitas. The same day, Schreiber seconded a motion to change the plan on a Vista area that included property represented by Stirnkorb. The Schreibers later bought a one-third share of that property.

In December, 1983, Stirnkorb appeared before the Planning Commission as a representative of 15 San Dieguito property owners when the commission was changing the general plan to conform with the local coastal program adopted jointly by the county and the state Coastal Commission. He successfully obtained a five-week delay (on a motion made by Schreiber) and later persuaded the commission to change the proposed plan to the benefit of several of his clients.

In March, 1984, Schreiber was chairwoman of the Planning Commission when Stirnkorb represented a Vista property owner who wanted to build a 10-unit mobile-home park. The permit was granted on a unanimous vote of the seven-member commission.

The Schreibers’ relationship with Stirnkorb continued later in 1984, when they bought a 16% share in Esperanza Property Partnership, a property holding and management group then controlled by Stirnkorb and Thomas L. Wilson. That partnership in January of this year issued a $10,000 deed of trust on a Vista property as payment for services from Thure Stedt, a planning consultant who has represented at least four property owners before Schreiber and the commission this year.

In July, the Schreibers purchased with Stirnkorb and Wilson an office building on Pio Pico Avenue in Carlsbad, near Interstate 5. Recorded documents show that the three parties together borrowed $563,000 to finance the purchase.

Since the Schreibers joined Esperanza in 1984, Betsy Schreiber has not participated in a planning commission item on which Stirnkorb was the agent. In fact, Planning Commission minutes show that Schreiber has abstained on at least four items in the past 18 months because of her connections to Stirnkorb.

The Schreibers also have had a business relationship with Paul Rotsheck, a prominent San Dieguito contractor who owns the Moonlight Beach Hotel. Rotsheck also owns Billy Bob’s, a restaurant on a valuable piece of property near the intersection of Encinitas Boulevard and California 101.

In April, 1984, Rotsheck bought an interest in two vacant Leucadia Boulevard parcels owned in part by the Schreibers, county records show. Their relationship continued through several deals involving the property and the construction this year of two triplexes on the land. In July, Rotsheck sold his interest in the property to Esperanza Property Partnership, which will soon transfer it to the Schreibers, according to Fred Schreiber.

On Aug. 16, a month after Rotsheck sold his interest in the Leucadia Boulevard land, Betsy Schreiber participated in a Planning Commission hearing to rezone a narrow strip along the edge of Rotsheck’s 1.2-acre Highway 101 property. The rezone will enable Rotsheck to build an 11-unit motel, a restaurant and shops on the land.

In an interview, Betsy Schreiber pointed out her abstentions on items involving Stirnkorb and said she often checks with county attorneys before participating on items on which there might be a possible conflict. Schreiber said she had no reservations about her involvement in the Rotsheck item in August because she and her husband had severed their financial relationship with the developer a month before.

“I was no longer a partner with him,” Schreiber said. “I had nothing to gain by that.”

Fred Schreiber, who handles the family’s finances and informs his wife so that she can avoid possible conflicts, said to his knowledge she has never voted on an item from which the couple could have had a financial gain.

“I’m glad to say she hasn’t voted on anything I have ever listed, sold or owned,” he said. “The key is financial benefit, not relationships.”