Ethics Complaint Filed Against Palos Verdes School Board Member

State ethics officials are reviewing a complaint alleging that Marlys Kinnel, a candidate for reelection to the Palos Verdes Unified School District board, had a conflict of interest when she voted last year for an after-the-fact policy that ratified exemptions from developer fees.

Kinnel did not return telephone calls seeking her comment.

The complaint, which the state Fair Political Practices Commission received Tuesday, was made by Joanne Petow, a resident of Rolling Hills Estates and supporter of three east-side candidates who will oppose Kinnel in the Nov. 7 election.

The complaint alleges that in June, 1988, Kinnel voted for the policy, which allowed developer and former Palos Verdes Estates City Councilman Ron Florance to retain a $274,500 exemption that had been granted seven weeks before. The complaint, citing Kinnel’s deposition in a lawsuit brought by Palos Verdes Estates resident Jan McAuley, identifies Florance as Kinnel’s employer.

“I think it is a blatant conflict,” Petow said in an interview. “It makes me very angry that this is going on.”

Kinnel addressed the issue at Monday’s school board meeting, responding to weekend canvassing for her opponents, which she said spread “things about me that were untrue.”

“Ron Florance is not my boss,” she said at the meeting. “I work for the Hahn Co. I have never been involved with a developer fee for Mr. Florance or anyone else.”

Kinnel is a community relations representative for the Hahn Property Management Corp., which holds the management contract at The Shops at Palos Verdes, according to Scott Abbey, general manager at The Shops. The shopping center is owned by H & F Associates. “The ‘F’ in H & F Associates is for Florance,” Abbey said, “and the ‘H’ is for Hahn.”

Abbey said Florance is not directly involved in the operations or ownership of the management company. Florance could not be reached for comment.

If the commission finds that Kinnel had conflict of interest with the vote, it can issue a letter of censure or fine Kinnel.

Attached to the complaint is a half-inch sheaf of documents, including a chronology, board agenda items, minutes, real estate records and excerpts from depositions.

According to the documents, the board decided on April 27, 1987, to impose developer fees of $1.50 per square foot on new residential construction to pay for school facilities.

At the meeting, Kinnel discussed exemptions from the policy, according to what is purported to be a transcript of the meeting.

“So (the fee) will be on all permits issued at the end of the 60 days,” she said.

”. . . . And if, if anybody has wanted an exemption, even if, even if this takes place three years down the line, there is no opportunity for them to, I mean it’s said, and that’s the way it is, and no recourse.”

David Capelouto, assistant superintendent for business, purportedly said at the meeting, “By action of the board, no administrator can exempt anyone from the fee if they do not already have their permit.”

In June, 1987, Kinnel was hired as community relations representative of the Courtyard Mall, according to the complaint.

The complaint says that the Courtyard Mall, the former name of The Shops at Palos Verdes, is owned by H & F Associates, a general partnership. One of H & F’s two general partners is Florance, according to the complaint.

In what was identified in the complaint as a March 16, 1989, deposition taken in connection with a lawsuit against the board, Kinnel said she worked for the Hahn Co. She said in the deposition that Florance participated in the Hahn Co. as a partner.

At the time that Kinnel was hired, H & F was planning a tract development of about 80 expensive homes, the complaint says. In October, 1987, Florance applied for an exemption from the developer fees, according to the complaint.

“No waiver policy was published or enacted by the board,” the complaint says.

According to the complaint, Capelouto, who had begun granting waivers as soon as the developer fee requirements became effective, advised the board that Florance had requested a waiver.

In June, 1988, the board unanimously approved a policy granting exemptions to developers who had been delayed in obtaining building permits because of events beyond their control. The policy had the effect of ratifying a $274,500 exemption that Capelouto had approved on April 29, 1988, for Florance.

The policy, which applied to a number of developers, did not specifically name Florance. However, the complaint alleges that the board was aware of the Florance exemption, which was the largest granted by Capelouto and which accounted for about half of all the developer fees that were exempted by the district.

The complaint says: “Mrs. Kinnel did not abstain and voted in favor of this ratification.”

Petow said the complaint was based on research by McAuley, whose suit accuses the school board of wasting more than $1.5 million in connection with the 1986 sale of the Peninsula High site and in the selective granting of more than $500,000 in exemptions from developer fees. Kinnel’s deposition was taken in connection with the lawsuit.

McAuley said she provided the documentation to Petow because “it is too easy to dismiss someone who has filed” a lawsuit as a malcontent.

“If people have a chance to look at the evidence, they will see that the developer fees should never have been granted, that they were selectively granted to a few and that many of those that were granted have social and financial ties to officers of the school district,” McAuley said.

Petow said she had decided to press the complaint against Kinnel to refute remarks by board members that their critics are either east-side residents upset about the proposed closing of Miraleste High School or litigants.

Although Petow said she supports east-side candidates Peter Gardiner, Barry Hildebrand and Marianne Kipper, she said she is not part of any campaign organization and asserted that filing her complaint three weeks before the election is not an election ploy.

“It is to show Marlys Kinnel that there are other people . . . who care. Not only the east side is upset. The west side is, too,” she said.