VENTURA : Developer Assails Mayor’s Comments

The lawyer for a development company that had its affordable-housing project put on hold last week by the Ventura City Council accused the city’s mayor Monday of making “spurious allegations” against his client.

Attorney Mitchel B. Kahn of Oxnard said Ventura Mayor Richard Francis repeated “false reports and accusations” against KNM Development Co. and its president, Ernest T. Mansi, in public meetings and to the press.

These reports, Kahn said, were fabricated by opponents of a 147-unit KNM affordable-housing project in east Ventura to discredit the developer and halt the planned development.

Last week, the Ventura City Council voted unanimously to postpone voting on the project, pending a city attorney’s investigation into the status of at least 10 lawsuits allegedly involving development projects linked to Mansi.

The vote followed Francis’ disclosure that he received information from unnamed residents living near the proposed KNM project, alleging that Mansi and the development companies he controls have been involved in significant litigation in recent years.

“It is not . . . necessary to provide a point-by-point refutation to each of the spurious allegations made about KNM Development Co. Inc. or Mr. Mansi since we believe the city attorney will capably review each and every concern expressed in the media and in the public meetings by the mayor and provide the City Council with accurate information, which will reaffirm the good names of Ernest T. Mansi and KNM Development Co. Inc.,” Kahn said in a statement.

On Nov. 2, Francis said in an interview that a lawsuit linked Mansi to a condominium project in Oxnard in which a roof collapsed. But Kahn said Mansi was not involved in any such projects.

Francis was out of town Monday and could not be reached for comment.