Ex-Planner Must Repay City of Orange for Contracts : Verdict: Judge rules that Don Greek violated state conflict-of-interest laws during tenure on Planning Commission.

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that a former Orange planning commissioner violated the state’s conflict-of-interest laws and must return more than $27,000 that he received from city contracts.

Judge Ronald L. Bauer ruled against former commissioner Don Greek on five of seven conflict-of-interest actions brought against him by the city of Orange and its Redevelopment Agency.

Bauer said that Greek, a civil engineer, had personally benefited from conditional-use permits approved by the Planning Commission and should not have done further work on the projects, even though he had abstained or absented himself from the majority of the commission’s votes on those projects.

“Abstention does not cleanse any conflict of interest,” Bauer said, adding that it was possible that Greek could still have influenced the positions of other Planning Commission members.

Greek served as a planning commissioner from 1983 to 1990, when he resigned to make an unsuccessful bid for the City Council.

In one case, Greek voted in the mid-1980s to approve the expansion of a Toyota dealership. As a result of the expansion, the Sandpiper Swim School, located near the car dealership, had to be relocated. Greek received more than $14,000 from the city to study moving the swim school.

“This was a direct consequence of the Planning Commission’s conditional-use permit,” Bauer said.

Bauer ruled in favor of Greek on two of the charges leveled by the city, saying it was not a violation of law for Greek to perform contracting work for the city on projects that did not come before the Planning Commission.

“The plaintiffs alleged that, as a planning commissioner, Greek is among the public officials that should not contract with the city under any circumstances,” Bauer said. “That argument would prohibit Greek from going to a police auction to buy a bicycle.”

Neither Greek nor his attorney, Robin Fairbairn of Paso Robles, was present when Bauer issued his ruling. They could not be reached later for comment.

The city and the Orange Redevelopment Agency sued Greek in November, 1990, alleging that his company, DGA Consultants, improperly accepted city contracts worth $103,000 while he was a planning commissioner.

Bauer’s ruling comes more than a year after a non-jury trial, held in November, 1991.

The exact amount owed by Greek to the city has not been finalized because the city Finance Department has yet to determine the interest on some of the payments that Bauer ordered returned.

But city officials say it will not equal the more than $200,000 spent pursuing the civil case against Greek.

“In cases of this type, there are larger issues than dollars, such as public confidence in the system of government,” City Atty. Robert O. Franks said. “We believe the city acted responsibly. Litigation is expensive, but the case had to be tried.”

The City Council met for 20 minutes in closed session Thursday afternoon and decided not to appeal the two counts in which Bauer ruled in favor of Greek, Franks said.

“We are generally pleased with the decision,” Franks said. “We feel the court was very thorough.”

The case against Greek began in 1990 when Orange resident Shirley Grindle filed a complaint with county investigators alleging that documentation showed that Greek had violated state conflict-of-interest laws by accepting contracts while sitting on the Planning Commission.

After the district attorney’s office announced that it would investigate Greek on criminal charges, the City Council voted unanimously to sue the engineer.

In early 1991, county prosecutors announced that they had dropped the criminal case against Greek because of the statute of limitations and a lack of evidence.