BREA : Councilman Resigns From City Agency

The City Council has accepted Councilman Carrey J. Nelson’s resignation from the Brea Redevelopment Agency and has decided to appoint his replacement from among former members of the council.

By a 4-1 vote at a special meeting Monday, the council also decided to make the appointment as soon as possible, perhaps this week, because of pressing agency matters.

“We need (to choose from) a pool of people who have a head start (on the job),” Mayor Burnie Dunlap said. “We need people who had stood the test as elected officials.”

The 66-year-old Nelson, who has served on the council and the agency for 12 years, participated in the discussion of his resignation and cast one of the four affirmative votes. He resigned from the agency because he owns property near the redevelopment project area and wanted to avoid any potential conflict of interest.

City Atty. James L. Markman said Nelson can participate in choosing his own successor because he remains a council member. The council chooses the members of the agency.

Ordinarily, members of the council sit on the agency, but in some cities, non-council members can be appointed to the agency, Markman said. He cited a case in Norwalk, where a member of the public was named to the agency a few years ago.

However, Councilwoman Kathryn E. Wiser, who cast the lone dissenting vote, said that if Nelson wanted to resign from the agency, he should also resign from the council.

She said the people expect council members to serve both the council and the agency when they are elected to office.

“If it’s happening to me, I would step down from both positions,” Wiser said.

Nelson, who submitted a resignation letter to Dunlap on Jan. 7, has three properties located about 300 feet from the 50-acre downtown redevelopment project, which the city hopes to convert into a mixed residential-commercial center. Over the past two years, he has repeatedly abstained from voting on matters involving the project.

Nelson said the properties--three single-family dwellings which he is renting out--were acquired in 1976, before there were plans to develop the downtown.

“Those are part of my retirement,” Nelson said.

Markman, the city attorney, said there is an appearance of conflict of interest because Nelson’s properties are located within 300 to 2,500 feet from the city project. He said that under state law, a conflict of interest would exist if the redevelopment project increased the property value by $10,000, or increased the rental value by $1,000.

One of Nelson’s properties, at 403 W. Date St., is 327 feet from the 22-acre shopping center, the anchor of the downtown project, which is now being built.

Markman said an appraiser is assessing the properties to prepare for a possible conflict-of-interest inquiry by the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Nelson’s resignation was also intended to protect him from possible conflict-of-interest prosecution.

Mayor Pro Tem Glenn G. Parker mentioned former council members Wayne D. Wedin and Gene Leyton as possible appointees to the agency.

“They understand the process,” Parker said. “We need someone who will hit the ground running.”