No Charges in Purchase of Dana Point City Hall

The Orange County district attorney’s office this week said it found nothing improper in a decision by the City Council to buy the City Hall building at more than its appraised value.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bruce A. Moore notified the city attorney by a letter dated Aug. 5 that he had studied the $4.05-million cash purchase of City Plaza, which was more than $1 million over its appraised value, but found “insufficient evidence to file any criminal charges.”

“This matter is now closed,” said Moore in his letter.

Moore, a member of the district attorney’s special assignment section, had studied the May decision to buy the 32,600-square-foot, two-story building at 33282 Street of the Golden Lantern based on a complaint from Dana Point resident Tom Riley.

Riley, a mortgage broker, and others have lambasted the council for not negotiating a better price.

But the council majority on Thursday again defended its decision. The decision to buy City Plaza, which has been the headquarters for City Hall since incorporation in 1989, was made only after studying every other possible location in the city, said Councilman Harold Kaufman.

The council also studied buying a vacant lot and building a City Hall, but all the alternatives turned out to be more expensive, Kaufman said.

“People need to understand the process we went through to reach this decision,” Kaufman said. “The bottom line is it was a good business decision to buy that building.”

The city was also paying $32,000 a month in rent for its space on City Plaza’s second floor, which was to go up to nearly $40,000 a month Jan. 1, Kaufman said.

Mayor Karen Lloreda and council members Kaufman and Judy Curreri voted to approve the purchase. Council members Toni Gallagher and William L. Ossenmacher were absent on the night of the vote, although Ossenmacher has since criticized the purchase.

Regardless of Moore’s decision, council critics say they didn’t expect the district attorney’s office to file charges but still think the city got a bad deal. The purchase promises to be an issue in the November council election.

“I guess you can’t put them in jail for being stupid,” said Jack Roberts, a longtime real estate broker in Dana Point. “The thing smelled pretty bad to me.”