Do diligence?

The interesting thing about the staff report for the McKay nomination to the State Historic Resources Commission is that staff 100% attributed this application to the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society (AAPS)

Literally on the second page of the staff report, he writes “The property is nominated by a third party, the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society” even though all of the contact information: address, phone number, email address did not route to AAPS but rather Carmen Reid herself. The staff report does not reference Carmen Reid at all and only references AAPS as the applicant. SHPO/SHRC staff didn’t even bother to do a check of the AAPS website to see if the contact information matched but just took the application at its word that it was from the organization itself. As Doug Biggs commented the other day, he has forwarded a letter to SHPO/SHRC from the current president of AAPS which verifies that AAPS did not submit the McKay application even though the current board did vote to send a letter of support.

And, of course, the fact checking on the part of SHPO/SHRC wasn’t just deficient on checking to see if the AAPS information was correct, it also simply rubber stamped the claims made by Carmen Reid/AAPS about the specialness of the property and that it is the “only extant example of its type.” The type being Merchant Marine Training Centers during WWII which we now know is very incorrect.

This next page shows the one reference to the organization the staff person believed to have submitted the application: AAPS but it also includes a reference to the fact that two property owners had not yet given comment. They are referenced as “Alameda County Parks and the California Department of Parks and Recreation” Now if “Alameda County Parks” puzzled you as well don’t be alarmed, a new organization did not crop up overnight. The crack due diligence team at SHPO/SHRC couldn’t even be bothered to get the name of our regional parks department correct when reporting that it hadn’t provided comment yet. Yes, “Alameda County Parks” is supposed to be “East Bay Regional Park District” so if, somehow, the letter was addressed to “Alameda County Parks” it’s no wonder EBRPD didn’t get their notice.

And finally the last page of the staff report gleefully notes that, at the time this staff report was written, SHPO/SHRC had not received a letter from the Mayor asking for the nomination to be removed from the agenda. Of course it would have been helpful to have noted in the letter to the Mayor that a special letter from her was required to pull the nomination. That was not in the letter to the Mayor. In fact the notice letter made no reference to the ability to pull the nomination at all simply letting the Mayor know that if the nomination was pulled she would get a letter saying it was.

Honestly I think there needs to be clearer rules and policies for the SHPO/SHRC. It feels a little bit like they’re doing everything to obfuscate what rights people have to not have property historically designated.