A long standing, but not entirely public, feud between a popular Seal Beach City Councilman and the City Manager burst into the public view at last night’s council meeting. Councilman Gary A. Miller, for the record, accused City Manager David N. Carmany of a conflict of interest, misrepresentation, and concealing important information regarding the city’s decision to tear down and replace a fire station. Although there were several accusations which were presented at the meeting, the most specific revelation was about the identity of an architectural consultant who was paid $585,000 by the city.

Miller indicated that he was not able to obtain the identity of the experts who advised the city that the old fire station was not repairable until after the old building had been torn down and construction had started on the new station. It was not until then that Miller learned the same architect, Doug Anderson, advised the city to tear down the old building, and also was given the contract to design the replacement building. Further, Miller indicated that the architect was a long time friend of City Manager Carmany.

Miller said “It was only after the fire station began {construction} that I found out that Doug Anderson was one of those experts that inputted that the old fire station was beyond repair. Doug Anderson got a contract for a half million dollars to do the architecture on the new fire station. Also since then I’ve also learned that the City Manager and Doug Anderson have been good friends and long time acquaintances. Both of these facts would have caused me not to vote for Doug Anderson to be the architect for the new fire station.”

Miller indicated that having the same firm advise the city on the need to demolish a building or facility and then give that same firm a contract to build the replacement, creates a conflict of interest.
Patty Campbell, who spent 8 years on the council between 1996 and 2004 and was mayor twice, also spoke at the meeting and she went even further.

Campbell said that the contract on the new fire station was given to Doug Anderson as a “no bid” contract, which means without competitive bidding. Campbell told www.OC180NEWS.com the city has a requirement that any contract greater than $25,000 should be given out to bid, but this contract because it was a “personal service” contract, avoided that process.

With reference to some undisclosed ethics accusations made against Miller by Carmany, Miller said “The City Attorney reviewed the allegations and found there was no merit to those allegations. It’s my opinion this was a retaliatory action because the City Manager was mad that I asked for a performance evaluation in December. It was also his effort to control and silence me. I try to do the best I can for the citizens of Seal Beach, ask the best questions I can and get the best answers I can, and that obviously is not acceptable to him. In July, the City Manager formally brought over ten general allegations and over twenty specific allegations against me—some of which were ridiculous, some of which were offensive, some of which were incredibly offensive to me, and in my opinion, were very libelous. All the allegations were found to have no merit and deemed unsubstantiated. Again, the City Manager was trying to control or silence me and he’s also trying to create a situation where if his employment was terminated, he could claim the retaliation was being brought because of his allegations against me.”

When Mayor David W. Sloan asked for the City Manager’s report, Mr. Carmany declined to make any comments.