MORGAN HILL
– More money may yet be flowing from the city treasury to
complete the investigation by the City Council into local lawyer
and developer Bruce Tichinin’s surveillance of City Manager Ed
Tewes.
MORGAN HILL – More money may yet be flowing from the city treasury to complete the investigation by the City Council into local lawyer and developer Bruce Tichinin’s surveillance of City Manager Ed Tewes.
Tichinin hired a private investigator to follow the city manager and City Attorney Helene Leichter in an effort to gain proof that the two were having an affair.
Councilman Larry Carr, who with Councilman Greg Sellers was appointed to a subcommittee charged with the investigation, calls the estimated $50,000 spent on the investigation “on the low side.”
“No where in there have we attempted to calculate any kind of cost for any time we have taken from the city manager and the city attorney, talking with them, figuring out what was going on,” he said. “Their time, which could have been used on city business, is lost.
“And we’re not finished, we don’t have all the costs. There are still things we need to wrap up. Outside counsel will be working on these things, and there will be hours they need to bill us.”
Carr said there was currently no document itemizing all the investigation expenses. The final bill will also include expenses for the private investigator and outside legal counsel involving multiple firms, he said Thursday.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy said that although he wished it had not been such a large amount, he believed the expenditure was necessary.
Further, the dollar amount could grow if the investigation continues.
“The subcommittee needs to at least have a further conversation,” Carr said. “There are several loose ends, and one of those is how Carey, the investigator hired by Tichinin, knew about our investigation. Whether he got inside information from the City of Morgan Hill, or where, but he knew who our investigator was before we made contact. … We still have a lot of questions.”
Despite the lingering questions, Kennedy and Carr each expressed the hope that the council can go about its business with little distraction.
“I’m hopeful that we will be able to heal those wounds and get on with the city’s business,” Kennedy said.
Tichinin fought back in a statement Monday, saying the city is not releasing information quickly enough.
“The City Council, having achieved its objective of punishing me, now wishes to forget the matter entirely – even though it has not yet opened the majority of its investigation records to public view, nor even acted upon two of the serious “recommendations” which the report lists as options for additional punishment of me, i.e., whether to refer me to the District Attorney on unspecified criminal charges, or to refer me to the State Bar on unspecified discipline charges,” Tichinin said in the letter.
During a special City Council meeting Wednesday, council members voted unanimously to approve a resolution condemning and asking for Tichinin’s resignation from the Urban Limit Line committee but did not disband the subcommittee.
Tichinin said after the meeting he had no intention of resigning.
Both Kennedy and Carr said there is no specific timetable for continuation of the investigation.
