By: Craig Shultz | Original Article at pe.com
Beaumont City Manager Alan Kapanicas could be disciplined – or dismissed – next week after the City Council voted early Wednesday to discuss his future at a special meeting.
A closed session is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday, May 29, at which time the council will continue its evaluation of Kapanicas and consider “disciplinary action and possible dismissal,” according to Councilman Lloyd White.
Details of any action will be announced in open session following the discussion.
The announcement was made around 3:15 a.m., White said, after the council came out of nine hours of talks in open and closed session.
“It’s a personnel matter and I’m not allowed to comment on it,” White said.
Kapanicas has worked for Beaumont since 1993, first as a contract employee before being put on the city payroll in 2011.
The move comes as the city is embroiled in investigations and lawsuits.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, with help from the FBI, raided City Hall, the office of Urban Logic Consultants, Kapanicas’ home and a Temecula location last month. District Attorney’s office spokesman John Hall said 20 search warrants were obtained in connection with the probe.
Urban Logic has consulted for the city for more than 20 years and at one time employed many of Beaumont’s top administrators.
Then Tuesday, state Controller Betty Yee announced the city’s books would be audited over discrepancies between city budget reports and auditor findings.
Beaumont also is one year into an appeal of a judge’s ruling that it owes more than $50 million in judgments, fees and penalties to a regional transportation agency.
Even in the face of the inquiries, the council voted Tuesday to continue its relationship with Urban Logic, the company at the center of the DA’s probe.
Kieran McKiernan, owner of the company since 2012, said his firm is Urban Logic in name only and told the council he is not part of the DA’s probe.
“I have been assured that I am not a subject of this investigation and that Urban Logic, under my ownership, is not a subject of the investigation,” he said. “I have offered and continue to provide my full cooperation with the investigators and the DA.”
He said some of the items seized in the raid of his office have been returned.
Hall wrote in an email that he could not say who is or is not a target of the ongoing investigation.
“I can confirm that we have returned some items to (McKiernan) which were seized during our investigation,” Hall wrote. “It is not uncommon for our office to do that when we deem it appropriate.”
McKiernan was grilled by the council during an session that took more than an hour, including why he retained former Urban Logic owners Deepak Moorjani, Ernest Eggers and David Dillon, and why he didn’t change the name after acquiring the company.
McKiernan said it made sense to lean on the expertise of the former owners and that they have had no connection to the company since August. He also said there was value in the company name when it was purchased.
Even White, who in previous meeting seemed adamant about cutting all ties with the company, voted to keep the relationship going.
“I had a long conversation with (McKiernan) and came to the conclusion and he and his current employees are not part of our problem,” White said Wednesday. “I’m comfortable about trying to move forward.”
Ultimately it was decided that McKiernan would meet with city staff and compile a list of jobs Urban Logic is involved with and decide which are critical to continue and which can go out for bids from other companies.
White, one of three new council members elected in November, laid many of the city’s ills on the doorstep of the consulting firm’s previous owners.
“We are now in a position where as a direct result of the work that they did and the guidance they provided the council – all along while they were getting a cut on every project – they brought us to where we are,” White said.
“For anyone to consider where we are is not a result of Urban Logic is not understanding what’s going on. … The history we have with Urban Logic, and that fog is something we need to seriously address.”
Contact the writer: 951-368-9086 or cs*****@pe.com