Too close for comfort

The city wants one of the light-rail stations on K Street moved, in order to beautify the block. They hired a consultant, with lots of expertise and connections in transportation issues, to help.

A prominent developer, Joe Zeiden, also wants the station moved, for the benefit of his development project on the block. He has a consultant, too, the same consultant as the city, in fact.

Is that a conflict of interest? Or just business as usual?

It is merely a non-story, says that consultant, Wendy Hoyt. She says she is surprised that SN&R would ask the question. But Hoyt knows that Zeiden’s rival downtown developer, Moe Mohanna and his supporters—who don’t want to see the station moved—are making a fuss about the arrangement.

What’s more, according to Hoyt, The Sacramento Bee already has looked into the issue and found it not worth a mention.

Fair enough.

But suppose you are just unnaturally curious about how City Hall does business. Why not have a look?

Hoyt is a bona-fide heavy hitter. She was at one time an assistant general manager at Regional Transit. She was at one time the chairwoman, and now serves on the board of directors of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership—which is technically a private, nonprofit downtown booster organization, but also has elected officials and city redevelopment officials on its board.

The Hoyt Co. is the go-to concern around Sacramento for running public workshops, managing public relations and all manner of support work on major transportation and development projects. Hoyt has worked for the Sacramento International Airport, Union Pacific Railroads, Sutter Health, along with local governments around the state.

As one Hoyt Co. newspaper advertisement explains, “Cutting through red tape or facilitating community support can seem endless, but with the Hoyt Co. on your side, the impossible becomes possible and all the pieces fall into place.”

In June of 2005, the Hoyt Co. went to work for Zeiden, helping him with his proposed project that includes a Z Gallerie and other high-end retail on the 700 block of K Street. That project has been bogged down in a legal battle between the city and Mohanna, who owns much of the property on that block (see “Moe foes,” SN&R Feature Story, October 4). Last week, Mohanna and Mayor Heather Fargo met face to face to try and hash out a deal.

Also in 2005, the city approached Hoyt to help with K Street beautification—which is envisioned to include new lights and plants, the paving St. Rose of Lima Park, and moving the light-rail station from its current location, near the intersection of 7th and K streets, to a spot around the corner and a half block south on 7th Street.

The projects are closely linked in the city’s redevelopment strategy for the block. And moving the station is certainly in Zeiden’s interest. He wrote a letter earlier this year to the mayor and city council urging them to vote yes on the plan. In the letter, he says the station blocks the sight lines to the new stores he wants to build there. “Relocation of this platform is crucial to my ability to tenant the 700 block of K Street with high-end destination retail.”

The Westfield Group, which owns the Downtown Plaza shopping mall on the other side of 7th Street, has its own sight lines to worry about. During peak hours, trains stopping at the proposed new 7th Street station will block the sight lines, as well as pedestrians, between K Street and Downtown Plaza every few minutes.

And the new station would be unusual in that, during peak hours, the train’s first car will be on one street, while its last cars will be around the corner on another street.

Bob Blymyer, executive director of the Sacramento County Taxpayers League, said he’s concerned that on a long train, the operator won’t be able to see people getting on and off, or in the path of, the rear cars.

Blymyer worked for Regional Transit himself, back in the late 1980s and early ’90s, and was part of the team that brought light rail to K Street two decades ago.

“Successful cities around the country build around their transit systems,” Blymyer said. “Moving the station says, ‘Transit isn’t really a priority. We want to sweep it under the rug.’”

It’s not just metal and concrete that will be moved to beautify the street. It’s flesh and blood, too. Moving the station means removing young people and homeless people from K Street’s sight lines, as well.

But if the social scene in that area makes shoppers and city planners uncomfortable now, moving the station, “If anything might make it worse,” said Blymyer, noting that the boarding area around the current light-rail station is a spacious 50 feet. Around the corner on 7th Street, waiting passengers would be crammed into a 12-foot area.

It would be impossible to move the station without the blessing of Sacramento’s Regional Transit agency.

Hoyt’s contract with the city specifies that the former RT manager would set up meetings with RT officials and city officials. The November 2005 agreement states, “The Hoyt Co. will be responsible for ensuring that all the key players are at the table at the first meeting.” A later amendment to the contract, from September 2006, says that, “The Hoyt Co. will continue to identify key community issues and mange coordination efforts with RT to ensure the project’s success.” For her services, Hoyt would be paid $52,500 over the course of about a year.

In one boilerplate section of the contract, it reads that, “Consultant agrees to avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of any conflicts of interest.”

And Hoyt says there was no conflict of interest. While Hoyt worked with the city on K Street beautification, she said she played only a minor role in that project. And her work for Zeiden, she said, had nothing at all to do with the beautification project or moving the light-rail station.

As for her work with City Hall: “We assisted the City with logistics, not as a decision-maker or business adviser. We are not aware of any conflict of interest.

“Our role was really minimal,” Hoyt continued. “We didn’t do any facilitating or any visioning. We ordered cookies and put together a database.”

Blymyer was delicate about the cozy relationship. “It would seem, at best, probably inappropriate. She has a good reputation. I would think she’d want to be pretty careful about that kind of thing.”

At best, probably inappropriate, maybe even mildly incestuous. But did Hoyt actually have her hand in the cookie jar? If not, is the city’s going rate for scheduling appointments and bringing snacks really $52,500?

SN&R asked Christina Lokke with California Common Cause, a nonprofit government watchdog group, to take a look.

“There’s definitely the appearance of a conflict of interest,” said Lokke. It would be worse, she said, if it turned out Hoyt had an overt influence on the public policy and land-use decisions being made. “The facilitator really needs to be independent. Anytime the public is paying for a service, we have to ensure there isn’t even the appearance of anything sketchy going on.”

Said Hoyt: “The city hired us knowing that we worked for Zeiden. They didn’t see any concern. I feel really, really good about my role.” And that’s good enough for the city, good enough for the Bee. So, good enough will have to do.