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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished in Tracy
Since we broke the news of Tracy losing Topgolf because of the city attorney’s unwillingness to work with Prologis, Transparent Tracy has received several tips of additional roadblocks businesses are experiencing at the hands of Bijal Patel. Of the information we’ve received, however, the most alarming and perplexing issue involves the Tracy Fire Station 95.
At the core of this issue is the following: why hasn’t the city attorney’s office taken legal control and liability for Fire Station 95 that was approved by the city council in February 2022?
Source: https://www.tracyruralfire.org/fire-station-95
On February 15th, 2022, the city council approved without discussion, as part of the consent calendar, Resolution 2022-13 (see below).
Fire Station 95 opened with great fanfare in August of 2021, and reflected a successful development partnership between local developer Tracy Hills and the City of Tracy. As part of the agreement, Tracy Hills funded $6.9 million for the construction costs of the city designed project with the intent to dedicate the land to the city and the station to the South County Fire Authority to provide fire services upon completion. The terms were laid out in a 2019 Irrevocable Conditional Offer of Dedication (ICOD) agreement.
In short, Tracy Hills met the terms of the ICOD which was accepted and passed by the city council in February 2022. (The timeline and additional background can be found in the Tracy Rural Fire Protection District Board of Director’s agenda meeting item 4.4 here and the February 2022 city council agenda staff report agenda item 1.D here.) The private-public partnership was a success and brought about positive press with the local media (read here). Everyone should be happy, right? Not so fast.
Source: https://tracyhillslife.com
The City Attorney has left Tracy Hills shouldering the liability for the station for over a year now. And, just as the folks trying to open their small cannabis businesses in Tracy cannot get cooperation from Patel’s office, no one can figure out why. The question Tracy Hills residents, as well as the Fire Authority should be concerned with, is just how long is Tracy Hills willing to be on the hook before they take drastic action?
An even bigger concern for Tracy is how City Attorney Bijal Patel is running her office. Perhaps she’s in over her head?
It’s far-fetched for us to think that Ms. Patel is in over her head. She is a very intelligent educated person, who served as a Fulbright Scholar and Ford Foundation Scholar while in graduate school (read here). Further, City Attorney Patel has an Assistant City Attorney, Nancy Ashjian, and a Deputy City Attorney, Riana Daniel, to help service the community, so we cannot assume it’s a workload issue. The implication is that, if it’s not a capability issue nor a workload issue, then it is a political issue.
Tracy’s City Attorney is playing politics with the business and development community in the city, which is a dangerous precedent to set.
It is the same mentality the exists in the City of Oakland from where Ms. Patel came to Tracy. The strategy is clear: delay, delay, delay. But it’s biting the hand that feeds you. Prologis and Amazon are exactly the reason the city is in position to bring public amenities, along with Measure V revenue, to fruition. Tracy Hills is the reason we have Tracy Fire Station 95. Tracy businesses are now being punished for doing good things here in Tracy, do we really want to treat our Tracy businesses like Oakland does?