Cost To Taxpayer Of Wagner/Silverstein Affidavit Is Now $325,000 And Growing, Farrer Says
Written by 991KBU on December 9, 2021
Malibu city council member Karen Farrer says the affidavit prepared by council member Bruce Silverstein ,… hurling charges of criminality and corruption at City Hall … was in her words “a fraud perpetrated on the Malibu community and the Malibu taxpayers.”
And she calls it an expensive fraud.
NEWSCART 73916 FARRER FRAUD
“As far as I am concerned this entire thing was a colossal waste of resources… a gigantic waste of taxpayer money based on a fraud perpetrated upon the Malibu community and Malibu taxpayers. I want the people of Malibu to consider how this happened who was involved and what their purpose was. And I think they also should consider what they want to do about it.”
The city has now directly spent about 325 thousand dollars as a result of the charges levied by Silverstein when he was sworn in to office 11 months ago … according to Ferrer’s tally.
And the costs will continue to mount … she says … as key city staff plan to leave … and the city’s insurance policy costs will likely go up as a result of the tumult.
Farrer says the city had to pay one half of the 300 thousand dollar buyout of city manager Reva Feldman’s contract. The others 150 thousand dollars was paid for by the city’s insurance pool …
And it will cost about $150,000 … Farrer says… for the two lawyers to investigate the Wagner Affidavit. That figure is uop from the estimated $100,000 cost that had been rumored.
The hourly charge has not been totaled up … by it appears to Farrer that it will cost that much to investigate the allegations from outgoing city councilman member Jefferson Wagner … which were put into writing by Silverstein.
Other costs to the taxpayer include $25,000 to search for a new city manager … plus Farrer says there was untold amounts of staff time spent researching voluminous public records requests filed by Silverstein as he took office.
Silverstein is now using social media to try to discredit the two attorneys do the independent investigation. He calls them biased in favor of defendants.
Farrer notes that Silverstein helped pick those two lawyers.
Silverstein’s’s supporters are up on social media saying that the investigative report does not tell the entire story… and that Malibu residents should wait for hundreds of pages of supporting investigative notes and reports to be released.
What the investigative report does say is that the allegations put together by Silverstein were not credible… not truthful… and part of a political effort by Silverstein and Wagner to oust the city manager… Reva Feldman.
It does appear that there is at least one error in the investigative report … which said that Point Dume resident J Flo Katz had refused to be interviewed by the attorneys.
Katz says that is not only incorrect… but that she called the investigators … anxious to share her accusations.
Late this morning …acting city attorney John Cotti told KBUU that the investigative lawyers will issue a correction … apparently on that issue.
