Questioning why Grego won’t produce lease agreement

To the publisher,

When the City Council approved redevelopment area two and questioned whether or not Councilman [Bruce] Grego should vote on R/D area two because his law office is in the area, the city attorney said Grego wasn’t in conflict; his lease agreement was month-to-month. When I asked to see a copy of the lease, the city attorney said the lease was a verbal lease. To cloud the issue, Grego’s landlord is a client of Grego.

Bill Crawford

In my attempts to discover the term of the lease on Sept. 8, 2010, I made a public records request addressed to the city attorney. On Sept. 21, 2010, the city attorney replied saying that the bottom line is “… there is no public record that the city has access to and consequently cannot give you a copy.” In reading the reply, I conclude that Grego continues to sandbag which raises a question of his ethical conduct. Whom does he serve as a councilmember? His private interest? His landlord’s interest? Who knows? It seems not the public’s when he will not disclose the terms of the lease.

I enclose a copy of the city attorney’s letter [see below] so that the public can judge for itself the nature of Grego’s conduct.

Bill Crawford, citizen and South Lake Tahoe City Council member

The following is the Sept. 21, 2010, letter from City Attorney Patrick Enright to Councilman Bill Crawford:

I am in receipt of your letter dated September 8, 2010 requesting a copy of the agreement or other documentation of Council Member Grego’s office space lease of his law practice. Neither the City, nor myself has a copy of the lease or any other documentation. I have requested a copy from Council Member Grego on several occasions, but the only document that he has shown me is a brief statement from his landlord stating he and Mr. Grego have an oral month-to-month lease. Mr. Grego refused to give me the document or allow me to make a copy. Therefore, there is no public record that the City has access to and consequently cannot give you a copy.