By Khalida Sarwari
Even in its fading days, Cupertino’s Vallco Shopping Mall and the protracted debate over what to do with it continues to play a polarizing role in the city’s political landscape, this time resulting in the ouster of a city attorney, his threat to sue, and finger pointing by a City Council member.
The first volley was fired Monday when Cupertino City Attorney Randolph Hom announced he intends to sue the city for retaliating against him because he had pointed out Sand Hill Property’s redevelopment plan for Vallco violates the city’s general plan.
Then on Tuesday night, Councilman Barry Chang fired back by telling this news organization the city attorney was suspended because he took a behind-the-scenes approach in challenging the redevelopment plan’s legal validity.
Chang acknowledged he was the one who pushed to place Hom on paid administrative leave effective May 11, with the voting support of Vice Mayor Rod Sinks and Councilwoman Savita Vaidhyanathan. No explanation was ever given for the departure until Hom’s announcement.
Chang said Hom would have been fired outright had it not been for a clause in his contract barring the city from terminating him for up to a year. That contract was renewed in September 2017.
Chang implied that Mayor Darcy Paul played a role in those contract negotiations.
“I don’t think that’s accurate,” Paul said Wednesday in response. “However, I’m not at liberty to comment any further on this topic at this point.”
Chang also questioned Hom’s claims that he passed his last performance review with “flying colors,” saying that Sinks and Vaidhyanathan wanted him gone in September 2017 but he had voted to retain him.
“To be honest with you, I’m really disappointed and really hurt,” Chang said.
The former city attorney is seeking millions of dollars in unspecified damages in his claim against the city, a first step that must be taken before a lawsuit can be filed. A lawsuit can be filed 45 days after a claim is denied.
Chang said the city should hire its own attorney, present its case and let a judge decide the outcome.
“If the judge says I’m wrong then I’m wrong, but I don’t think so,” he said. “I don’t think I did anything wrong. I did what I was supposed to do,” he added, contending that Hom strayed from his job duties.
The rift appears to have started in March soon after Sand Hill, which owns Vallco, applied to fast-track its redevelopment plan for the mall under the auspices of Senate Bill 35, a 2017 state law that allows developers to bypass California’s environmental rules and local ordinances to get badly needed housing built.
Chang says Hom expressed reservations about the project in private meetings but refused to meet with Sand Hill’s attorneys or present his concerns formally to the council. Instead, he put those concerns in an email sent to the council and then-city manager David Brandt, as well as to members of the planning department, Chang said. It was at that point he suggested the council suspend Hom, Chang said.
He’s supposed to give the city his professional opinion, “and it’s up to the city council to decide,” Chang said. “No matter what the council decides, he has to follow the majority rule. That’s the protocol. He doesn’t follow the rules of the city, he doesn’t keep up his promise, so that’s why he lost my confidence in him.”
Most of the grievances detailed in Hom’s legal filing were leveled against Chang. Hom claims Chang sent him a string of text messages warning him to keep quiet about the alleged deficiencies in Sand Hill’s plan and berated him in person. He also accused Chang of threatening to fire him if he continued opposing the Vallco plan, according to the complaint. Chang categorically denied all of Hom’s allegations.
The other members of the council, along with interim City Manager Amy Chan, declined to discuss Hom’s employment status or the city’s anticipated response, saying it is a personnel matter and involves prospective litigation. Paul described Hom’s plans to sue the city as an “unfortunate situation.”
“I think … the allegations are very unfortunate and it’s something that I take very seriously with respect to protecting the interests of our residents and our city,” he said.
The mayor said the council has yet to discuss how it would respond to the potential lawsuit but likely will do so in a closed session on Nov. 5.
Paul described his relationship with Hom as a “positive and professional” one. He said he recalls Hom received a favorable performance evaluation.
“I did not always agree with all of his positions, but I always respected his approach and his integrity in terms of advising us on what he believed to be the requirements of the law,” he said.
Sand Hill, which wants to turn the decaying mall into a massive housing, shopping and office complex, also broke its silence Tuesday over Hom’s allegations.
In a statement issued through its public relations firm, Sand Hill characterized Hom’s claims about the proposal’s purported deficiencies as a “wrong opinion.”
“The state recently issued draft guidelines on SB 35 that confirm our evaluation and reject Mr. Hom’s opinion,” Sand Hill said in the statement.
[related_articles location=”left” show_article_date=”false” article_type=”curated” curated_ids=”5640116,5619698,5617380″]As for Hom’s claims about inappropriate meetings between Cupertino city officials and the company’s representatives prior to the project’s approval, Sand Hill said such sessions are “typical and standard procedure” for projects of every size and type, “from simple home remodels to 50-plus acre planning efforts.”
Hom was hired by Cupertino in late 2015 after he resigned as the city attorney for Merced and earned a base salary of $238,400 and total compensation, including benefits, of $306,492.
Chang said he was a deciding vote in hiring Hom for the job and renewing his contract last fall. The discord over Vallco aside, he said Hom was doing an “OK” job as the city’s attorney and that the two of them had a “pretty good” relationship because they share similar backgrounds.
Hom was hired last week as an assistant city attorney in Fremont, where he’ll be making an annual salary of $205,990, according to the city’s human resources director, Allen DeMers.
Cupertino councilman says he pushed for city attorney’s ouster over Vallco flap
