City of Bee Cave suing former city manager, developers over controversial warehouse
The Brief
The city of Bee Cave has filed an updated lawsuit, suing its former city manager Clint Garza.
City officials say Garza is heavily connected to the construction of a controversial distribution center.
The lawsuit alleges a pattern of deceit by developers who relied on Garza to withhold information from council.
BEE CAVE, Texas - The City of Bee Cave is suing its former city manager.
City officials said the former city manager is heavily connected to the construction of a controversial warehouse.
What we know
The original lawsuit was filed back in August.
The updated suit alleges a pattern of deceitful actions by these developers who relied on the former city manager to withhold information from the city council.
What they're saying
"I'm a single mom. I invested my entire savings into building this house up here," Bee Cave resident Stephanie Boicelli said.
She said essentially overnight, a massive distribution center popped up basically in her backyard.
"To think that this was happening behind our backs and just like tada, here's what you now have to deal with, it's completely unacceptable," Boicelli said.
The City of Bee Cave claims they didn't know this was happening either.
"The reason that the city council didn't know is because they were intentionally being kept in the dark to avoid scrutiny that was required by that development agreement," city communications director Crystal Cotti said.
The backstory
In 2015, the city entered into a development agreement with a development company to turn the land into a blend of residential homes, commercial spaces, and recreational amenities. Apparently, the plans changed.
"Our city attorney was supposed to have received a certified notice in the mail saying there's been a change of ownership, there has been a change in land use, there's been a new development project, and that never happened," Cotti said.
The city said the developers avoided contacting the city at all costs too, but the person who was in the loop was former city manager Clint Garza. In a lawsuit filed by the City of Bee Cave against the developers and now Garza, claims Garza helped conceal these new plans from city council and was benefiting from it.
"According to our lawsuit, former city manager Clint Garza received cash payments, lavish gifts over a period of many years, and that many of those gifts came from companies that were doing business with the City of Bee Cave," Cotti said.
"We've been able to find, and the lawsuit shows, that a former city employee actually was present when former city manager Clint Garza opened up a check, looked at the amount and said, looks like we're getting a distribution center," Cotti said.
Garza just resigned last year to work for another land developer.
Dig deeper
On Tuesday night, City Council passed a whistleblower ordinance.
"I think that it's important to show this community that we have taken what we have learned extremely seriously and we are putting policies in place so that from ever happening again and protecting the city in the future and future councils and future staff members from having, ever having to deal with what we've had to deal with," Mayor Kara King said.
The other side
Casey Dobson, representing KBC and Velocis, told FOX 7:
"We categorically deny any improper dealings with the former city manager. The city already lost this lawsuit, we had a 2 day plus trial about all this, they tried to stop construction, and they lost. It seems like a desperate attempt to repackage these allegations to justify hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars used for this lawsuit."
What's next
The city is seeking monetary relief of over a million dollars, and they want the buildings to be knocked down.
The case is set to go to trial in August.
The Source
Information in this report comes from reporting by FOX 7 Austin's Meredith Aldis.
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