DEL MAR — The California Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating Del Mar City Councilmember Terry Gaasterland after allegations that she created a conflict of interest by failing to recuse herself when voting about a proposed rail crossing project blocks from her home.
The anonymous complaint raised concerns about the Del Mar City Council’s April 2023 meeting, during which the council discussed railroad crossing options down to the beach at two locations: 11th Street and between 7th and 8th streets.
Gaasterland joined a 4-1 vote to support further study by SANDAG of a railway undercrossing between 7th/8th streets
The complaint, submitted in June 2023, claimed that Gaasterland supported an option that would benefit her property, as she owns a condo near the beachfront between 5th and 6th streets.
“I believe that the City Attorney should not have allowed neighbors to vote on this agenda item due to their conflict of interest. The City ethics rules say that Council members cannot vote or even try to have an influence on anything that could potentially affect their property values,” the complaint states.
The Fair Political Practices Commission, or FPPC, opened an investigation into the complaint on April 17. The Del Mar Times first reported on the investigation earlier this month.
FPPC guidance states that there is a material conflict when an official’s property interest is within 500 feet of a property that is the subject of a decision. If the property is within 500 to 1,000 feet, there is a material conflict only if there would be a financial effect on their property interests, and a distance of more than 1,000 feet is not presumed to be a material conflict.
Gaasterland said (and Google Earth measurements confirmed) that her home is over 1,000 feet from the proposed 7th/8th street crossing site, and therefore, she does not believe this presented a conflict of interest.
She added that while implementing a rail crossing at this site would benefit the larger community by providing more accessible beach access, it would not specifically benefit her property.
“The 8th Street potential entrance to the underpass was more than 1,000 feet from my home. It never occurred to me to seek out any special attention,” Gaasterland said. “There’s no particular benefit to my property value either way.”
According to City Manager Ashley Jones, city staff and the City Attorney will sometimes provide guidance to council members if there appears to be a conflict of interest related to any of the agenda items, but it is up to each council member to consider whether they need to be recused.
Jones declined to comment directly on the investigation, stating that it is a private matter involving Gaasterland and it would not be appropriate for the city to comment.
“What I can share is that the City is cooperating fully with the FPPC and is not a party under investigation,” Jones said.
Notably, no FPPC complaint has been filed regarding Mayor Dave Druker, whose home is around the same distance from the 7th/8th Street site as Gaasterland’s.
Gaasterland stated that she intends to cooperate fully with the FPPC investigation. However, she claimed that the FPPC’s initial email about the complaint last June went into her spam folder, so she did not know about the investigation until she received another email from FPPC in April of this year.
Gaasterland also pointed out that the April 2023 vote was not a policy or project decision by the city but a recommendation to SANDAG of what kind of project should be studied further.
“SANDAG is who will make the decision where the crossing will go,” she said.
On a larger scale, potential conflicts of interest for Del Mar officials will continue to be a salient topic as the proposed rail realignment project progresses. The realignment and design for the project will ultimately be decided by SANDAG, but Del Mar has the chance to give input to represent the city’s position.
At the council’s July 17 meeting, City Attorney Leslie Devaney said it remains unclear which council members may need to be recused from future discussions about the rail realignment. This is partially due to the lack of details in SANDAG’s notice of preparation for the project.
“This has been a huge challenge for a number of reasons. Del Mar is a small city, and all of our [council] members live close to something relative to the route, whether it’s part of the entire route or a project design component where the rail comes up, or it goes under, etc.,” Devaney said. “We don’t have a lot of information on which to do detailed conflict analysis for the council.”
