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Petitioners say FEMA screenshot was obscured in incentive presentation; council pauses ordinance
Summary
Public petitioners and investigators accused a developer’s presentation slide of obscuring FEMA release dates used to justify a $2 million incentive. Developer Philip Ramirez said the missing dates were a formatting error; council withdrew the item while staff and investigators reviewed the record.
City council members and hearing participants spent large parts of a multi-day session examining whether a FEMA website screenshot used to justify a $2,000,000 economic incentive had been altered or simply suffered a formatting error.
Petitioner Ajit David told the council the slide shown in the applicant’s presentation omitted the FEMA release date and number and urged the body to "stop the show immediately" if there was any indication a federal document had been tampered with. "If that answer even remotely leans towards a yes, stop the show immediately and disqualify the application," he said during public comment.
Developer Philip Ramirez, who prepared and provided the slide, testified in deposition that the dates were not visible on the slide used in the presentation and described the absence as an accidental formatting issue rather than an effort to deceive. "It was just a formatting error… there was no intention to deceive anybody," Ramirez said, adding he investigated after being told of the discrepancy.
Council members and staff disagreed about the significance of the omission and about who first raised the concern. The city suspended further action on the ordinance after the discrepancy was flagged; the record shows the item was removed from an early calendar and later reintroduced with revised language focusing on street-level retail and outdoor dining.
Next steps: staff and the tribunal cited ongoing internal review and referrals to investigators; the council scheduled further proceedings and left final disposition of the ordinance pending the results of those reviews.
