Whittier officials chose Jamboree Housing to replace Thomas Safran and Associates to build a 344-unit affordable housing project, making the move in a closed-door session that drew the ire of residents raising questions about transparency of the process.
Thomas Safran of Thomas Safran & Associates suffered “very severe significant health issues,” and requested his Brentwood-based firm be removed from the project, City Manager Brian Saeki said.
The City Council met in closed session last month to reassign Irvine-based developer Jamboree and City Ventures, based in Commerce, to the redevelopment at 12813 Bailey Street, in Uptown North, the Whittier Daily News reported.
Thomas Safran has also been named in an alleged public corruption scandal surrounding Los Angeles Councilman Curren Price.
In 2022, the development firm was part of the Uptown Partners development consortium selected by Whittier to redevelop the site of a former Alpha Beta supermarket into a $200-million mixed-use project. The original consortium also included City Ventures.
If completed, the 3.4-acre project would include 229 condominiums, 115 affordable apartments and 5,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.
The decision by the council to swap developers behind closed doors raised concerns about public transparency with residents, many of whom are upset over an upgrade project on nearby Greenleaf Avenue requiring the removal of dozens of mature ficus trees.
“We need to publicly ask why this developer consortium backed out,” Mary Gorman-Sullens, president of the Whittier Conservancy, told the newspaper. “We would like to know how the new developer was chosen.”
Saeki, the city manager, said the City Council closed-door session was legal, as part of the discussions to replace the firms needed to be done privately in order to not “reveal their hand” in the negotiation process.
He said the council chose Jamboree based on a recommendation from City Ventures. He said the exchange had nothing to do with Thomas Safran’s alleged link to L.A. corruption.
“Jamboree is a nonprofit affordable housing developer, and is very familiar with developing affordable housing in California, especially Southern California,” Saeki told the Daily News.
David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, said the Whittier decision to choose the developer behind closed doors may have violated the state Brown Act.
He said the council had the right to discuss negotiations, prices and terms related to real estate deals in closed session, but not replacing the developer or selecting a new one.
“You can talk about price terms of payment in closed session, but that’s it,” Snyder told the newspaper.
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Last summer, Thomas Safran & Associates was named in a criminal complaint filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office against three developers that paid Price more than $160,000 via his wife’s consulting firm in an alleged conflict-of-interest case.
Price, who represents L.A’s 9th District, including South L.A., has pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest.
— Dana Bartholomew