Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "david kwong"

Max Fernandez promoted to lead Community Development Department

2010-07-10T04:14:49Z

Max Fernandez, former director of the city’s Code Enforcement Department, has been promoted to lead the Community Development Department.

In one of several recent consolidations of city departments, Code Enforcement became a division of Community Development.

Fernandez started his new post July 6.

A third-party firm is auditing the department. Auditors from Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting Inc. of Sacramento are analyzing numerous issues at the department, including claims that it broke the city's planning rules and did not gather fees from developers.

“Obviously, there have been issues” at the department, Fernandez said Friday.

The department is working on a plan to retrain its employees, he said. The plan also will cover “the cultural change” process, Fernandez said, and the logistics of moving Code into Community Development.

Interim City Manager Gus Vina has said the department needs to change its culture. The city’s slogan, “Get the Customer to Success,” was “somewhat misunderstood” by the development department, he said at a May 17 Neighborhood Advisory Group meeting.

Fernandez said the results of the audit, which may be completed in September, will be a key part of reshaping the department.

The audit will “give us some ideas on where we need to fix up things that were not going as well as we hoped,” he said.

Bill Thomas, previous director of Community Development, resigned from his post in March and had been on paid leave for months before that. During his watch, a staffer approved building permits in a Natomas flood zone last year. The city said the staffer broke federal rules.

David Kwong, who recently served as acting director of the Community Development Department, will stay with the department. He manages the department’s planning division.

Photo by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Post-Kerridge: Will development department change?

2010-03-14T22:11:39Z

Sacramento’s business community has said repeatedly that former City Manager Ray Kerridge established a customer-service culture in the city’s development department. At the same time, the department is wracked with investigations into possible breaches of laws. Now that Kerridge has left the city — March 11 12 was his last day of work — how will the culture of the Community Development Department change?

New leadership and the findings from an audit are two upcoming developments that may change the department. The recent resignations of Kerridge and department director Bill Thomas have created job openings.

At this point, both positions are being held by interim officials. Gus Vina is interim city manager; David Kwong is acting director of the Community Development Department.

A third-party audit of the department is on the horizon. An outside auditor will follow up on issues from an earlier joint investigation by City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office and the law firm Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai.

The auditor will analyze several issues identified by the Teichert/Renee investigation. They include possible violations of the city’s planning rules and possible decisions to bypass, delay or lower fees.

A Jan. 21 report from the offices of the city attorney and the city manager on the Teichert/Renee investigation also listed “potential quid quo” in the department as an issue that should be studied in more depth.

The Teichert/Renee investigation centered on another highly controversial issue: the 35 permits that the department approved last year for construction in a Natomas flood zone. The Jan. 21 report said a department employee broke federal rules by distributing the permits.

The city placed former department director Thomas on paid leave in October. He resigned March 1.

A Customer-Friendly Culture

The department had a poor reputation among developers before Kerridge’s arrival in 2005, according to a March 28, 2008 Sacramento Business Journal article. In 2003, members of the local building industry said in a Business Journal survey Sacramento's building department was the most problematic of all similar city and county departments in the area. Five years later, the industry said in the survey that Sacramento's building department was the area's best.

Kerridge served as assistant city manager for development before being promoted in 2006 to city manager.

Despite the department’s crises, Sacramento developers have praised Kerridge for his work to establish a customer-focused culture.

Developer Mark Friedman was one of the members of the business community who invited Kerridge to leave his job with the city of Portland and come to work for Sacramento.

“I think (Kerridge) did a great job,” said Friedman, whose company, Fulcrum Property, owns Arden Fair Mall. “He streamlined the building department processes and made the organization more customer-friendly than it had been.”

Richard Rich, development director for Thomas Enterprises, Inc., expressed a similar sentiment in a Jan. 25 comment on The Sacramento Press. Thomas Enterprises is developing the downtown Railyards.

“This department isn’t perfect but its people, including Bill Thomas, deserve credit for creating a culture of public service,” Rich said.

Elected Leaders Praise Customer-Service Attitude Toward Development

Mayor Kevin Johnson and several City Council members also applauded Kerridge for his customer-service framework at a March 9 council meeting. Their comments indicate that there is political support to maintain the customer-service environment at the Community Development Department.

“And this whole notion of ‘getting the customer to success’ is something I think we’re all proud of,” Johnson told Kerridge at the March 9 meeting. “And that’s going to be with us, Ray, for many years to come.”

Some council members, though, are running for re-election. Depending on the results of their races, they may not have much time to make decisions affecting the department. The City Council incumbents running for re-election are Ray Tretheway, Steve Cohn and Robbie Waters.

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond is running for Assemblyman Dave Jones’ seat against fellow council member Kevin McCarty. Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson also is running for the seat. Hammond will leave the City Council.

McCarty’s seat is not up for re-election.

Hammond and Waters praised Kerridge for his work revamping the culture of the department. Waters said Kerridge “turned (the department) around” in a short period of time.

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell commented that developers were Kerridge fans. “It’s obvious by the developers — who really want to keep you here — that you changed the way Sacramento does business.”

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy spoke of Kerridge’s view of city growth. “You taught us how to look at this city as something that could grow and be something bigger,” she said. “And it can be, and it will be.”

Cohn said Kerridge led the customer-service culture change in city government, which is a forward-looking approach.

The errors that people may point out in Sacramento’s government “have been errors of trying to be proactive,” he added.

In his speech to the City Council, Kerridge said the business community has been “a great source of strength” for him.

Like Johnson, Kerridge thinks greatness is in store for Sacramento.

“Sacramento has a destiny,” Kerridge said. “Its destiny is to become a great American city.”

How Do Top City Staffers View the Department?

Interim City Manager Gus Vina will run the department for nine months to a year, at which time a city manager will be named.

Vina told The Sacramento Press last week that he is interested in the permanent city manager position.

He said his priority will be on “best practices and a culture that gets the job done.”

Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said in a March 12 interview that the department can simultaneously help builders and abide by laws.

“Our level of customer service for people who want to invest in our city is of paramount importance,” Dangberg said.

The city wants to ensure that it’s adhering to laws and that buildings are safe, he said.

Meanwhile, Vina said in a March 9 interview that the upcoming audit of the department will be key to the next steps for the department. “We definitely need to regroup,” he said. “We don’t want to go to a bureaucracy that ... doesn’t deliver for the customer. But if the audit says, by the way, you got a little too loose on policy ... we’ve got to bring that back to the middle.”

He said the city needs to examine the audit’s findings, then ask: “Do we need to change rules? Are they too loose? Are they too tight?"

Photo of Mayor Kevin Johnson and city council members by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council to decide on new version of permit program

2009-12-12T00:09:08Z

The City Council will discuss Tuesday a new version of a permitting program that became part of the recent debate over the Nestlé’s company’s move to Sacramento. The city shuttered its Facilities Permit Program Oct. 27 to investigate whether the program breaks laws.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert declared recently that the FPP was being used illegally because the city was not directing builders to obtain formal building permits before starting construction work, according to David Kwong, the city’s acting planning division director.

The previous version of the FPP offered businesses -- those that worked with the city on an ongoing basis -- a way to receive quick approval for tenant improvements or remodeling of commercial and industrial buildings, Kwong said last month.

Now, Kwong is presenting the remodeled FPP. One of the main revisions is a rule for formal building permits.

“The original program allowed individuals to start work with an oral or written ‘Authorization to Start Work,’” according to a report that Kwong is presenting to the City Council Tuesday. “The revised program requires that a building permit is issued before work is started as required by city code.”

Kwong plans to start the program again Dec. 16. It will be renamed the Facilitated Permit Program. An in-depth guide to the new program will be drafted by the Community Development Department in January, according to Kwong’s report.

Read the full report on changes to the program under Item 30 at the city's website.

The link between the FPP and Nestlé

Nestlé is setting up a bottling plant in Sacramento with plans to sell tens of millions of gallons of the city’s water. The city used the FPP to approve the bottling plant.

Nestlé’s plans drew protests from a citizen’s group called Save Our Water Sacramento, which opposed the city’s approval of the plant without a public hearing or an environmental impact report.

At the same time, a conflict surfaced over whether a building permit should have been used with Nestlé’s project. City Attorney Eileen Teichert said in October that Nestlé did not break any laws as it worked to build its bottling plant. But her office declared that the FPP involved illegal procedures, Kwong said in November.

Teichert said the city acted illegally because it allowed project construction even though Nestlé and its contractors did not have a building permit.

While Nestlé and its contractors received verbal approval from the city to start building the plant, that type of approval does not meet legal requirements, according to Teichert’s analysis.

Nestlé has said it followed city laws.

Photo by Sacramento Press reporter Suzanne Hurt. Suzanne Hurt contributed to this report. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

McCarty: Questions must be answered

2009-11-13T05:15:33Z

Sacramento officials need to know a lot more about the Community Development Department's construction approval process and a suspended commercial building program before any action should be considered, Sacramento City Councilmember Kevin McCarty said Thursday.

Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai, a law firm hired by the city to investigate the Community Development Department, must investigate how construction on a Nestlé water-bottling plant began in McCarty's district without building permits, how home-building permits were issued for a Natomas flood zone, when these practices began and how pervasive they are, he said.

Two weeks ago, the department's Facilities Permit Program was suspended after questions about the approval process for the plant revealed that Nestlé and contractors began construction work with verbal approval only. McCarty called the problems with the FPP and the practice of allowing construction without building permits the "second strike" against the department.

"We're investigating the department for wrongdoing in the Natomas Permit Program. We've asked that they look at this FPP process as well to see what was going on there as far as any wrongdoing," McCarty said. "By looking at Nestlé, we were able to bring to light some illegal activity that's been done maybe for a very long time."

The FPP is intended to speed approval for tenant improvements or renovation of commercial and industrial buildings involving businesses that do a lot of business in Sacramento and have established relationships with the city. The program may have "improved the city's relationships with developers," McCarty said, "but at what cost? At what expense to taxpayers? To residents?"

David Kwong, acting head of the Community Development Department, said last week that staff will ask the council to amend city code to allow FPP construction projects to start before building permits are issued — as long as a business has a written start-work authorization from the building division. The longtime practice, which predates the program, helped bring about the suspension of the FPP two weeks ago.

Any proposal involving the FPP is premature before the conclusion of the investigation, McCarty said.

"We owe it to our residents to make sure that our development department follows the law," he said. "We need to evaluate what's been going on with this FPP process and how long it's been going on. Then, and only then, should we talk about Mr. Kwong's proposal going forward."

Department staff want to "pull the program back, take a temporary pause" and bring to the City Council a "retooled FPP," department spokesperson Maurice Chaney said Thursday.

Retooling would happen "in concert with council just to make sure that the program is vetted thoroughly through the City Council and that they understand what the program is about," he said. "So, not only getting the appropriate info out to them, but just making sure that we’re transparent and open during that whole thing.”

The main question is whether the program is legal, said McCarty, who is proposing to change city code to require Planning Commission and City Council oversight of proposals for new water-bottling plants or any industrial facilities that use water for resale purposes.

Other cities allow construction with a start-work authorization only and the practice was incorporated into the FPP when that program was brought here from Portland several years ago, Kwong said. Sacramento City Manager Ray Kerridge developed the FPP for Portland 10 years ago when he managed that city's commercial inspections. Phoenix was the only other city in the country known to have a similar program at that time.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said the FPP's role has expanded over time. When the program started, it provided businesses a way to make tenant improvements quickly, she said. Now, it’s not being used in the way it was designed, she added.

“It morphed into something else that was completely different,” Sheedy said.

The city doesn’t want to be “unfriendly” to businesses, she said, but needs to be “cognizant” of how it works with them. Sheedy noted that she hopes the program can be made workable.

McCarty said he would like water-bottling facilities to require conditional use permits. Environmental reviews and public hearings are required for proposed development projects only if there's a request for a land-use change or a conditional use permit, he said. Neither were required for the renovation of the warehouse Nestlé is leasing.

The council was supposed to consider McCarty's proposal as an urgency ordinance on Oct. 27. But City Attorney Eileen Teichert said Nestlé hadn't done anything illegal. However, she determined that the department's practice of allowing construction to start without a building permit violates city and state codes.

"We screwed up so bad handing out building permits through this crazy FPP program, no court of law would find they (Nestle) did anything illegal," McCarty said.

Plenty of million-dollar projects never go before the council if there are no requests for zoning changes or conditional uses. Developer John Saca's failed 53-story Towers at Capitol Mall project never went before the council, he said.

McCarty and other councilmembers have said they knew nothing about the plant until a grassroots organization, Save Our Water Sacramento, contacted them in September. Councilmembers Rob Fong, Steve Cohn and Lauren Hammond said Wednesday they did not know about the program until after a stop-work order was posted on the door of the Nestlé plant Oct. 23.

On Thursday, Sheedy said she was unaware of the program until it was debated during the Nestlé controversy. Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell also said she had been in the dark.

“I knew nothing about the Facilities Permit Program before the Nestlé company’s move to Sacramento,” she said in an e-mail Thursday. “I’m looking forward to learning about how the program works. I will keep an open mind.”

There's much more the council needs to learn about the program, McCarty said, adding, "I'm proud that by bringing this Nestlé issue forward, we uncovered this very inappropriate activity in the city of Sacramento."

Staff reporter Kathleen Haley contributed to this report. Photo by Anthony Bento. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Cohn, Hammond, Fong say they didn't know about permit program

2009-11-12T04:53:10Z

Some members of the City Council said Wednesday they were unaware of the permitting program that played a key role in the recent controversy over the Nestlé company’s efforts to set up a water bottling plant in Sacramento.

The city closed down its Facilities Permit Program Oct. 27 during the public debate over Nestlé’s plans. Nestlé’s project was greenlighted through the FPP.

With the FPP, businesses that work with the city on an ongoing basis can receive quick approval for tenant improvements or remodeling of commercial and industrial buildings, said David Kwong, the city’s planning division director.

In the case of Nestlé, the company and its contractors received verbal approval from the city to start construction work. But the company and its contractors did not have a city building permit or “start-work authorization.”

Nestlé has said it followed city laws.

The city attorney’s office recently declared that it is illegal for the city to approve the start of construction for projects that do not have building permits, Kwong said.

Now, Kwong plans to ask the City Council to weigh in on the FPP program. Kwong said city staff will ask the council to let businesses begin work on their FPP construction projects before they receive building permits. However, businesses would need to obtain a written start-work order from the city before they begin work, he said.

He expects to bring the issue to the council in a few weeks.

When city staffers approach the City Council, they will be addressing at least three members who told The Sacramento Press they did not know about the FPP before the Nestlé controversy.

“I definitely am looking forward to this coming back to council,” Councilman Rob Fong said Wednesday. “We’ve not been briefed on this. We didn’t know there was such a program.”

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond had a similar comment. “I knew nothing about it,” she said.

Councilman Steve Cohn said that while he didn’t know about the FPP specifically, he knew the city was taking actions to streamline the building permit process.

While Hammond said she “wasn’t happy” that she was not informed about the FPP, she said she does not believe the mayor and City Council need to know about “every single thing” the city does. She suggested that it would be impossible for the city’s elected officials to know about every item in the municipal government, asking: “How could we possibly [know everything the city government does]?”

She noted that the city has monetary thresholds. If a program exceeds $100,000, it needs to come before the City Council, she said.

Mayor Kevin Johnson said earlier this week that the results of the audit of the Community Development Department will be key to his views of the FPP. Johnson, who said the FPP program has been effective, has talked about resuming it, with possible changes.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Sacramento Press staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this story. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor: Facilities permit program "effective"

2009-11-11T03:54:39Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson said Tuesday the outcome of the audit of the Community Development Department will be important to how he views the future of a permitting program that has drawn controversy in recent weeks. At the same time, Johnson said he thinks the Facilities Permit Program has been “very effective.”

The FPP, which is part of the Community Development Department, was shuttered Oct. 27 in the midst of public debate over the Nestlé company’s move to establish a water bottling plant in Sacramento. Nestlé’s plant had been approved through the city’s FPP program.

City officials investigated the Community Development Department’s approval of Nestlé’s construction work and temporarily shut down the FPP program. At issue was the approval that Nestlé and contractors received from a city building inspector to start construction work. While the company and its contractors had verbal approval from the city, they did not have a building permit or a “start-work authorization.”

Nestlé said that it has complied with city laws.

The city attorney’s office recently decided that it is illegal for the city to greenlight construction for a project that does not have a building permit, said David Kwong, the city’s planning division director.

Johnson told reporters at his weekly press conference Tuesday that the third-party audit underway on the Community Development Department will affect how he thinks about the FPP. “For me, I want to know what went wrong the first time,” he said. “We need to conclude that investigation.”

The third-party audit is in response to the city's approval of permits to build in the Natomas flood zone. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had prohibited the city from building in the flood zone.

Johnson talked of resuming the program, with possible changes. “I think people feel, by and large, it has been one of the best things that our city has done,” he said. “So, this would be an example that you can’t throw out the baby with the bath water.”

Through the FPP, businesses that work with the city can receive quick approval for tenant improvements or remodeling of commercial and industrial buildings, Kwong said.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Sacramento Press staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this story. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City staff seek building code changes

2009-11-10T05:27:54Z

The Sacramento City Council soon may be asked to amend city code to legalize a longtime practice that helped bring about the suspension of the Facilities Permit Program.

In the next few weeks, city staff want to ask the council to allow FPP construction projects to start before building permits are issued — as long as a business has a written start-work authorization from the building division, said David Kwong, the city's Planning Division director.

Staff is working with the city attorney's office to learn if the practice and the building code amendment would be legal, Kwong said.

"What I'd like to do is vet that form with the city attorney's office, make some tweaks and take that to the council," said Kwong, who is also serving as head of the Community Development Department, which oversees the planning and building permits divisions.

The department's director, Bill Thomas, and department supervisor Dan Waters, son of Councilman Robbie Waters, are on paid leave while the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the city and an outside law firm hired by the city look into the department and home building permits approved for the Natomas flood zone despite a ban.

The FPP is intended to speed approval for tenant improvements or renovation of commercial and industrial buildings involving businesses that already have established relationships with the city, Kwong said. If the change were approved, the FPP could resume within about two months, he added.

The city suspended the FPP on Oct. 27 after questions about the program arose in relation to the Nestlé Waters North America water-bottling plant. A stop-work order had been posted on the plant's door Oct. 23 while Councilman Kevin McCarty and other city officials inquired into plant construction.

That's when city officials learned that Nestlé and contractors had begun the first phase of construction work without a formal building permit or start-work authorization. A building inspector who coordinates the FPP had given verbal approval only.

A Nestlé official said at the time that the company had complied with the city's building laws.

The city attorney's office, led by Eileen Teichert, determined the practice was not legal, and that allowing construction to start without a building permit violates city and state codes, Kwong said.

Teichert was out of town and not available to comment.

The use of start-work authorizations rather than building permits for some commercial construction predates the FPP in Sacramento.

"We found there was a common practice dating back to 1992 or 1995," Kwong said. "It seemed like an acceptable practice for 14 years, and they went forward with that."

The practice is used in other cities and was incorporated into the FPP when that program was brought to Sacramento from Portland about four years ago, said Kwong. "It's not something we invented," he said.

As planning division director for four and a half years, Kwong was not involved in building services until three weeks ago.

Sacramento City Manager Ray Kerridge, hired in 2004 as an assistant city manager in charge of development, brought Thomas with him from Portland after developers criticized Sacramento's development application and building permit processes as laborious and confusing.

The two have developed programs to speed the application process and encourage development in Sacramento.

Kerridge began his career in Portland as a building inspector in 1979. After becoming manager of commercial inspections, he developed Portland's Facilities Permit Program and the Commercial Combination Inspection Program.

Portland's FPP was designed to match one building inspection team with a building or group of buildings. That team would do all plan review, permitting and inspections of interior tenant improvements to speed improvements or renovations. Phoenix was the only other city in the country known to have a similar program when Portland's began in 1998.

In Sacramento, an inspection team may be replaced by one building inspector certified in several areas, Kwong said.

According to the city of Sacramento's website, "The FPP facilitates a rapid approval process for tenant alterations and improvements of commercial and industrial facilities, (including) minor tenant improvements, including maintenance, repair and minor alterations; and major interior tenant improvements and remodels. This includes tenant improvements to new and existing structures.

"The FPP is available to owners of commercial and industrial buildings, building management companies, and/or their tenants. The program best serves customers who have on-going interior tenant improvements and where facility maintenance, upgrade and renovation is frequent. A good example is a large shopping center with multiple tenants."

As a newcomer to Sacramento, Nestlé would not fit the program. However, Buzz Oates Real Estate Co., which is leasing the warehouse to Nestlé, or Panattoni Construction, which is overseeing the work, would fit the program as established customers, Kwong said.

Nestlé is the building permit applicant. Panattoni received a start-work authorization for the plant renovation's second phase on Oct. 7.

This is the first time the City Council has been asked to weigh in on the FPP.

State building codes must be reviewed to see if FPP practices would be in violation, or to align new city code with the state. City staff also will look for precedents in other cities and counties that use the start-work authorization form, Kwong said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City halts Nestlé work

2009-10-27T02:48:16Z

A $14 million retrofit of a proposed Nestlé water-bottling plant has ground to a halt after the city of Sacramento issued a stop-work order while investigating whether the work began before the company had legal authorization from the city.

Late Friday afternoon, the city's Community Development Department issued a stop-work order for Phases II and III shortly before an interim or "urgency" ordinance request was added to the City Council's agenda for Tuesday night. The council is being asked to consider amending the city's zoning code to immediately require special permits for beverage bottling plants. The meeting starts at 6 p.m.

On Monday, City Councilman Kevin McCarty and officials from the city's Community Development Department were trying to determine when Nestlé Waters North America began interior renovation of an industrial warehouse being leased for a new water-bottling operation.

"We're still assessing all the facts," said David Kwong, acting director of the city's Community Development Department. "We're trying to make sure there's nothing being done out of the ordinary."

Legally, construction cannot begin before a start-work authorization or building permit is issued, he said.

A building permit for Phase I was issued Oct. 7, but no start-work authorization has been found, Kwong said, adding that a start-work authorization was issued for Phase II the same day.

"I don't know if there was an authorization to work for Phase I," he said.

Phase I included foundation work and moving walls, Kwong said. Phase II involves work on water and drainage lines and other operational needs. However, the company's description of the work to be done appears to overlap in the two documents.

Nestlé maintains the company has not done anything illegal.

"Nestlé Waters is in compliance with the city's building and permitting laws," Brendan O'Rourke, the company's supply chain director and national director of natural resources, said in a written statement. He arrived in Sacramento on Monday to help respond to the unfolding situation.

Phase I construction is complete, the company said. Nestlé began work two months ago and is halfway through renovation of the plant at 8670 Younger Creek Drive, Chris Kemp, Nestlé's Sacramento plant manager, said Wednesday.

"To date, the company has invested more than $3.7 million into this plant in form of permitting fees, construction costs, due diligence payments and costs associated with the movement of equipment from other Nestle Waters plants to Sacramento," read an e-mail from Nestlé on Monday.

The stop-work order may be temporary. A draft ordinance was still being finalized by the city attorney's office late Monday afternoon. The draft goes to council members before being made public, said Amy Williams, spokeswoman for the city manager's office.

The council ought to carefully consider commercial requests to bottle and sell city water, said City Councilman Kevin McCarty, who requested the item be placed on the agenda and later posted a story about his decision.

"Water is increasingly one of more most precious and valuable resources," McCarty said Monday. "My proposal would mandate a further dialogue on all future water-bottling facilities. I think it's an important discussion to have."

Changing the process now would be "troubling," O'Rourke said.

"We have followed the city and state laws throughout this process, invested more than $3.8 million into this facility and hired people to work, all based on the the current law and it would appear that this is an attempt to change those laws midstream," he said. "We find that prospect troubling not only for this plant, but for any business looking for certainty in the siting process."

Nestlé also questioned the legality of the stop-work order. The company said the stop-work order may not be legal because the city already had issued a start-work authorization for Phase II.

"The city has not provided any evidence to support this stop-work order despite the rules that require they do so within 24 hours," said O'Rourke.

The city gave Nestlé preliminary authority to start work on Phase II, but that doesn't give the company the right to continue the work. In addition, no building permit was issued for Phases II and III, said Sheryl Patterson, senior deputy city attorney.

"We do have the right to issue a stop-work order when no building permit has been issued," she said.

An interim ordinance, which would not require review under the California Environmental Quality Act, would give the city time to consider a formal amendment to the zoning code. An interim ordinance requires a super majority or two-thirds vote of the council, to pass, Patterson said.

Nestlé has paid the city $65,000 in permitting and application fees. The company also agreed to hire local contractors and has committed to paying them $600,000 for their work.

Nestlé applied for a building permit through the city's Facility Permit Program in order to make tenant improvements, including underslab plumbing, demolition of existing partition walls and construction of new ones.

Questions also are being raised over whether it was correct to use the Facility Permit Program in this instance. "The Facility Permit Program facilitates a rapid approval process for tenant alterations and improvements of commercial and industrial facilities: minor tenant improvements, including maintenance, repair and minor alterations; and major interior tenant improvements and remodels. This includes tenant improvements to new and existing structures," according to the city's Web site.

"I'm not sure if it all adds up," McCarty said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.