Official Says Councilman Tried to Manipulate Him

A Dana Point planning commissioner said Thursday that he believes City Councilman Russ Chilton wanted to manipulate him into blocking a coffeehouse chain from moving in four doors down from a coffee business Chilton’s wife owns.

Commissioner Greg Powers said that when he testifies at a deposition for the pending lawsuit Diedrich Coffee Inc. has filed against the city, he will tell them that Chilton approached him in November, a week before the Planning Commission was to vote on the proposed Diedrich’s.

“He shook my hand and said, ‘I’ll do everything I can to keep you on the Planning Commission,’ ” Powers said, adding that he found the remark odd because his term doesn’t end until February 2007.

“I know he wanted me to look favorably on his position. There’s no reason for me to take it any other way.”

The proposed Diedrich site is on the city’s south end near Interstate 5, just 300 feet from Janice Chilton’s shop, the J.C. Beans Coffee House.

The Planning Commission ultimately voted in favor of Diedrich but required that the chain conduct a traffic study and obtain a conditional-use permit because the business would have a drive-through window.

Unlike the other commissioners, though, Powers favored allowing the coffeehouse to open using the drive-through permit that the previous tenants -- Kentucky Fried Chicken and Mega Burger -- had used.

Chilton, who is also an Orange County sheriff’s deputy, did not return calls Thursday seeking comment. His supporters, though, contend that the entire issue is an effort to damage his reputation.

City Councilman James V. Lacy, in a memo sent Tuesday to his colleagues, criticized Powers for failing to show up that day for a deposition in the lawsuit.

Powers countered that he didn’t attend because it was at the same time as a previously scheduled mediation session on another matter in Los Angeles -- a conflict he said he told City Atty. Patrick Munoz about March 24.

The commissioner added that he was not looking forward to testifying.

“I would rather not be deposed because I would rather not have to tell the truth of what happened,” Powers said. “But I’m going to. I don’t have anything to hide.”

If Chilton did try to pressure Powers, it could have violated the state’s Political Reform Act, which forbids public officials to use their positions to influence decisions in which they have a “material financial interest.”