Dunes officials allege activist meddled with mail

Andrew Glazer

NEWPORT BEACH -- Dunes officials have asked the postal inspector to

investigate charges that a local environmentalist tricked postal workers

into holding City Hall-bound letters sent in support of the proposed

resort.

They say a supervisor from the U.S. Post Office on Camelback Street, who

was not identified, sent a letter on June 19 to Dunes officials claiming

Newport Beach-based activist Susan Caustin -- misrepresenting herself as

a Dunes employee -- asked postal workers to hold the mailings.

Dunes officials had distributed hundreds of fliers -- with pre-stamped

postcards addressed to Mayor John Noyes affixed to them -- to Newport

Beach homes two weeks ago. The fliers instructed project supporters to

mail the postcards.

Caustin said she wouldn’t be so foolish to use her own name if she was

misrepresenting herself.

“That’s really absurd,” said Caustin, who has spoken out against

developers’ plans to build the massive Dunes waterfront resort on the

undeveloped southeastern portion of the Back Bay. “I’m still fighting the

project, but it’s not worth me going to the U.S. Postmaster’s jail for

it.”

Dunes officials want to build a 470-room, four-story hotel with a

31,000-square-foot conference center, swimming pools, health spa and

restaurants.

Opponents say the project is too large for the environmentally sensitive

Back Bay.

Dunes officials said they expected the city to receive the letters in

time for a City Council hearing June 13.

But Dunes officials said they were surprised when residents who mailed

the postcards said their correspondence had not been included in a

package being prepared for the hearing. The postcards did not arrive

until roughly a week after the scheduled hearing, which was postponed --

for other reasons -- until tonight.

Caustin said she asked a postal worker to verify Dunes officials had used

proper postage.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service said the employee normally

handling business reply postage was on vacation. His replacement chose to

err on the conservative side by holding the mail, she said.

“He probably got flustered,” said spokeswoman Terri Bouffiou. “He

probably said ‘Oh my goodness, they’re doing something wrong here --

maybe I should wait until tomorrow to get this straightened out.’ ”

Robert Gleason, Dunes’ chief financial officer, said the mailings had

been arranged with postal employees in advance.

“We did everything the post office told us to,” he said. “We wanted to

make sure it would go through.”

Gleason said he will wait to hear from the Postal Inspection Service

before guessing whether the letters were held because of a

misunderstanding, or foul play.

But Caustin said she wished Dunes officials would drop the matter.

“This is a form of intimidation,” she said. “Clearly, there was a

misunderstanding here.”