Who the Hell is Roy D. DePaul?

Photo by Gustavo ArellanoIt took about two hours for Roy D. DePaul to finally lose it.

Hundreds of Placentia residents had gathered for a Sept. 18 meeting in which the all-white Placentia City Council unveiled their ambitious plans for Old Town Placentia, a heavily Latino neighborhood in the south part of the city earmarked for massive redevelopment. But if the council and DePaul, the city-approved master developer for the project, anticipated another ho-hum information night, they made a serious miscalculation. Most of the 180 residents in attendance had come for a grilling, and the main course was Mr. DePaul.

The council sat mum as Placentian after Placentian threatened to sue if the redevelopment project displaces their homes and heritage. Some insinuated that DePaul had cut a sweetheart deal with the city to manage the proposed $440 million redevelopment package. But most just wanted the answer to a simple question:

Who the hell is Roy D. DePaul?

Finally, the stoic and stocky Man of the Hour rose and, with all the indignation he could muster, shakily declared, “It's not every day that a private person has to bare their soul to thousands of people.”

If the crowd was shamed, they showed their shame with a loud and sustained hiss.

Private person or not, all they wanted to know from the people elected to represent them was how this man came to head the Orange County Gateway Development Initiative (OCGDI), which has been sold as a way of revamping and transforming the low-income area into North County's civic jewel.

Unfortunately for those seeking answers about a project that could throw them out on the streets, the city refused to comment on why DePaul won the job as the OCGDI master developer, and DePaul didn't provide any information on whether he even has experience as a major developer.

That left it up to some committed Old Placentia activists to fill in the holes, something they've found increasingly difficult as there is little public information available on DePaul.

“Members of the City Council have told us alternate tales—that DePaul approached the city or that the city approached DePaul. We can never get a straight answer,” complains Joe Aguirre, a third-generation Placentian who's part of a rapidly growing front to stop the OCGDI. “We had never heard of him or his plan until the city presented it to us as an unpleasant surprise. And what we've found doesn't exactly make us happy.”

This much is certain: an April 9 council agenda report authored by city administrator Robert D'Amato and senior administrative analyst Kristin Kassouf recommends the City Council make DePaul and his company, Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Properties, the OCGDI master developer.

“TOD Properties Inc. is a recently formed corporation of seasoned developers uniquely qualified to be the master developer for [the OCGDI],” states the three-page report. “TOD's chairman, Roy D. DePaul, has over 30 years experience worldwide in project design, development and construction.” An attached resolution to hire DePaul and TOD—passed unanimously by the City Council on April 15—asserts that D'Amato had “actively pursued Master Developer candidates for the last three years.”

But the report immediately provoked the suspicion of Aguirre and other activists, since the city had never publicly mentioned any previous plans for a project the size or scope of the Old Town Placentia redevelopment. The closest hint to such a radical redevelopment turns up in the Feb. 2, 2002, City Council meeting minutes, in which “Seek Master Developer” for Old Town Placentia is listed among goals and objectives for the year.

How the city went from seeking a master developer for a massive project that had never been discussed publicly to filling the post is strange enough. But it pales next to what Old Town Placentia residents have discovered about the OCGDI master-developer deal. It turns out TOD Properties did not even exist when city officials issued their report recommending the company nor when the council formally hired DePaul. State business incorporation records show that TOD Properties wasn't formed until July 16, nearly three months after D'Amato vouched for TOD.

“When we discovered that, we immediately demanded the city provide more information about DePaul,” says Olivia García, a 30-year Placentia resident. “We couldn't find anything about him.”

D'Amato responded with a July 8 letter claiming that TOD Properties was actually known at the time of its approval as the Saint James Group. But one suit obviously doesn't know what the other suit is doing: DePaul denied any involvement with the Saint James Group in an Aug. 14 interview with Placentia News-Times, an Orange County Register community weekly.

To further complicate matters, the address given as TOD's offices is for a Beverly Hills mailbox-rental center, and what is supposedly the company's main phone line traces back to a Palm Springs-area cell-phone number.

Meanwhile, Garcia says D'Amato promised her and other worried Placentians a due-diligence package revealing DePaul's background and TOD's financing. But Garcia has yet to receive it; the city blames DePaul for not providing them necessary documents that he was supposed to turn in by mid-September. DePaul himself stated at the Sept. 18 town hall meeting that he would need two more weeks to provide the documents. As of press time, the package had yet to be turned in to the city.

Perhaps DePaul needs more time to explain the kind of financial details that popped up when the Weekly conducted a simple records search. He has amassed $678,403 in state and federal tax liens up and down the state, from Imperial County ($22,723) to Orange County ($21,120) to Mono County ($22,714) to the whopper, Los Angeles County ($120,822). DePaul has also paid $20,636 in judgments. And of seven companies that have listed DePaul as its registered agent or director, the California Franchise Tax Board has suspended the licenses of five, including Orange County-based Alkanon Health Systems.

“An established business practice is that you want to know who you're getting into business with,” Aguirre says. “But the City Council hasn't demanded anything from DePaul—and they don't seem like they want to.”

DePaul was unavailable for comment; D'Amato and Placentia Mayor Scott P. Brady did not return numerous calls from the Weekly for comment.

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