Front Page  »  

Where does Morro Bay’s George Leage live?

November 22, 2013

George LeageBy KAREN VELIE and JOSH FRIEDMAN

Morro Bay Councilman George Leage does not have a legal residence in Morro Bay; instead he sleeps in an apartment in his family’s sushi restaurant, Off the Hook.

Off the Hook is located in Morro Bay tidelands, an area of which the city acquired ownership through a state grant. The tidelands grant prohibits residential use of the area and requires businesses to support public access or public trust uses.

“Residential use of these public lands is specifically prohibited,” the Morro Bay Harbor Department Lease Management Policy states.

The city leases tidelands to individuals and businesses, like Leage and Off the Hook. Several years ago, Leage put the restaurant lease in his sister’s name, though he continues to manage the business. About a year ago, Leage says he began living in a caretaker unit in the restaurant.IMG_1840

“There have been caretaker units at different places around here.” Leage said. “I thought it was grandfathered in or permitted as a caretaker’s unit.”

The California State Lands Commission monitors compliance with state land grants. State Lands spokesperson Sheri Pemberton said living on state-granted tidelands is not a proper use of the land.

“It is and has been the commission position for decades that residential use of the tidelands is inconsistent with the public trust,” Pemberton said. “Residential use is a private use and inconsistent with the public nature of these lands.”

In March, Leage attended a city study session on the harbor tideland lease site rules and regulations. During the meeting, former city attorney Rob Shultz told the audience that residential use is not permitted on Public Trust lands.

Leage said he did not remember that portion of the presentation and that Schultz did not know where he was residing. Leage also said he would move if state or city officials ask him to.

“If they state to me it is not residential, I will get out of there,” Leage said.


Loading...
Subjects:                 
Related:


273 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Well Morro Bay just passed the line from outright comical to batsh– crazy.

A special thanks to Slophocles and his hilarious posts and the majority of people

who bring some humor to the page.


As for Mbactivist, when everyone continues to tell you your wrong don’t you think you should at least consider looking at the other facts? how can you be so narrow minded?


0

more rhetoric.


0

Thank you?


0

The people saying I’m wrong are the members of the small special interest group pushing their agenda at the expense of the residents of Morro Bay. Luckily for us all, they are far from being “everyone” – just a small minority that thinks that if it yells loudly enough, its propaganda will be believed.


0

If the likes to unlikes on every single one of your comments have any relationship to the ideas of the general public of Morro Bay then this is NOT a small special interest group.


Which you will soon realize when our mayor gets recalled.


You and Slophocles are the only two on this page even in support of the mayor, smukler and johnson. At least Slophocles is smart, brings some humor to the page, and has some good points.


You literally can not and refuse to even look at facts while posting complete lies. Its frustrating for the rest of people actually trying to help educate those in Morro Bay who don’t understand what is going on.


0

Thanks for calling me smart but I’m really quite dense which is why I spend so much time on this site. The reason there are so many dislikes for mbactivist1 is because this is Gripe Central for the Recallers who spend a lot of their time here with their finger over the Enter-key for repeated dislikes and counterattacks. If there’s only 30 or 40 of them, they are going to have a hard time pulling off this recall thing. Meanwhile, the young, professional, progressive-minded Anti-Recallers are all home with their young, educated families, doing homework, listening to NPR, planting organic gardens, eating vegan meals, procreating, and planning for a new and better Morro Bay. The Recallers are sitting in their ocean-view homes, in La-Z- Boys, with Bill O’Reilly on the screen, mixing up Gin & Metamucil, bitching about Obamacare and typing comments in this pointless merrygoround of a forum we all waste our time on. There’s more of us than just me and mbactivist1, they just get tired of the abuse but we like it.


0

A caretaker unit is legally different than a residential unit. There are 4 or 5 caretaker units in the tidelands trust area in MB that are legally permitted and many many more in tidelands trust areas all along the coast.


0

Word games will not get Leage out of this. According to the article, the spokesperson for the State Lands Commission said, “Residential use is a private use and inconsistent with the public nature of these lands.” The City policy says, “residential use of these public lands is specifically prohibited.”


That’s “residential use”, folks. If you live there, that’s residential use. It doesn’t matter if you are a caretaker or not. Morro Bay can issue all the permits it wants for such units, but they cannot be used as residences under the laws governing the use of tidelands grant lease sites.


No amount of permitting by local agencies is going to make residential use of buildings on Tidelands grant land OK. A City cannot simply decide to apply its own law and ignore the law of the State.


0

Take a look in all the other tidelands trust areas in the State and you find caretaker units. The state lands commission has even granted leases for caregiver units.


0

The State Lands Commission and its lawyers are not stupid. They are not going to be fooled by sneaky attempts to disguise apartments as caretaker units. This has long been a strategy used by dishonest builders trying to skirt the law to get more income from their properties – here in Morro Bay and elsewhere.


I suspect that the Commission might be persuaded to allow a caretaker unit where one is clearly reasonable and justifiable, such as at a large marina or a waterfront hotel, However, they are NOT going to be fooled by attempts to get around the law by claiming that a caretaker is needed for some little building like the one where Off the Hook is located. Bigger towns with big legal guns behind them have tried fancy footwork to get around the State Lands Commission before – and it didn’t work.


Now, to your latest word games. “caregiver” is not the same as “caretaker”


0

You use word games plenty. If George violated the law it is wrong and he should move just as Irons should be removed from office for his bad decisions.


0

What? are you saying that Jiminy Irons is sleepin at the City Hall now? Is there anything this guy won’t try to get over on us?


0

This is just great: the mayor’s sleeping in a meeting room at city hall, an ex-mayor has a room at some fleabag motel, a councilman is playing Anne Frank in the attic of one of his own businesses, and I’m coiled up in a SUBUARU WAGON in the Rite-Aid parking lot! Man, what a great town.


0

No disrespect for your plight…but there are options & some help available. It will take hard work…and true grit….and it will be hard & painful. But I encourage you to do the work and not give up…take advantage of what help is available….but do not waste your time envying others better situations…or speaking badly of others in situations you know nothing actually about. They may have their own pain and troubles you know nothing of. Just get up each day with a goal to step towards the life you could envision….and you will be amazed someday with a better life. Do not give up…..


0

Oh, here we go. Ask probiz what happened when he tried preaching to me. Already, I don’t like some of your verbage, and what … are … the … three … dots all about? Those dots make me even madder and more bitter and for your information I work 40+ a week and have lived here for 15 years! The only help available for people like me is a liveable wage and we all know that a living wage in Morro Bay is about as likely as the rents going down. I’m sure people have their own pains & troubles but it probably doesn’t involve sleeping with an emergency break handle in their back! Just get up each day with a goal to step toward? The life I could envision? Here’s the life I envision, getting up each day and stepping into MY OWN G-D BATHROOM TO TAKE A – ah, nevermind. Okay, I won’t give up. Thanks.


0

All you have proven to anyone here is that you are a professional victim that loves when others are challenged. If you have been here for 15 years and the best you can do is a minimum wage job, it says volumes about you. Quit wanting a handout (employers forced to pay you more than your skill level is worth) and develop more skills to EARN higher pay and work a 2nd job until you get there. You are living in your car at your own choice. If you work 40 hours per week at $8 per hour you are making over $1300 per month and have little tax liability. You can rent a room in a home for $500 per month and get your groceries from the food bank and live much more comfortably than living in a car. I honestly don’t believe that you do live in a car, but, still feel victimized like old Slohocles who thinks the government should seize other people’s assets to give to folks that love being victims.


0

If I were you, mbhomeless, I would stop looking for an apartment and start saving up to buy the biggest, ugliest motor home you can find, find yourself a nice quiet spot or two on some of the nicer Morro Bay residential streets (something with a view, perhaps) Park, pull the shades, and relax. If you get rousted, move down the street a hundred yards. It won’t be long before you’re joined by other “RV’ers”, as the gap between the have’s and have-not’s continues to widen and widen and widen in this country.


0

ok. Sorry I wasted my time caring a bit. Bet those sleeping under a bush tonight wish they had a Subaru.


0

rhetorical analysis!


0

Please be advised, Karen Velie and Josh Friedman, you are now officially on the Recallers’ Boogyeman List.


0

And they are in excellent company :) The best and the brightest of Morro Bay residents are on that list too.


0

grandiloquent.


0

coercion.


0

Low-Footprint, Caretaker George – I love it! For people that are always asking “what’s a good ol boy network? – we ain’t got no good ol boy network.” – this is it – look the other way for your buddy, he looks the other way for you, no one says anything, you remember it, do him a favor, etc, etc, on and on and on … and now poor Smukler’s not even going to be able to let his dog off the leash and he’s going to have to stop his bike at every stop sign? This just gets funnier by the day. And while wealthy George is crashing on a couch in some office, wealthy Bill is living in a North Morro Bay flophouse, and people are lining up for a spot down on the creek! I think what we need is Robert Ford Toronto to come down here and fix things up.


0

ludicrous.


0

candlefax lamb-tip?


0

your rhetoric shows your true unkind nature….


0

I’m not your average liberal.


0

Quote from the City of Morro Bay Harbor Department Lease Management Policy: “The tidelands grant in Morro Bay is in perpetuity, provided the City conforms to the terms of the legislative grant. The granted lands must be used for commerce, fisheries, navigation, recreational purposes, parklands, public access, public parking and environmental protection or enhancement. RESIDENTIAL USE OF THESE PUBLIC LANDS IS SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITED.”


0

Unless grandfathered. And caretaker space does not equate to residential. This is all small-minded diversion from the recall issue.


0

i once seen nancy Johnson jaywalk across Harbors Street.


0

I get your point about this being petty, but I urge you to not continue to perpetuate the myth of jaywalking. It is commonly misconstrued that anytime someone crosses anywhere but an intersection, then it is jaywalking. That is absolutely not true in California. http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc21955.htm


It is impossible to jaywalk on Harbor Street because there are no traffic signals on Harbor, let alone two traffic signals at adjacent intersections.


0

Thank you, October – that is riveting reading mateial. Could you provide us with more jaywalking links?


0

hilarious!


0

No, there is no grandfather clause in the City policy or in the State law. The County was given the title to the grant lands in Morro Bay in 1947. Even if there were such a clause, it would not help Leage. Has Leage been living in that apartment since 1947? No. He hasn’t. The word around town is that, despite his claim that he moved in about a year ago, he has been there for several years, but definitely not for 66 years.


What is small minded is the recall issue. The small but very loud minority, still mad at losing its control over Morro Bay, continues to try desperately to get it back, and continues to attack the first Council majority in decades that is actually looking out or the majority of residents, instead of just the Embarcadero and developer crowd..


0

valid.


0

Not. Grandfather refers to preexisting rights. No clause is needed as stripping existing rights is an illegal taking. You people read one line of text and think you’re informed lawyers ready for a public hanging.


0

Kevin…where have you been…missed you


0

You must be the only one :)


0

binding!


0

The sewer $$$$ has been given by two different sets of consultants/ past and present

and the $$ are the same! As for George and the not so anonymous e-mail sent to the

media for breaking the rules, where are they when Noah runs thru stop signs on his bike or has his dog off leash or the mayor trying to get city staff to work on rezoning downtown areas where he just recently bought property. Oh that’s right were George lives is sooooo

News worthy, we can focus on that and not what these other councilmembers are doing


0

And the figures are grossly inflated because of the control that local special interests have exerted over the consultants. The Morro Bay special interest group, composed primarily of the Embarcadero and developers, will do and say pretty much anything in their effort to regain their stranglehold on the town.


They just sent out a ridiculous mailer full of false and misleading nonsense. They will continue to harass residents and the Council majority and will to try to impede progress in cleaning up the corruption in this town until people send them a message – that we are not buying their nonsense. Ignore their ridiculous recall petitions, and in the next election, ignore their candidates too.


0

“Special interest exerted over consultant” this current council hired these consultant& they pretty agreed with the last consultants so now were paying twice for the same info.another waste of our tax $$$$ funny how you know more than the expertsmaybe you should contract your services to the city since you seem to be an expertand we can ignore everyone else.

Oh and the mailer your group sent out was truthful and this mailer is false, where do I get the kool-aide your drinking. If this town was soooooo corrupt from all the dealings of past representatives why did you move here. Now you think you need to save us from ourselves – now that’s funny


0

Something I have noticed about the special interest minority is that they always seem to be emotionally upset about something. These people always seem to be mad at somebody and/or in some kind of a tizzy about something.


0

You keep saying they are grossly inflated because your friend is an engineer. Where is the EIR that he completed along with the cost estimates for new infrastructure including sewer line to the new location, pump stations and lift stations? Your chanting these thigs over and over does not make them true. Tell me about the corruption? Why hasn’t the DA filed charges? Where is the State’s Attorney or the DOJ with such rampant corruption?


0

magnify.


0

All kidding aside, what is the good of dropping your drawers and taking a dump on every person CCN does an expose on. It’s like everyone is lined up, just waiting for the opportunity to pounce and deificate What ever happened to the golden rule? (Look it up)


0

Paso, what you are witnessing is those opposed to the recall of Morro Bay mayor Irons attacking one of the two council members that disagrees with Irons. Good old fashioned ad hominem diversion tactic. Three source of this story on TV news was stated to be an anonymous email. Apparently that’s how the Irons rolls. Non-transparent and behind closed doors. Not enough class to put their names on their attacks.


0

Check out the last comment…


0

It’s what we do. It’s who we are.


0

Oh, you mean the one that says to do unto others as you would like to have done to you? Well, I’d like to have a PLACE TO LIVE so I guess I’ll give Gorge League my SUBARU WAGON to live in!


0

distortion.


0

There are a number of grandfathered “beds” in several of the Tidelands leases. These include “liveaboards”, transient occupancies, caretakers, and one outright “residence”. I am not yet compelled (due to lack of factual information) to believe this case is not similar in nature to the other permitted living/sleeping spaces. No one has yet provided facts that would disprove the above possibilities. CalCoastNews failed to research deep enough to reach a clear conclusion.


0

According to the article, CCN talked with the State Lands Commission spokesperson and she told them people cannot live on tidelands grant lands. They quoted her as saying, ” It is and has been the commission position for decades that residential use of the tidelands is inconsistent with the public trust”. They looked at Morro Bay’s written Harbor lease policy. It says the same thing. Nobody needs to dig any deeper than that. The CCN reporters did their homework.


Yes, hotels are OK with the Commission because they serve the public at large, rather than specific individuals. Do your own homework. Read the Tidelands Grant documentation. Check the case law established over the years. It reaffirms the original intent of the law and confirms what CCN and the Commission spokesperson said. Check Morro Bay’s own Harbor lease policy. It also confirms that you can’t live on the tidelands lease sites. Check the March 25 Tidelands Lease Study session presentation put on by the City of Morro Bay. It says you can’t live on the lease sites – and cites specific case law. It is available on the City Web site.


If people think their caretaker units or other living units on the Embarcadero places are “grandfathered in”, they are mistaken – unless, perhaps, they were living there before the tidelands grant lands were given to the County in 1947.


0

You’re “nobody needs to dig any deeper” is weak sauce. You apparently don’t wish to dig any deeper. A caretaker unit may not be considered “residential” per se. Or, it may. You’re unwillingness to search for solid answers is an indicator that you simply prefer the accusation more than clarity. What are the chances you were behind the anonymous email, our knew about it?


Why are Irons and his supporters so opaque?


0

They only seem opaque to those who are incapable of comprehending the obvious facts and logic of the situation.


0

Well, I DEFINITELY agree with that admission!


0

truth.


0

Calcoast must have upset Mr. Rice somehow as he has used this site to expose and exploit several issues and people on this site when illegal acitivity has been written and discussed. Since when is right not right and wrong is ok?


0

So, this council man, who has had a business for years in the tidelands, who is suppose to know how the lease not only applies to him as a businessman but as a long term council member, didn’t know that he was not allowed to have his residence here, Then Mr Leage attended a meeting whereby “former city attorney Rob Shultz told the audience that residential use is not permitted on Public Trust lands.” that he cannot recall hearing and his only response to all this is “he would move if state or city officials ask him to.” He is living there illegal, he knows he is living there illegally, apparently a lot of people (including City management) knew he was living there illegally and has a person who took an oath he protect the rules and laws of Morro Bay thinks this does not apply to him, after all, his family has long standing in this community so we don’t have to abide by the rules that are for other people. Another immoral politician cheating the system!


0
1 2 3 4 5