A group of East Palo Alto tenants is protesting a recent Palo Alto Police Department investigation of a leading tenant activist Christopher Lund, who is engaged in a bitter feud with property manager Page Mill Properties.
The tenants are also questioning why Lt. Tim Morgan, a Palo Alto police official who moonlights as a consultant for Page Mill, was taking photos on activist Lund's rented property two weeks ago.
Lund, a community organizer and one of the fiercest critics of the Palo Alto-based company, said he had a confrontation with Morgan on Jan. 29, when he saw a man with a camera loitering outside his Woodland Avenue home.
Lund said he asked the man to identify himself, but the man refused and began taking photos of Lund, prompting Lund to call the police. When East Palo Alto police arrived a few minutes later, the man was gone, Lund said.
The next morning, the man appeared again, but was spotted by a neighbor who stepped outside to look for her cat, Lund said. The man noticed her and quickly left.
"He jogged back down to his truck and sped off on Woodland," Lund said.
Page Mill General Counsel Jim Shore confirmed to the Palo Alto Daily News last week that the man who was taking photos was Morgan. Shore reportedly said Morgan was taking photos of Lund and his truck because someone had earlier followed Shore's wife and Morgan wanted to see if Lund's car matches that of the stranger.
Page Mill had also filed a complaint with the Palo Alto police, accusing Lund of extortion, Ryan said. As part of the department's investigation, police recorded a phone call between Schaadt and Lund in which Schaadt reportedly tried to offer Lund money. Lund refused.
Lund was subsequently cleared of any charges, Ryan said.
But the bitter feud between Page Mill and its tenants has prompted the department to reexamine Morgan's role with Page Mill, Ryan said. Morgan's contract with the company was approved about eight months ago by former Police Chief Lynne Johnson, he said. It designated Morgan a consultant for emergency preparedness and risk management, but did not specify which companies he could work for.
Since then, Morgan's relationship with Page Mill has changed, prompting the department to review his current role with the company, Ryan said.
"We're looking to see if there is any conflict of interest," Ryan said.
Ryan said Morgan had no involvement in the department's investigation of Lund.
On Monday night, several East Palo Alto residents asked Palo Alto officials to look into the police department's involvement in the long-standing and highly litigious dispute between Page Mill and its tenants.
"We were very alarmed to learn through media reports about the PAPD investigation regarding activist Chris Lund," said Andy Blue, member of tenant-advocacy group Tenants Together. "We're very concerned about use of police resources to tape a conversation between landlord and tenant."
William Webster, a member of East Palo Alto's Rent Stabilization Board, was even more blunt.
"It's appalling that the name and Palo Alto label be associated with the machinations against the residents of East Palo Alto who are being driven out by the thousands in our community," Webster told the Palo Alto council.
Lund declined to comment about possible police impropriety and said he was confident with how Interim Police Chief Dennis Burns is handling the issue. Ryan said recording conversations is a widespread practice in investigating extortion and other cases. He said the phone call was made from the police department and did not require a warrant.
Page Mill tenants also asked the Palo Alto council to censure the company for its "predatory" policies, which they claimed consist of driving out tenants through constant harassment and sharp rent increases.
Lund also attended the council meeting and used his allotted three minutes under oral communications to criticize Page Mill's treatment of its tenants. He said his own monthly rent jumped from $800 to $1,400 in February.
Lund said Page Mill has already forced 1,500 residents to leave their apartments, pushing the vacancy rate at the company's buildings from 2 percent to more than 20 percent.
"We lost on average 20 people per week, week after week," Lund told the council.
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