By Doug Dye – October 5, 2026 Just to qualify myself after six months of coming down here, for your information I was a political science minor at the University of California, San Diego @ La Jolla back in the 20th Century when you had to do your own reading, writing, and thinking…imagine that! So I have a pretty good idea of what the expectations and realities of a competent and ethical city attorney should be. Is that what we get with Ms. Rice? What I've witnessed of her tenure is corrupt decision making, backroom deals, and a disregard for the safety and security of the people whose best interests she is actually supposed to represent. Instead, I've witnessed a sycophant for the various business interests who want to gentrify a tsunami inundation zone. And she appears ready, willing and able to endanger future downtown residents, business and infrastructure on behalf of those interests. Currently I have two on-going complaints and protests regarding the city attorney's conduct and oversight at two specific planning commission meetings…the March 12 meeting when the Redwood Downtown project was hastily rammed through and – now – the August 20 meeting where Sartori Cheese requested an expansion of operations at their recently acquired Rumiano Cheese Factory. Both meetings are currently available for viewing on YouTube and could be considered as examples of how NOT to conduct a municipal meeting…particularly March 12…both overseen and signed off by City Attorney Rice. As always, I invite everyone to watch these proceedings for themselves and come to their own conclusions. Find out why I now refer to the Crescent City Planning Commission as the bought-and-paid-for Kangaroo Commission. And as someone who understands the expectations of the commission I make these claims with absolute confidence. So, my scrutiny of Ms. Rice's conduct as city attorney will certainly continue and intensify over the next five years. I know from sources inside city hall that her reliance on AI technology is noticeable and increasing. AI is prone to make mistakes and hallucinate…perhaps this explains her memorandum regarding Paul Martinez' failure to recuse himself on March 12. Treat this memo with great suspicion and it should be asked, could it be an AI generated fraud? And – by the way – where is this fantasy transit center that the city has been basing project approvals on? Where?!? Where are the required and qualifying routes, bus lines, and schedules? They don't exist…not in 2026 anyway. So if the city attorney's conduct and modus operandi become a serious liability to city leadership, I will not be surprised.