Sorry to be out of pocket for so long, but news of Alameda city government and the erstwhile Alameda Point developer Suncal mediating to possibly resolve massive lawsuits can only be looked at as good news.

Unfortunately, they are likely to have a lot to untangle in the next 90 days as former acting manager Ann Marie Gallant’s M. O. seems to have been to play everyone off against everyone else.

Fortunately for us, she overdid it when she hired the private eye to try and build a case against an elected official who dared ask about her no-bid contract given to an old friend and colleague.  And the council was then able to step back, get an idea of what she had been up to, and vote unanimously to send her on her way.

Suncal had been claiming that she was not operating above board, but until the meltdown nobody seemed to take them very seriously.  It will be interesting to learn, if this mediation process allows it, just how many ways she may really have stuck it to them.

Their claim includes $17 million that they put up to get the process started in the first place. The $100 million number is their ballpark figure I guess for lost opportunity, reputation damage, et al; heck even maybe ‘pain and suffering.’

At any rate, a summary judgment or settlement amount could easily fall somewhere in the $17-100 million range, which is a huge departure from the $1 million Gallant once told us we faced in exposure if we flushed Suncal as she wanted. My guess is that the city would be hard pressed to cut a check for 17 million dollars if they lose, but what choice do they have? You remember the recent cries of anger when one pool was shut down? People went nuts!

Our two former city employees responsible for working with the developer and the Navy are now suspected of withholding information from us and our elected officials, as well as the developer, and it looks like at least one of them is also being accused of destroying evidence.

But it is human nature to emotionally filter or block information that messes with your world view, even if that view was seeded Manchurian style by Gallant. So we should expect her minions and bots to continue sniping for quite some time at Suncal and any elected official who didn’t drink her Kool-Aide.  Sniping indeed, all the way to some budget busting settlement or judgment.

It’s no surprise that the city isn’t releasing more information about Gallant and Highsmith, which needs to remain confidential because they are, in fact, suing the city of Alameda. With that in mind, this recent news that the city wants to mediate with SunCal is a message sent loud and clear to all: Gallant and Highsmith were up to no good, and we know we’re going to lose this lawsuit.