Lake Luciana developers delivered a blistering letter to the Napa County Board of Supervisors this week, signaling their intent to sue the county over the decision to reject the championship golf course proposed for Pope Valley.

Supervisors Diane Dillon and Brad Wagenknecht, in particular, will have to defend themselves against allegations of improper conduct. Representing two of the three votes against Lake Luciana, Dillon and Wagenknecht are members of the Sierra Club, the organization that formally represented project opponents in the hearing before supervisors last month.

Dillon and Wagenknecht, both of whom traditionally represent a slow-growth majority on the board, are both up for re-election next year. Supervisor Keith Caldwell, the newest supervisor on the board and the third vote against Lake Luciana, came away virtually unscathed in the letter to the county.

“Supervisors Dillon and Wagenknecht should not have been involved with the appeal due to apparent bias and improper conflicts of allegiance and interest,” lawyers charged in the 16-page letter delivered to the county Monday night and presented to the board on Tuesday.

Michael Durkee — the attorney hired to represent Lake Luciana developers William Criswell and Robert Radovan in the suit  — pointed out that Dillon and Wagenknecht are, or have been, members of the local Sierra Club’s political committee. He notes that their names were listed on the Sierra Club’s Web site until just after the June 2 appeal hearing. After a letter to the editor published in the Register brought this information to light, their names were removed, Durkee claimed.

Neither supervisor disclosed their affiliation with the Sierra Club during the appeal.

Dillon acknowledged that she is a member of the Sierra Club, but said she has not attended a meeting of the club’s political committee since 2006. The political committee is a loosely organized group within the Sierra Club, she said, and is designed to encourage communication between the club, the agriculture industry and local elected officials. The committee meets once or twice a year and discusses candidates, but does not take positions on specific political issues, according to Dillon.

Wagenknecht said the committee has met only a few times over the last several years, and that he has attended some of those meetings.

“My role was to provide background information for them as they considered issues that were going on in the committee,” Wagenknecht said. “We never took a stand on any of the issues.”

Dillon said she was surprised to see some of the allegations made in the letter, but maintained, “I stand by my vote.” Dillon said she also stands behind the process that led to the defeat of Lake Luciana.

Wagenknecht also defends his vote against the controversial golf course. “I can tell you I didn’t come in with a prejudice,” he said.

But Wagenknecht said he is not surprised by the threat of litigation, calling it a last-ditch effort by desperate developers. “I think it’s what (they) had to do,” he said. “They had to come up with something.”

While he remained vague on the specifics, Wagenknecht added that there is still a possibility that a project of some kind could be approved in Pope Valley, but said it would have to look different than the 18-hole golf course originally proposed.

Kevin Teague, the local attorney who represents Lake Luciana developers, said lawyers will file the lawsuit against the county in state court within the next two months. They will also examine whether or not there is a reason to file a separate lawsuit at the federal level, he said.

Teague acknowledged the fight could be expensive for both sides.

Asked what developers hope to achieve with the lawsuit, Teague said, “A court has many options, and we hope to be able to get our permit issued, whether by order of the court or by the county remedying the wrongs that occurred.”

Teague said developers will not seek a criminal investigation into claims of bias against Dillon and Wagenknecht at this point.

King probe

Also dragged into the fight once again is former Napa County Planning Commissioner Jim King, who stepped down earlier this year because of allegations of improper conduct.

King, a vocal critic of Lake Luciana, said he sought work from Criswell and Radovan on a previous project in 2003. King allegedly asked for either money or a plot of land in return for assisting Criswell and Radovan on the historic Aetna Springs resort by serving as a liaison with community groups such as the Sierra Club. He was ultimately turned down by developers.

This information came to light just before the planning commission hearing on Lake Luciana earlier this year. King, who had not recused himself from the vote, was asked to resign.

King maintains that he did not act improperly, and claims that the only ones who knew about his dealings with developers were the developers themselves. He alleges that they deliberately released the information in order to get him kicked off of the planning commission before he had a chance to vote against Lake Luciana.

King was replaced on the commission by Mike Basayne, who voted in favor of Lake Luciana. Even with Basayne’s vote, the project was defeated 3-2 and was appealed to supervisors.

Lawyers for developers cite King’s comments in previous Register articles about his dealings with developers. They further maintain that “Mr. King is a close friend of Napa County Supervisor Wagenknecht. … We understand that Supervisor Wagenknecht told the Lake Luciana developers that he blamed them for the events leading to Commissioner King’s resignation, and that therefore he would have a hard time supporting their project.”

Wagenknecht said that is a mischaracterization of his conversation with developers.

“I gave them the opportunity to talk about it,” he said. “I did tell them that Jim is a friend of mine, and I wondered about the process, about him leaving the commission, and I took their explanation at face value.”

Added Wagenknecht, “I’ve lived here for over     50 years, and every issue that comes up, I have friends on both sides.”

Durkee is also attacking the county on its hearing process. He wrote that lawyers for Lake Luciana will “depose all of the relevant participants in this matter” to find out if there were any other violations.

“The investigation of bias may bring about additional claims,” Teague said.

Napa County Counsel Robert Westmeyer said Durkee’s claims that the county acted improperly are unsubstantiated.

“We simply don’t agree with his analysis,” Westmeyer said. “The board is the ultimate arbitrator of what the General Plan means.”

In a 3-2 vote Tuesday, supervisors certified their previous decision to reject Lake Luciana. Supervisors Dillon, Wagenknecht and Caldwell voted against the project. Supervisors Mark Luce and Bill Dodd voted for it.