Key figures in big projects spent plenty of time with Modesto, Stanislaus County politicos

By ADAM ASHTON
aashton@modbee.com

last updated: March 16, 2008 03:46:25 AM

Modesto City Council members keep an open door for residents, and two development representatives step inside more often than anyone else in town.

George Petrulakis and Dave Romano scheduled a combined 40 appointments with council members from August 2006 to December 2007, according to council calendars The Bee obtained through a California Public Records Act request.

They had a reason to ask for sit-downs with the city's elected leaders.

Petrulakis and Romano guide a majority of the city's highest-profile developments, jobs they cultivated from more than 15 years of work for Stanislaus County builders.

Attorney Petrulakis' portfolio includes the new Kaiser hospital on Dale Road, a $500 million project.

Romano, an engineer, carried the Tivoli subdivision plan, a proposal that could lead to the construction of as many as 3,200 homes north of Sylvan Avenue.

"If I was out of town doing business here, I'd work with these guys," said PMZ Real Estate President Mike Zagaris, who considers Petrulakis a close friend. Zagaris has a stake in Tivoli and has worked with Romano on that project for the past eight years.

"One has deep legal experience, and the other has deep engineering experience," Zagaris said. "In both cases, they bring a lot to the table for their clients and for the government agencies."

Those reputations make Petrulakis and Romano stand out as the city's primary lobbyists on its most contentious issue -- development.

Contrasting approaches

They approach that work with distinctly different styles.

Romano, 46, presents himself in a level-headed manner and mostly keeps his views private. He or Russell Newman, the other partner in his consulting firm, occasionally write checks for council elections. Romano declined to discuss his politics for this story. He also declined to be photographed for this story.

Former Councilman Bob Dunbar said he met with Romano before his 2003 campaign. They knew each other from Dunbar's time on the Planning Commission in the 1980s and '90s.

That familiarity didn't stop them from disagreeing at public meetings. In particular, they didn't see eye-to-eye last year on a proposal to adopt a tax on new homeowners to pay for public safety.

"It's up to (the council) to listen very carefully to what they say and make the judgment of whether it's in the best interest of the city, and not just in the best interest for the client," Dunbar said. "More often than not, it works for both."

Petrulakis, 45, takes a more visible role in campaigns with an all-out method reminiscent of an attorney arguing a case.

He's a leading player in the county's arm of the Republican Party and a member of the Modesto Chamber of Commerce political action committee. He managed Mayor Jim Ridenour's election campaign in 2003 and tried to sink former Mayor Carmen Sabatino's successful run in 1999.

Politics and business

State Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, said Petrulakis helped persuade him to make his first bid for the state Assembly in 2000.

That prominence comes with a cost when critics charge that Petrulakis gears his political work to benefit builders, an accusation often leveled by Sabatino.

"There are people that would say (Petrulakis and Romano) are devious or Machiavellian. I don't see that in Dave," said Councilman Garrad Marsh, a slow-growth proponent who acknowledged the enjoyment Petrulakis takes in politics.

Cogdill called charges of Petrulakis' political arm-twisting unwarranted, saying Petrulakis has not lobbied the senator for clients.

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