Developer SunCal released three letters last week firing back at the city's handling of Alameda Point negotiations and its investigation of Councilwoman Lena Tam, who was accused of forwarding confidential information to SunCal among other allegations of misconduct earlier this month.

The first letter slams Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant for her involvement in the Alameda Point project and the Tam investigation. The second asserts SunCal's Alameda Point negotiation agreement with the city merits automatic renewal. The third letter asks the city clerk for, among other items, all e-mails and communications from city staff concerning Alameda Point, SunCal, Gallant's employment and the law firm of Michael Colantuono, the attorney who wrote the investigatory reports alleging Tam's misconduct. Attorney Louis Miller of Miller Barondess wrote the letters.

The five-page letter criticizing Gallant claims she was on a "malicious campaign to vilify" SunCal and turn Alameda Point into a public project. Miller wrote that Gallant is not equipped to lead such a project but is good at "manipulating the legal process to serve her objectives." The letter goes on to also accuse Gallant of supplying information to opponents of the Alameda Point project and deleting e-mails to cover her tracks.

"This is the worst case of character assassination, lies and mistruth and red herring logic I have ever seen in my 30 years in government," Gallant said of the letter's allegations. She added that there has never been any discussion on the public record of Alameda Point becoming a public project, although the city council could pursue that option depending on how the project proceeds.

The second letter claims SunCal's exclusive negotiation agreement set up with the city in 2007 was subject to automatic renewal and should not have been voted on at Tuesday's council meeting. Miller wrote that the agreement would renew itself if SunCal completed certain milestones in the negotiation process. The letter argues the city blocked SunCal from completing a finalized term sheet with the Navy, one of two outstanding milestones, thereby releasing SunCal from responsibility for that condition. David Soyka, SunCal's senior vice president of public affairs, said the other outstanding condition listed in the letter was completed last week.

Miller's letter regarding Gallant also responded to the Tam investigation, calling Colantuono's investigatory reports libelous. It also claims Gallant started the investigation to prevent Tam from voting in Tuesday's council meeting, where the council decided whether it would cut ties with SunCal.

"Mr. Miller's letters are an artful job of changing the question," Colantuono said in response. "He'd like the press to think about something other than Ms. Tam's conduct and how it affects the city's ability to negotiate with his client. Those letters are plainly a response to the political problems for his client created by Tam's conduct."

Both Colantuono and Gallant said there are factual errors in Miller's letter regarding Gallant.

In one instance, the letter mentions an e-mail Tam wrote complaining about City Attorney Teresa Highsmith's job performance that was included in Colantuono's report. Miller wrote that Tam did nothing wrong by blind-carbon-copying the e-mail to SunCal Vice President of Operations Pat Keliher because she has a right to express her opinion. Colantuono's report, however, says Tam's blind-carbon-copying of the e-mail, which contained closed session legal advice from Highsmith, wrongly shared attorney-client-privileged information and violated provisions of the Brown Act, California's open government law.

"Mr. Miller is a talented trial lawyer and therefore you should expect theatrics," Colantuono said. "In my judgment, Mr. Miller's letters are intended more as press releases than as legal documents."

The letter also claims Gallant, while city manager of Desert Hot Springs, Calif. the city became the only city in the Coachella Valley not to embrace the Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. Gallant denied this, saying she worked for seven months on a report recommending the city join the plan. She also said the report contained a resolution written by the father of Amy Freilich, SunCal's senior vice president of acquisitions and entitlements.

"They knew this was a lie," Gallant said. "It's this kind of half-truth and half-omission that people are getting away with. I'm baffled by it."