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Mr. Michael Infurna May 22 1996 Page'6 closure. Accordingly, it was entirely appropriate for Ms. Hinson not to speculate on how the County would respond wereMs. Staudenraus to object to conditional closure After all; without knowing the actual basis for an objection, it impassible to evaluate 1VIs. Staudenraus has now objected to the passibility of conditional closure;and we now.know-the basis for her:objection.. She is not objecting because she is the innaoent owner of Properrty contaminated without;her knowledge. Rather, she purchasedthe property withRMknowledge of the contamination(again,please refer to the Purchase and Sale A eement Part`.I gi' ,pairagraph 19)5 Indeed, she also negotiated a sigrnf cant reduction in the purchase price lased on the coMmination. She first entered escrow in late 1992, and then. sought an indemnification from City Thrift and Loan regarding the hydrocarl}on contamination. However,she was never able to reach agreement with City Thrift on the terms of that indemnity. In late I99 ,dearly a year after escrow commenced, and after the FDIC acquired the parcel as the ree&er for City Thrift, Ms. Staudenraus agreed to comwlete the ptxrch a without any such indemnification from the FDIC,but only sa hang as the pruirchase price was reduced by`$27,000. 5=internal memo from FDIC; dated October 5, 1993, attached as Exhibit 4. Ms. Staudenraus is a sophisticatedinvestor who owns both. residential.and commercial properties in several areas in California0 She dernoustr.'t d this sophistication in her long negotiations on this property regarding the hydrocarbon contamination., Ms Staudenraus is also not objecting to conditional closure on the basis that the contamination poses any risk to human health or the environment,either now or in the future. Instead,:Ms. Staudenraus is objecting solely in an attempt to manipulate the County's regulatory power as leverage with which to advance her private,property ownership interests. As she has informed you, she is seeping indemnifications from Texaco and the 5 You will note that Paragraph 19(b)was initially amended:on its face by inserting the word "unconditional"before the phrase "approval to close the remediation project." A subsequent addendum to the Purchase and Sale Agreement(attached as Exhibit 3)deleted the word "'unconditional"(please refer to the page stamped."D03591" stamped in the bottom right corner}. 6 A computer search of California property records shows that as of May 1996 Ms. Staudenraus owns five residential and commercial properties in Alameda, Lotti,Oakland and San Francisco,with a combined assessed value of approximately$1.9 million.