This report, from the San Jose Mercury News, came after questions arose from trips Oliva took to other municipalities on behalf of NEO Consulting, even after he had removed himself from the company.
Documents with the counties that NEO either worked with or was based from, as well as the Secretary of State’s Office, failed to show who owned stock in the company, and according to involved parties, all paperwork was done privately and within the family.
Oliva claimed to divest himself from the company, selling it to his daughters in 2007. In 2009, Oliva’s 18 year old daughter, fresh out of high school, was listed as the company’s director and Chief Financial Officer.
From the San Jose Mercury News: But the city has no documentary proof that Oliva actually divested himself of the company, City Attorney Mick Cabral said this week.
Recent news that Oliva traveled to other California cities as pitchman for NEO Consulting Inc. D.B.A Affordable Housing Solutions Group has prompted lingering questions whether he ever really gave up control of the company. Throughout a May 2010 presentation to the Lompoc City Council in pursuit of a $350,000 agreement for buying and rehabilitating homes facing foreclosure, Oliva spoke of the company in terms of “us” and “we.” During his tenure as Hercules city manager, Oliva also pitched NEO/AHSG’s services to the Soledad City Council in April 2009.
Throughout Hercules’ business relationship with an affordable housing consulting company once owned by then-City Manager Nelson Oliva, he and other city officials denied the existence of a conflict of interest. They argued that Oliva had relinquished his financial stake in the company by transferring it to two of his daughters shortly before he became city manager in April 2007.
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