County approves new development director

The Mariposa County Board of Supervisors approved the hiring of Greg Thompson on April 7 as the county’s new development services director.

Supervisors praised his hiring.

“He has a wealth of knowledge and is highly recommended from a variety of people,” said Supervisor Jenni Kiser.

Supervisor Miles Menetrey said, “I too am glad we wrapped this up. We have peers in Merced County and heard good reports all around.”

“Despite the shade the Gazette tried to throw on, I’m glad you are here,” Menetrey added.

Thompson will be paid $166,235 and will be considered an at-will employee.

The county has declined to say how many people applied for the position or how many applicants were interviewed.

Those interviews were conducted in closed sessions.

A week after he was offered and accepted the job, the county has declined to provide Thompson’s resume, or letters of recommendation, despite numerous requests.

Thompson declined comment and referred all questions to the county.

Trouble in Atwater

Thompson held a similar position as community development director with the city of Atwater when he was terminated a year ago, on March 21, 2025. Thompson was also the assistant city manager when he was fired.

The circumstances and terms of Thompson’s termination have not been publicly revealed. Calls to Atwater City Manager Chris Hoem were not returned.

Thompson is well known in the local development community, having served on the Merced County Planning Commission.

He is well regarded by many. But he also made a few enemies while working in Atwater.

Ruby Ybarra was one of them.

“It doesn’t sit right with me. What he did in Atwater he will do there in Mariposa,” Ybarra told the Mariposa Gazette in an interview.

Ybarra admits he was upset a couple years ago after Thompson appeared to stonewall his food truck license.

He wondered what Thompson did all day.

So he followed him, during work hours, from December 2024 through January 2025.

He took video, too.

Ybarra shared a dozen video clips with the Mariposa Gazette that appear to show Thompson walking in and out of Merced restaurants and bars.

A time and date stamp on the video shows he is there during what some might still consider business hours, between noon and 4 p.m.

On a Thursday and Friday in January 2025 the edited video makes it appear he spent most of the day, from noon to 4 p.m., running errands, returning to work for periods and then heading to a bar after 3 p.m.

In one video clip he is shown sitting at a bar last year having a drink on a Friday at 4 p.m.

He would hardly be the first person to do that.

The problem for his employer may have been that he left in what appears to be his county issued vehicle, a silver Ford truck.

Thompson followed a pattern, Ybarra said, that the videos would seem to confirm.

Ybarra said Thompson parked his county owned vehicle across the street, away from the bar, and would sometimes go to a second bar.

In the videos, Thompson does not exhibit any obvious signs of impairment or intoxication whatsoever.

In January of last year, Ybarra said he began sharing the videos with Hoem, the Atwater city manager.

Ybarra said he was interviewed by an investigator with the city of Atwater.

A month later, Thompson was gone.

Ybarra is unapologetic. He believes Thompson abused his power.

“It’s who he is,” he said.

The lawsuits

Thompson has been individually named in two recent lawsuits against the city of Atwater, which by itself is not unusual in development deals.

Two separate developers claim Thompson orchestrated a conspiracy to sabotage their projects.

The lawsuits claim Thompson had a conflict of interest with his own consulting development firm, Rhyolite Development & Construction, and a firm he used to work for, VVH Consulting Engineers, that did contracting work for the city of Atwater.

The two lawsuits were originally reported last year by the Merced County Times.

County Administrative Officer Joe Lynch said he wasn’t concerned about the lawsuits stemming from Thompson’s time in Atwater.

“Part of government business is people get upset and they sue you. It’s not a jury. Lawsuits are fairly common in development,” Lynch said.

Lynch said Thompson passed a background check and received glowing references from government leaders in Merced who have worked with him directly.

“We feel confident, the board feels confident. He’ll do a great job,” Lynch added.

Conflict at ‘Five Corners’

But the lawsuits are striking in their similarities and allegations.

Fresno attorney Brian Cuttone, who is representing both plaintiffs, said the litigation is ongoing.

Brad Kessler is a long-time resident of Atwater and owns the construction firm BK Industries. He filed a lawsuit against the city of Atwater and Thompson in September 2024.

In 2022, Kessler said Thompson, working for Atwater, approached him about building a 41-foot tall digital billboard on a small sliver of land the city owned at “Five Corners,” in the downtown area of Atwater at the intersection of First Street and Shaffer Road.

The digital billboard is owned by BK Industries, who self-funded the project. The city, as the landowner, receives 15 percent of the net advertising revenue.

In June 2022, Thompson allegedly told Kessler to “get started immediately as the project would be streamlined and expedited through the application and building process,” the lawsuit claims.

But Kessler claims Thompson then approached him privately and tried to convince him to abandon the project and sell it to another developer, who Kessler later learned was a client of Thompson’s consulting firm, Rhyolite Development & Construction.

When Kessler refused, he claims Thompson told him “the digital sign project would be stalled and no further action would be taken by the city to facilitate the building permit and other approvals necessary,” according to the lawsuit.

Suddenly there were numerous roadblocks and the project went back through the planning approval process.

Due to revisions and changes requested by Atwater development staff, there was a two-year gap between signing the lease agreement and final approval of plans in November 2023.

“Basically, I got screwed,” Kessler told the Merced County Times in October 2024.

Kessler alleges that Thompson had a conflict of interest between his work as a city employee and his consulting firm, Rhyolite Development & Construction.

The lawsuit said Thompson also steered work toward VVH Consulting Engineers, his former employer and a frequent contractor with Atwater.

Kessler’s lawsuit lists more than 20 causes for action including defamation, slander, fraud, breach of contract and emotional distress.

In March 2025, the case was moved from Merced Superior Court to the Eastern District federal court in Fresno.

The lot split

A second lawsuit filed in December 2024 by developer Mohammed “Mo” Jawad, makes strikingly similar conspiratorial allegations, claiming Thompson and other city officials undermined his project and sought to defraud him.

Jawad had enlisted Thompson’s Rhyolite Development & Construction for “entitlement services” for a 30-unit multi-family housing project at 295 E. Bellevue Road in Atwater.

Jawad claims that Thompson requested he sell a portion of the property to the city of Atwater. At Thompson’s instruction, Jawad received the lot split.

But after selling the city the lot, Thompson denied his multi-family project and allegedly told him the city would deny an easement.

With another Jawad project, on Bell Drive, Jawad claims Thompson wanted to develop the project with Rhyolite, but that Rhyolite eventually withdrew because of Thompson’s dual role and conflict of interest.

Jawad claims in his lawsuit that Thompson and other city staff told potential partners “they would be better served working with other developers and contractors.”

Jawad’s lawsuit claims 31 causes of action including breach of contact, breach of public trust, fraud and extortion. The city of Atwater rejected his claim of $500,000.

Housing Element delay

The city of Atwater was one of 15 municipalities recently called out by California Gov. Gavin Newsom for not having a housing element.

The housing element is a blueprint for housing availability and affordability and was supposed to be in place a year and a half ago. Newsom is threatening the state may even sue the jurisdictions that are delinquent.

As community development director for the city of Atwater, Thompson would have played a key role drafting the housing element.

Atwater is even further behind than Mariposa County, which had its housing element approved by the state last month.

Friends of Gallo

While Mariposa County has refused to provide Thompson’s resume and work history, some information is publicly available.

Other details were available from public postings like LinkedIn, which it appears Thompson hasn’t updated for years.

Thompson worked for Joseph Gallo Farms in 2005 as manager of real estate.

Merced County Supervisor John Pedrozo nominated Thompson to the Merced Planning Commission in April 2010.

Months later, in November 2010, the Modesto Bee revealed that Pedrozo had received more than $4,000 in campaign contributions from Thompson’s boss, Mike Gallo.

It sparked concerns about cronyism and influence peddling.

“Although there might not be or isn’t a quid pro quo, it certainly looks like a pay-to-play form of government,” Peter Scheer of the First Amendment Coalition told the newspaper.

Pedrozo and Thompson denied any conflict of interest or influence peddling.

Thompson said he would recuse himself if any Gallo projects came before the Merced Planning Commission. At the time, Gallo had three projects in the pipeline.

A new position

Thompson will be the county’s first development services director. It is a new position for the county, the outgrowth of an organizational study that sought to consolidate and streamline county services.

Thompson will oversee current and long-range planning, building inspections and code enforcement.

The job was offered and accepted by another applicant last year, but for reasons that have not been publicly disclosed, the individual removed himself from consideration.