The answer was, of course, that a few years back Mr. Hunter bought up a severely distressed RTA-held property out in a remote part of San Diego County (I don't recall for certain, but it may have had some fire damage in addition to it's other problems) and he had invested a substantial amount of his own money to bring it back up to code, spruce it up, and make it livable. Of course, Hunter paid the tax bills he received from the county Tax Assessor's Office and he was never in arrears on them. Even though the property was properly permitted for the renovation work that took place, the Assessor's Office never showed up to reassess the property after the title was transferred to Mr. Hunter. In short, if there was any mal- or misfeasance on the property taxes, it was on the part of the taxing authority itself, not Mr. Hunter.
The left-leaning Union-Trib, already having been awarded a Pulitzer for it expose of Duke Cunningham's financial misdeeds, obviously decided to go for a two-fer with Hunter's property "questions" and it was on the story like a bulldog on a ham bone, running several A Section stories on it.
Even though Mr. Hunter explained to the U-T folks what the actual facts of the matter were (and his story was confirmed by the Tax Assessor's Office) the U-T's insinuations of crooked dealings continued.
Finally, rather than seeing his reputation savaged by a thousand cuts from the U-T, Hunter spent his own money to buy a full page ad in the local papers explaining his side of the story, complete with pictures of the hulk of the house that was on the property when he first bought it. He also proved that the property had been languishing as virtually unsalable with the RTA for quite a long time before he became interested in it and paid the RTA the full asking price. At that point, the U-T bloodhounds because almost completely uninterested, and the story died.
That, in essence, is the story as I recall it. I'm sure that the U-T's write ups and Mr. Hunter's ad are still in the U-T archives somewhere for those who wish to follow up further.
Buy from a crony at one-tenth market value.
Fund a bridge.
Reap the profits.