District’s Entire Yearly Budget is Just $222,304 For 2009.
We have reported on the sting that attorney’s fees award can bring to litigants. Unfortunately, this can also sting public agencies with shrinking or fairly small budgets.
As reported by Teri Sforza in her December 22, 2009 post “Will Silverado-Modjeska go bankrupt paying developer’s legal bill?” in The Orange County Register, the Silverado Modjeska Recreation and Parks District—a small public agency collecting some local property taxes as well as grants, donations, and small rental fees to operate two one-acre parks and community centers—has been ordered to pay $352,000 to cover the legal fees of developer CCRC Farms/Anthony A. Marnell II in a CEQA lawsuit involving the developer’s efforts to build a dozen high-end homes near Silverado Park.
Apparently, the fees were awarded in a CEQA suit that seemed to feature the endangered (and maybe now infamous) arroyo toad (Bufo
Californicus). The cruel twist of fate is that the District’s entire budget is just $222,304 for 2009 alone. District’s current president was quoted as saying that the amounts requested by the developer were almost ten times what was spent by plaintiff’s attorneys in the case. The fee award is on appeal, with opening briefs due early in 2010.
Left: Madame Helena Modjeska Right: Arroyo Toad