When the Santa Monica City Council voted to award slow-growth activists attorneys fees in a lawsuit about city-owned land, a business litigator and mediator said it likely raised questions about whether the council will reward its political allies in the community even if that may be not in the best interest of the City.
The Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC) sued the city of Santa Monica, challenging the Council's year-old decision to proceed with negotiations over the 357,000 square foot Plaza project, according to media reports.
The Plaza would have reportedly included a luxury hotel as well as office space, open public space, and 48 units of affordable housing in downtown Santa Monica but SMCLC wanted it all to be used for public use under the California Surplus Land Act.
After stopping negotiations with the developers, the City Council voted 6-to-1 last month to award some $100,000 in attorneys fees to SMCLC.
“While it was certainly within the purview of the city council to end negotiations on the Plaza project, a cause which the newly elected members campaigned for, using City money to reward a watchdog group for suing the City over that project is quite another matter and will likely raise eyebrows and there may be repercussions,” said attorney Timothy Reuben, managing principal of Reuben Raucher & Blum in Los Angeles.
Oscar de la Torre was among the newly elected council members who supported the attorneys' fees in an affidavit filed with the Superior Court stating "one of the key reasons I voted to terminate negotiations was to bring the City into compliance with the Surplus Land Act.”
However, de la Torre dissented when the council actually voted on the award last month. De la Torre founded the Pico Youth & Family Center and chairs the Pico Neighborhood Association.
He did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuben, former president of the Southern California Business Litigation Inn of Court, was not involved in the litigation or settlement.
Santa Monica Lookout reported that SMCLC accused the City of failing to abide by the State's Surplus Land Act by resuming negotiations with The Plaza developer.
“It is extraordinarily unusual for a City Council to voluntarily award fees to a plaintiff organization that sued the City,” Reuben told the Southern California Record.
The Surplus Land Act, also known as AB 1486, was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019. It funnels available surplus local public land to developers who want to build affordable homes, according to the California Special Districts Association.
“The question becomes if by doling out taxpayer funds to a plaintiff that sued the City, are these council members violating their obligations to the citizens of Santa Monica,” Reuben said. “Couldn’t the Council have used those funds to actually benefit the City as opposed to giving public funds to a watchdog group that very well may use these funds to sue the City again, perhaps over a different issue?”
SMCLC said in a press release that the settlement constitutes reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.
"It’s unfortunate that the City wouldn’t listen to us, to our lawyers, or to the public, compelling residents to ask a court to step in so the City wouldn’t violate the law by continuing to negotiate a development agreement for this wildly unpopular project," SMCLC said in a May 13 statement online. "As a result, the City will have to pay legal fees over $100,000 to SMCLC’s lawyers to settle this important lawsuit in the public interest.”