At least two newly-seated San Benito County supervisors are
saying they’re ready to see resolutions to the county’s 13 active
lawsuits and the end to the county’s outside legal fees, which
surpassed $2.5 million between 2000-2004.
Dist. 5 Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz said last week while the
three new supervisors do need time to learn about the 13 lawsuits
the county has open
– 12 are against the county and one on behalf of the county –
getting them all settled sooner rather than later was
”
absolutely
”
a priority for him.
Hollister – At least two newly-seated San Benito County supervisors are saying they’re ready to see resolutions to the county’s 13 active lawsuits and the end to the county’s outside legal fees, which surpassed $2.5 million between 2000-2004.
Dist. 5 Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz said last week while the three new supervisors do need time to learn about the 13 lawsuits the county has open – 12 are against the county and one on behalf of the county – getting them all settled sooner rather than later was “absolutely” a priority for him.
“I’m very concerned for the tax payers’ money. There are legal expenses for elected officials, from supervisors up to the district attorney,” said De La Cruz, whose $5 million racial harassment lawsuit is one of the 12 active suits against the county. “Obviously the old board left us with a mess and it’s up to us to fix it.”
Since the three new members’ seating three weeks ago, the board has been spending hours discussing the lawsuits in closed session, ranging from the nine-year-old Sandman vs. County of San Benito to the recently filed De La Cruz and Velazquez vs. County of San Benito.
“They (De La Cruz, Anthony Botelho and Don Marcus) came in and were sworn in on the fourth (of January),” said board Chairman Reb Monaco. “So this is really educational. They’re brand-new, fresh out of the gate. They need to be brought up to speed.”
De La Cruz said he is optimistic the marathon study-sessions, which he estimated have taken a total of about 10 hours, will pay off when the new supervisors are up-to-date and ready to take action.
“Sometimes when you bring a new group to the table, it allows new ideas to push forward. And it looks like this new group is ready to do that,” he said. “I would have loved to have it all settled yesterday, but in the best interest of the community it’s going to take some time.”
Dist. 1 Supervisor Don Marcus said while the supervisors are going through a learning curve and are far from settling all the suits, the county may see some settled sooner rather than later.
“It is our goal to come to an expeditious resolution in solving these issues. In resolving them, we don’t want to create further litigation; we have to be cautious. But I feel really confident that there will be a solution fairly soon in the county’s favor in some of the cases,” Marcus said.
Like De La Cruz, Marcus said having three new members on the board might help the members see things in from another perspective.
“Probably where the new board is concerned, any time you have a change in personality and personnel, it certainly gives us the opportunity to look at the cases differently,” he said.
Denny Madigan, founder of the local watchdog group Citizens for Clean Government, said he hoped the recent extensive closed session meetings were an indication that the new supervisors are ready to crack down on outside legal fees the county has accrued defending itself in the 13 cases.
“I think this is a good sign that they know there’s a problem and they want to address the problems of the county on behalf of the voters,” he said. “I think it’s a shame that in this county tax payer dollars are being spent on outside law firms. We have our own county counsel, and yet extra dollars are going to outside legal counsel. The new supervisors need to rein in all of this out of control spending.”
The county’s outside legal fees between April 2000 and September of 2004 hit $2.8 million.
Some of the high-profile cases the supervisors are discussing include:
n Fancher and Roybal vs. County of San Benito and John Sarsfield, in which two female county employees are suing the county and District Attorney Sarsfield for sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment
n Jimenez vs. County of San Benito, in which a 70-year-old man is suing the county for police brutality
n Monteon vs. former Supervisor Richard Scagliotti, San Benito County Board of Supervisors and the San Benito County Financing Corporation, a lawsuit alleging corruption on the board of supervisors.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at jq*****@fr***********.com.
