Editorial, June 19, 2014 | Original Article at PE.com
Litigation is almost always an expensive proposition. Litigating a nearly lost cause is an expensive folly. Yet Beaumont officials appear intent on appealing a $43 million judgment against the city over misused developer fees.
Orange County Superior Court Judge David Chaffee handed down his scathing decision in favor of the Western Riverside County Organization of Governments on May 22. The judge found that Beaumont officials had improperly withheld millions of dollars collected from developers for the Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fee program, or TUMF.
The TUMF program was established at a time of rapid growth and development in the county. The idea was simple: If developers want to build homes and retail stores, they need to help offset the impact of all the cars and trucks that follow. Cities would collect the money and pass it along to WRCOG, which would distribute the funds to county agencies and cities for regional infrastructure projects.
Voters authorized the program in 2002 as part of Measure A, which set a half-cent sales tax increase for road construction and repair. Beaumont officials signed on in 2003. But then city officials had second thoughts. They began withholding money they collected. WRCOG sued, and kicked Beaumont out of the organization. Beaumont countersued in 2012.
Beaumont Mayor Brenda Knight is undeterred by the adverse ruling. The city believes there is all manner of evidence the judge failed to examine — 22 boxes of evidence, 18 separate issues — making an appeal that much more compelling.
Maybe so. But it’s more likely that Judge Chaffee cut to the heart of the matter in his decision: “The evidence and testimony reveals that city management and staff engaged in a pattern and practice of deception that transcends the typical give-and-take of dispute negotiation. Had this been a typical civil trial containing allegations of fraud, I would have found fraud by clear and convincing evidence against the city.”
Rest assured, the Riverside County District Attorney and the county grand jury will be looking into that further.