By: Craig Shultz, May 23, 2014 | Original Article at The Press Enterprise
An Orange County judge has ruled against Beaumont in a lawsuit filed by the Western Riverside Council of Governments regarding transportation fees.
The city has been ordered to pay $43 million, plus interest, according to Rick Bishop, executive director for WRCOG.
The association claimed that money the city collected from developers for road projects should have come to the agency.
Beaumont officials said they cannot comment on the ruling.
“The city has not yet received the written verdict from the judge,” spokeswoman Darci Mulvihill wrote in an email. “We are unable to provide comments on pending or current litigation.”
Bishop was not available for comment Friday, but in a note to members wrote: “This is a great victory for WRCOG and provides a strong endorsement to the TUMF Program. The judgment will provide significant additional resources for transportation and transit improvements in Western Riverside County.”
WRCOG manages a host of programs for western county cities and unincorporated areas, such as road projects funded by TUMF, the Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fee, which is money charged to developers to cover the cost of roads and improvements needed because of their projects.
Beaumont decided to leave the association in December 2010, primarily over a dispute regarding the fees.
The city collected the fees and widened roads or waived the fees when developers agreed to make road improvements on their own. WRCOG contends the money should have come to the agency, where it could be pooled with money from Banning and Calimesa for regional improvements in the San Gorgonio Pass area.
The association filed the lawsuit against the city in 2009 and it was moved to Orange County in 2010.
Beaumont’s City Council approved a $29.4 million budget on Tuesday.