Judge Sets Hearing on Sitka Land Sales Case

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Category: ROOT

Created on Friday, 25 May 2012 10:15

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    Sitka Superior Court Judge David George has set a hearing in the Sitkans for Responsible Government case for next Tuesday.
    The status and scheduling hearing, the latest round in a nearly four-year legal fight between the city and SRG, is scheduled for 10 a.m.
    Documents released to the Sentinel this week in response to a public records request indicate the city has spent more than $22,000 on outside attorneys to fight the SRG initiative.
    SRG was formed in 2008 by Jeff Farvour and Mike Litman to push for a ballot initiative on the rules governing sales and leases of city-owned land at the Sawmill Cove Industrial Park. When the city refused to put their question on the municipal ballot in 2008, SRG sued in Sitka Superior Court.
    After oral arguments that August,  George found that SRG’s initiative was misleading and confusing and unenforceable and threw it out. SRG appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court, which overturned George’s ruling in a unanimous decision issued last month.
    The case was remanded to Superior Court.
    In his original decisions, George left some legal issues unresolved.
    City Attorney Theresa Hillhouse has argued that SRG won on “technicalities” at the Supreme Court and that the city will ultimately prevail once George delves into the legal issues he left alone back in 2008.
    SRG, meanwhile, has called on the Assembly to put the initiative on the ballot for the upcoming municipal election.
    SRG wants to ask voters if sales of city land in excess of $500,000 and leases worth more than $750,000 at the former pulp mill site should be approved by voters. Those rules exist in other parts of town, but the industrial park was exempted because of concerns about hampering economic development.
    In a recent report to the Assembly, Hillhouse said Sitka’s existing land-sale rules are unenforceable and that the authority to sell city assets rests exclusively with the Assembly. She argued that any vote on a land sale would only be “advisory.”
Legal Fees
    Anchorage attorney Michael Gatti, who is part of the firm Wohlforth, Brecht, Cartledge and Brooking, has worked for the city on the SRG case since it arose in 2008.
    The city provided the Sentinel with 15 pages of legal billing records related to Gatti’s work on the SRG case this week. All but three of the bills were for less than $1,000.
    There was a bill for $2,320 on July 20, 2008 and another for $14,217.50 on Aug. 20, 2008.
    SRG first filed its initiative with the city on June 25, 2008. The initiative was rejected twice before SRG sued in Superior Court. Oral arguments in the case were made in front of Judge George on Aug. 19, 2008.
    The third large bill for legal fees, this one totaling $3,232.50, was filed on March 20, 2010.
    The case was argued before the Supreme Court on March 18, 2010.
    The total legal fees paid to Gatti and his firm from July 2008, through April 20, 2012, was $22,650.
    The records released this week did not include an hourly rate, but similar documents from 2008 said Gatti was paid $200 an hour.
    The most recent legal bill for the SRG case was dated April 20, 2012, the day the Supreme Court issued its decision in the case. That bill was for $200.
    On May 7, Gatti sent a letter to SRG attorney Joe Geldhof asking him to drop the case. Geldhof is based on Juneau.
    Litman and Farvour have questioned why the Assembly has not provided direction to the city’s legal department on the case.
    At a recent Assembly meeting, Litman asked who had given Hillhouse authority to continue fighting the case.
    The Assembly has not taken a position on the SRG case.

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