Judge Orders City to Lay Out SRG Issues
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George told City Attorney Theresa Hillhouse and Michael Gatti, an Anchorage attorney working for the city who participated by phone, to file briefs describing the legal issues they believe are outstanding in the SRG case.
George said the “supplemental briefing” would put “everybody on the same table” as the case moves forward.
Once the city files the additional court documents, Joe Geldhof, the Juneau attorney working for SRG, will have 30 days to respond.
Geldhof said today he expected the case would eventually proceed to oral arguments sometime next fall. He said the legal fight, which was been running for almost four years, could be put to rest if the city agreed to place SRG’s ballot initiative before the voters in an election.
“If they want to end the case this afternoon, just put it on the ballot,” Geldhof said after the hearing.
In a recent letter to Geldhof, Gatti suggested that SRG drop the case.
Mike Litman and Jeff Farvour formed SRG in 2008 to push for ballot initiative that would make sales and leases of city property at Sawmill Cove Industrial Park subject to the same rules that apply to sales of other city property.
After the city twice rejected the initiative, SRG sued in Sitka Superior Court.
Oral arguments were held in August, 2008.
Prior to that hearing, George allowed the group to gather signatures in support of their ballot question, and Farvour and Litman obtained the necessary number to put the issue on the ballot.
Judge George ultimately sided with the city and threw out the initiative, finding that it was unenforceable by law and misleading and confusing. George’s decision was overturned last month by the Alaska Supreme Court, which remanded the case to the Superior Court for further proceedings.
Farvour and Litman wanted to ask voters if sales of city-owned land at the former pulp mill site in excess of $500,000 and leases worth more than $750,000 should be approved by voters. Those rules exist in other parts of town, but the industrial park was exempted when the city took over the site from state control following the closure of the mill.
Litman said today he thinks the initiative should be placed on the ballot in the October municipal election.
And he again questioned the lack of direction by the Assembly on the legal fight with SRG, which to date has cost the city more than $22,000.
In August, 2008, when the case was argued in Sitka Superior Court, Gatti’s Anchorage firm billed the city $14,217.50 for legal fees.
In his original decision, George left some of the legal issues raised by the city unresolved.
Hillhouse has argued that the city will win the case once those issues, including whether the proposed ballot initiative would create an illegal appropriation, are resolved in court.
She told George today that the city had filed complete briefs on those issues during the original case back in 2008 and suggested that further briefings were unnecessary.
Geldhof countered that he should have a chance to respond to legal arguments made by the city.
Gatti said at the end of the hearing that the city believes a recent Supreme Court case out of Kenai is “dispositive” as it relates to the SRG case.
In that case (Alliance of Concerned Taxpayers vs. Kenai Peninsula Borough) the Supreme Court ruled against a citizens initiative that would require voters to approve capital expenditures over $1 million.
The Supreme Court issued the Kenai decision on April 6, two weeks before the court’s SRG decision was made public.
Hillhouse has argued since the SRG decision came down that the Kenai case shows the initiative proposed by Farvour and Litman would constitute an illegal appropriation. The argument is that the sole authority to dispose of city assets rests with the Assembly, and that a public vote on a land sale would therefore be illegal.
Hillhouse has said she believes the long-standing city code provision requiring a public vote to ratify a city decision on large land sales and leases in parts of town outside the industrial park is unenforceable.
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20 YEARS AGO
February 2005
Photo caption: S&S General Contractors crew bury conduit along Sawmill Creek Road as part of a sewer line project. They’ve been working only at night, using portable lights to direct traffic. Sitkans living between Shotgun Alley and Indian River Road are asked not to use drains or toilets Thursday as pump stations will be turned off.
50 YEARS AGO
February 1975
Photo caption: Five players selected for the first All Tournament team in the American Legion Southeast Alaska Basketball Tournament hold their trophies. From left are Jeff Klanott, Klukwan ANB; Rick Ludigsen, Ketchikan Webber Air; Al Kookesh, Angoon ANB; Terry Friske, Klukwan ANB; and Mike Erickson, Ketchikan Webber Air.
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