More Wrenches Thrown into Gold Line Deal as City Hires PR Firm

Complications mounted in the "heated dispute" between the city and the Gold Line Construction Authority when attorneys representing a local property owner announced yet another lawsuit against the GLCA this week while accusing the city of being deceptive in hiring a public relations firm to aid in Gold Line negotiations.

Lawyers Robert Silverstein and Christopher Sutton, who already represent local property owner George Brokate in , threw another lawsuit into the mix Tuesday when they gave notice that they will sue the GLCA and challenged the rights of its board members to represent the agency while also holding public offices in local towns.

Then on Wednesday Silverstein accused the city of surreptitiously hiring the public relations firm Cerrell Associates for $7,500 per month to lobby Gold Line officials under the guise of having it work on the city's Station Square development planned along the Gold Line Foothill Extension.

"I would respectfully submit that what Cerrell is doing has everything to do with your fight with the Gold Line and has very little or nothing to do with the stated notion that they're being hired for this amount of money--taxpayer dollars--for the Station Square Transit Village Project," Silverstein said during Wednesday's City Council meeting.

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A city staff report outlining the need for Cerrell's services makes no mention of the disputed maintenance yard deal between the GLCA and Monrovia, but Silverstein produced an email from a Cerrell employee he obtained through a public records request that recommends the next course of action in the negotiations.

"If it goes bad I think we need to discuss continued expanded media...," wrote Matt Gallagher, Cerrell's vice president of energy and development, to City Manager Scott Ochoa.

Ochoa took issue with Silverstein's characterization, saying the the Gold Line negotiations naturally fall within the umbrella project that is Station Square.

"Until such time that there is a final transaction with the GLCA, if that is to come to pass ... then the name of this project is the Station Square Transit Village, keeping in mind that the M&O facility is inextricably linked to the progress of the Gold Line," Ochoa said.

Silverstein said Cerrell has already begun lobbying GLCA board member John Fasana, who is also a city councilman in Duarte. Fasana's dual roles could further complicate matters if Sutton prevails in a lawsuit he filed asserting that members like Fasana cannot hold GLCA and city council positions at the same time.

Citing a 2010 Attorney General opinion, Sutton argues that board members like Fasana and GLCA Chairman Doug Tessitor, who is also the mayor of Glendora, cannot legally hold GLCA leadership positions.

"This court is requested to order judgment declaring the incompatibility of these public offices and to order which offices held concurrently by defendants are deemed vacant and forfeit...," the lawsuit states.

The suit is the latest in a series of legal maneuvers undertaken by Brokate's lawyers, who have sued the city and GLCA numerous times in an effort to stop the maintenance yard deal. Brokate stands to lose his land along Evergreen Avenue via eminent domain if a deal between the city and GLCA is ever reached.

In addition to the most receint suit, Brokate also has two others pending. In the first, filed against the GLCA, he is trying to overturn an environmental impact report that cleared the way for the maintenance yard deal. In the second, he is accusing the city of breaching a previous agreement it made with him, arguing that the sale of city land to the GLCA would effectively invite the GLCA to condemn his land.

The lawsuits , as the city refuses to enter into a settlement agreement with Brokate that Gold Line officials are pushing. GLCA officials have said that if they can't reach a purchase agreement for Monrovia's land, .

Resident Henry Gray praised the council after Silverstein made his remarks and said the significant public benefits to the Gold Line project were getting lost in all the "drama."

"I believe that concentrating on little details and stuff, I mean--it's a strategy--but the idea is that I think what we want to do is to serve the public good," Gray said.