Yorba Linda Ca Suits

Claiming that the city allowed an inadequate drainage system in a neighborhood above theirs, several homeowners in Hidden Hills have sued the city for damages they say occurred after last winter's rainstorms. The lawsuits were filed in Orange County Superior Court by John and Barbara Conklin; Thomas and Betty Duteau; David and Karen Engel; James and Maureen Tunstill; and Dana and Pamela Hunter.

It's by far the biggest city in Orange County without a high school, a distinction that causes Yorba Linda no pride. For years, as city leaders have pushed for a high school, officials in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified district have countered that it wasn't financially feasible. That's all finally changing.

Legal action against an environmental report for the Imperial Highway improvement project will not delay the start of construction, which could begin in January, city officials said. Mayor John Gullixson said the $25-million widening effort will continue as planned because the lawsuit filed this month by residents challenging the project's environmental impact report cannot legally block the construction from starting.

Resident Ed Rakochy has withdrawn his lawsuit against the city and is redirecting his push for historic preservation with a newly formed citizens group instead. Rakochy, a resident of Park Place, recently sued the city after the council approved plans for a second-story addition to his neighbor's 80-year-old home. The lawsuit claimed there were not enough studies done on the project before it was approved.

A dispute over several million dollars that the Placentia-Yorba Linda School District says it is owed by the city Redevelopment Agency may wind up in court. School district trustees Tuesday authorized their attorney to file a claim against the Redevelopment Agency, the first step in initiating a lawsuit. Under a 1983 agreement, the agency pays the district a percentage of property taxes collected in the city's redevelopment area.

This city has followed Anaheim's lead in dropping a lawsuit to block the construction of a proposed $1-billion county jail in Gypsum Canyon. City councils in both Anaheim and Yorba Linda voted this week to drop the suit because of a recent Sacramento Superior Court ruling that invalidated Orange County's plan to use a half-cent sales tax to fund the project.

In an effort to delay the county's proposed Gypsum Canyon jail, Anaheim and two other cities have sued the Board of Supervisors, claiming the county failed in several ways to consider the effects the jail will have on its surroundings. The lawsuit would force the board to reconsider the environmental impact report on the site and correct any inconsistencies with the county's general plan.

A judge on Friday denied Yorba Linda City Manager Arthur C. Simonian's request to postpone court proceedings in the city's lawsuit against him until he learns whether the Internal Revenue Service might investigate his personal finances and take action against him. Orange County Superior Court Judge H.

City Atty. Leonard Hampel will defend Yorba Linda in three lawsuits filed by residents who say the city is responsible for landslide damage to their properties. The City Council last week authorized Hampel to start working on the cases filed by homeowners who live in the Hidden Hills area. The city was named in a lawsuit filed earlier this year by another resident who lives there. The complaints also name the developer, now-defunct Pacific Scene Inc., as a defendant.

Yorba Linda officials have settled a lawsuit with the developers of a 200-acre industrial park on the east end of the city that involved construction of a Price Club near the site.

Even after a $231,000 settlement with City Manager Arthur C. Simonian on Tuesday that ended three high-profile lawsuits, Yorba Linda finds itself swamped with an unprecedented 22 lawsuits. The litigation facing the city of 60,000 residents has more than tripled its usual legal expenses to $1.6 million for fiscal year 1999-2000. The year's lawsuits range from injury claims and protests over a road-widening to landslides and a wrongful death suit.

In appealing a ruling that it violated the Brown Act, Yorba Linda's City Council may have broken the same law again, an attorney for a state watchdog group said on Friday. The council fired City Manager Arthur C. Simonian last fall in a closed session. He was reinstated in November after Orange County Superior Court Judge John Wooley ruled that the council violated the state's open-meeting law by not giving proper public notice of the scheduled vote on Simonian's ouster.

The City Council voted 3 to 2 Tuesday night not to terminate its interim city manager, choosing instead to have Daniel Miller help pick his successor. Yorba Linda now has two city managers on the payroll: Miller and longtime City Manager Arthur C. Simonian, who is on paid administrative leave. The city is suing Simonian to recover as much as $300,000 in bonuses he allegedly paid himself without council authorization. Simonian has denied any wrongdoing and is suing to get his job back.

The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District has filed a lawsuit against Yorba Linda's Redevelopment Agency, seeking at least $8 million in redevelopment funds that school officials say the district is owed. The suit, filed this week in Santa Ana Superior Court, alleges that the Redevelopment Agency has been withholding a portion of the property tax revenue owed to the school district since the mid-1980s.