State of Maricopa appointed Rio Nuevo District Board is costing taxpayers for litigation

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

If Pima County GOP Chair Carolyn Cox is concerned about conflicts of interest, maybe she should ask Republican Pooh-bah and lawyer John Munger about it. The Chair of the Rio Nuevo District Board, Jodi Bain, is a lawyer who works for the Munger Chadwick law firm.

The Rio Nuevo District Board this week sued the City of Tucson over an ongoing turf war dispute. Rio Nuevo suit vs. city to go ahead; sides hope to mediate:

The Rio Nuevo board will file a lawsuit against the city, but only to preserve its legal rights while the two groups try to settle their differences in mediation.

Chairwoman Jodi Bain said the board is forced to sue to stop the statute of limitations from expiring on a $47 million claim filed against the city at the end of September as a precursor to the lawsuit.

The Rio Nuevo board met in a special meeting at the chairwoman's office on Tucson's East Side on Tuesday.

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The board claims the Rio Nuevo District owns most of the disputed land on the west side of downtown and says the city should turn it over so it can move forward with projects.

After the board files its lawsuit, it will have 120 days to serve notice of the lawsuit to the city.

If mediation doesn't work, taxpayers could end up paying for the lawsuit as well as for the mediation. The demand made in the lawsuit: $47 million dollars. And that does not include accrued attorneys and costs.

But wait, there's more! Today we learn that Garfield Traub, the would be developer of an aborted downtown hotel project whom the The Brodesky/O'Dell tag team (AKA, the B&O Journalistic Railroad) has been flogging like a dead horse for months at the Star, has now sued the Rio Nuevo District Board and — wait for it — names board members Jodi Bain and Jonathan "Payday" Paton personally in a claim for defamation. Convention hotel developer sues Rio Nuevo, two board members:

The would-be developer of an aborted downtown hotel project filed a defamation claim against two Rio Nuevo board members Tuesday, saying they should be held personally responsible for hurting the company's reputation with false and reckless statements.

Garfield Traub, which also filed against the Rio Nuevo district board as a whole for breach of contract and wrongful termination, said it either wants the board to give it money it believes it is owed and help it get its good name back, or pay $1.8 million in damages.

The claim names board members Jodi Bain and Jonathan Paton personally for comments made to the Tucson media questioning the amount of the Texas developer's billings.

The company said the two made defamatory comments that led to the unexpected loss of a multimillion-dollar contract with a public entity in Texas.

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After the developer requested mediation to get the final payments for about $14 million in design work for the hotel and convention center improvements and $4.3 million in construction costs for the new east entrance to the Tucson Convention Center, the board in July canceled the contract altogether, all but assuring the fight would play out in court.

Garfield Traub takes issue with Bain indicating it might have been overpaid by as much as $1.8 million. It says Paton "recklessly" stated the overpayment "is unmitigated greed. It's the only thing I can say; it's either greed or incompetence."

And how much is this litigation going to cost taxpayers?

The claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, sets out two remedies.

The first option would have the board pay the balance of what the company says it's owed, with interest, which is roughly $572,000.

It also wants the board to undo the cancellation of the contract.

And it wants a press release retracting the board members' comments.

If the board declines, the firm offered a second option: It can pay $1.8 million, including the balance, combined with defamation damages of $1 million and $250,000 in damages for canceling the contract.

Of course, the board members at the center of this legal dispute can't keep their mouths shut, which is what got them into trouble in the first place:

Board member Paton said he sees no retraction in his future.

Bain agreed that she sees no cause to retract anything.

It looks like these two could wind up costing the taxpayers some money in their quest to stick it to the City of Tucson in this politically motivated turf war.

Last, but not least, let's not forget that the Tea-Publican's "Hail Mary pass" write-in candidate for mayor or Tucson, "Rio Nuevo" Rick Grinnell, is also a longtime board member and former treasurer of the Rio Nuevo District Board that is a litigant in these lawsuits. So technically speaking, Grinnell is suing the city of which he wants to be mayor for a cool $47 million. He is also being sued as a board member by Garfield Traub, which could wind up costing taxpayers additional millions in damages and attorneys fees and costs before it is resolved. Now that's a conflict of interest, Ms. Cox.