Post by concerned2 on Aug 15, 2008 6:39:49 GMT -6
D204 must hand over records
Land trusts seeking $5M for expenses
August 15, 2008Recommend
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
The Brach and Brodie trusts Thursday requested an array of records they're hoping will show hypocrisy in Indian Prairie School District 204's objection to certain reimbursements they're seeking in response to the district's abandoning of its eminent domain case.
"Their position in this case is really hypocritical because they incurred the same expenses," said Brodie trust attorney Steve Helm.
DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Dorothy French ordered the district to hand over some of the desired materials, such as records regarding District 204's legislative efforts to secure quick-take power, along with contracts, bills, invoices and payments for its attorneys and expert witnesses.
The district has asked the court to strike $3 million of the trusts' more than $5 million in alleged expenses associated with their defense of the district's attempt to condemn a 55-acre parcel at 75th Street and the future extension of Commons Drive in Aurora. The district abandoned this effort after a jury determine the property, which was intended as the site for Metea Valley High School, would cost $31 million, as the district expected to pay roughly half that amount for the parcel.
Among the costs District 204 is asking the court to strike are $2,500 in "fees for an undisclosed expert who neither testified nor appeared in court," and $293,813 spent on lobbyists in response to the district's efforts to acquire quick-take powers.
But Helm suggested that though each party hired consultants that never appeared in court, their expertise nonetheless proved useful in the condemnation trial. And he argued that fighting quick-take efforts was necessary because building a school on the property prior to a determination of its price would have prejudiced a jury, and would have made it return a lower per-acre price to ensure the district could afford to finish the project it had started.
The district is also contesting the validity of all fees sought for reimbursement because attorneys and expert witnesses secured by the trusts used "block billing" rather than a "task-based billing" approach that would allow their charges to be scrutinized for "reasonableness." Helm said he suspects the records he requested would reveal the district employed the same practice.
But Rick Petesch, an attorney representing District 204, said there was "absolutely no chance for the school district to recover fees and costs from the trusts, so it is not (an) applicable or reasonable" comparison. But the trusts, said Petesch, always knew District 204 had a right to abandon its case, in which case the trusts would be due reimbursements.
No further hearing date had been set as of Thursday afternoon.
Land trusts seeking $5M for expenses
August 15, 2008Recommend
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
The Brach and Brodie trusts Thursday requested an array of records they're hoping will show hypocrisy in Indian Prairie School District 204's objection to certain reimbursements they're seeking in response to the district's abandoning of its eminent domain case.
"Their position in this case is really hypocritical because they incurred the same expenses," said Brodie trust attorney Steve Helm.
DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Dorothy French ordered the district to hand over some of the desired materials, such as records regarding District 204's legislative efforts to secure quick-take power, along with contracts, bills, invoices and payments for its attorneys and expert witnesses.
The district has asked the court to strike $3 million of the trusts' more than $5 million in alleged expenses associated with their defense of the district's attempt to condemn a 55-acre parcel at 75th Street and the future extension of Commons Drive in Aurora. The district abandoned this effort after a jury determine the property, which was intended as the site for Metea Valley High School, would cost $31 million, as the district expected to pay roughly half that amount for the parcel.
Among the costs District 204 is asking the court to strike are $2,500 in "fees for an undisclosed expert who neither testified nor appeared in court," and $293,813 spent on lobbyists in response to the district's efforts to acquire quick-take powers.
But Helm suggested that though each party hired consultants that never appeared in court, their expertise nonetheless proved useful in the condemnation trial. And he argued that fighting quick-take efforts was necessary because building a school on the property prior to a determination of its price would have prejudiced a jury, and would have made it return a lower per-acre price to ensure the district could afford to finish the project it had started.
The district is also contesting the validity of all fees sought for reimbursement because attorneys and expert witnesses secured by the trusts used "block billing" rather than a "task-based billing" approach that would allow their charges to be scrutinized for "reasonableness." Helm said he suspects the records he requested would reveal the district employed the same practice.
But Rick Petesch, an attorney representing District 204, said there was "absolutely no chance for the school district to recover fees and costs from the trusts, so it is not (an) applicable or reasonable" comparison. But the trusts, said Petesch, always knew District 204 had a right to abandon its case, in which case the trusts would be due reimbursements.
No further hearing date had been set as of Thursday afternoon.
