SAN CLEMENTE : City Wins $1-Million Softball Complex

Claiming victory in bankruptcy court, city officials have taken over a $1-million softball complex.

City recreation officials have been operating the four lighted fields in Richard T. Sneed Memorial Park that are home to 127 softball teams in eight leagues.

Because the developer/operator, South Coast Sports Enterprises, missed a bankruptcy court deadline to submit a reorganization plan, city officials said, the city will receive the softball complex for free.

The park, which opened last summer, was the basis of a partnership between the city, which owns the land, and South Coast Sports Enterprises, which would build the fields and manage league operations.

But shortly after opening day, the city began receiving complaints from contractors who said they weren’t getting paid. When the contractors started filing lawsuits--which eventually totaled more than $200,000--against the city, the City Council moved to void the lease with South Coast Sports Enterprises in January.

The sports management firm responded by declaring bankruptcy and had won a court order that prevented the city from taking over the park.

Representatives of the company were not available for comment. But Steve Boehm, one of the principal partners in the firm, said previously that the company’s financial problems were caused by the city’s insistence on expensive improvements on original plans for the complex.