South El Monte : Mayor, 3 Councilmen Sued
A group of dissidents who say the city’s Redevelopment Agency is wasting taxpayers’ money served Mayor Stan Quintana and Councilmen Jim Kelly, Art Olmos and Albert Perez with a legal action during last week’s City Council meeting.
During the segment of the meeting in which residents are allowed to address the council, Christopher Sutton, lawyer for Citizen Advocates of South El Monte, walked to the podium and handed the papers to the four councilmen. “Gentlemen, consider yourselves served,” Sutton said. Only newly elected Councilman Raul Pardo was excluded.
The dissidents, who are South El Monte residents, business people and property owners, are challenging the designation of two redevelopment plans. Business Improvement District Projects 1 and 2, as the projects are called, cover 239 acres in six widely scattered parts of the city. They were adopted by the City Council, whose members serve as the redevelopment agency’s board, in 1988 and 1989.
The complaint calls the two plans irrational and invalid and holds that implementing them would squander city revenues. The city officials named in the suit declined comment on the advice of counsel.
Trial in the suit is set for July 31 in Los Angeles Superior Court.
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