ORANGE : City Wins Round in Conflict Lawsuit

In a preliminary hearing on the city’s lawsuit to recover $103,000 in contracts paid to an engineering firm owned by former planning commissioner Don Greek, an Orange County Superior Court commissioner on Wednesday rejected most of Greek’s challenge to the conflict-of-interest case.

The city filed a lawsuit last November accusing Greek, a civil engineer, of improperly accepting at least eight city contracts between 1986 and 1990 while he was a city official. The suit claims that Greek used his position to influence the city staff and other members of the Planning Commission “for the purpose of benefiting his own personal and financial interests” and seeks to recover money paid to his engineering firm, DGA Consultants Inc.

This week’s hearing was to determine whether the city’s case was timely and strong enough to proceed. Robin Fairbairn of Paso Robles, Greek’s attorney, had challenged the lawsuit, contending that the statute of limitations had expired on seven of the city’s nine claims, invalidating most of the lawsuit.

But Commissioner Ronald L. Bauer ruled that statute of limitations in this case would be four years--beginning from the time payments were made on the contracts to the time the city’s suit was filed. Only one of the city’s causes of action did not fall within this period. Bauer ruled that if the suit “in part passes muster, then it must survive” the challenge.

R. Bruce Tepper, special counsel for the city, said he had evidence to show that payments on the last contract, a $20,000 job to construct the Sandpiper Swim School, were also made within the past four years. Tepper said he would submit those materials to the court within 10 days.

Once the court has ruled completely on the statute-of-limitations issue, the conflict-of-interest case can proceed, he said.

Luis Rodriguez, senior assistant city attorney for Orange, said the city was pleased with the initial ruling. “Now we go from here,” he said. “This was a technicality and didn’t deal with the merits of the case.”

Greek was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

If Greek loses, he could have to pay up to three times the amount he received from the city. But Fairbairn said the city still must prove that Greek had a conflict of interest, and “they are not going to be able to do that.”

The city’s allegations are basically the ones recently investigated for possible criminal charges by the district attorney’s office, which dropped the case due to statute-of-limitations problems and a lack of evidence.

Greek served on the Planning Commission from 1983 until he resigned last August to make an unsuccessful run for the City Council. He has filed a $20-million claim with the city, alleging that he has been injured by the conflict-of-interest lawsuit against him.