Azusa : Legal Opinion About Quarry

Mayor Eugene Moses said last week that the City Council will seek an impartial second opinion on whether to close Azusa Rock’s quarry after the company’s attorneys threatened legal action if a lawyer is selected from a list provided by an anti-quarry activist.

Moses said the city administrator will add names to a list provided by activist Jim McJunkin.

“We will look at McJunkin’s list. If they are too pro-environment, we will look at other attorneys. It has to be an impartial opinion,” Moses said.

At a March 1 council meeting, after the city attorney advised the council that the city could be sued for closing the quarry, council members voted to seek outside legal counsel from a list provided by McJunkin.

No decision about an attorney was made at this week’s council meeting because Councilman John Dangleis was absent.

Since Feb. 1, when McJunkin appealed to the council to close the quarry, which is carving into two mountains at the edge of Angeles National Forest, council members have discussed the issue three times and failed to resolve it.

McJunkin has submitted the names of three environmental litigators: Susan Durbin of Santa Monica, James Sharmart of Los Angeles, and Sabrina Schiller, who was a board member for South Coast Air Quality Management District for 10 years.