ORANGE : City Won’t Challenge Ruling on Ethics Suit

City officials will not challenge an appellate court decision favorable to a former planning commissioner accused of ethics improprieties, the city attorney said.

City Council members instead have asked the city’s legal staff to draft a stronger conflict-of-interest ordinance for local officials.

The city’s lawsuit against Donald D. Greek, who was accused of using his position to win contracts for his engineering firm, was in civil courts for nearly five years and cost the city more than $200,000 in legal fees.

The latest decision came in December when the 4th District Court of Appeal overturned a trial court’s judgment in a 2-1 vote. The trial court had awarded the city $27,000 in damages.

Legal fees to bring a suit before the state Supreme Court could have exceeded $10,000 had the high court decided to hear the case, said City Atty. Robert O. Franks.

Greek has denied that his company gained any financial benefit from his seven years as a planning commissioner. He maintains that the suit was politically motivated because the accusations were made soon after he announced that he would run for the City Council in 1990. He eventually resigned his commission seat under pressure.

City Council members held several executive sessions to discuss whether to appeal but decided last week to drop the matter, Franks said. Instead, they will write a conflict-of-interest ordinance specific to the city. Currently, the city’s code simply incorporates the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission regulations regarding disclosure of interests.

The new regulations, which should be presented to the council in about six weeks, will propose setting greater restraints on officials and employees who have business interests outside their public offices, Franks said.

“We think there is need for clarification,” he said. “We don’t have an ordinance regarding contracts. This would clearly define officials’ responsibilities.”