MOORPARK : Group Wins Dispute on Wetlands Grant

A Ventura County judge ruled in favor of a local environmental organization in its long-running dispute with the city of Moorpark over the balance of a $64,000 state grant to restore wetlands in the Arroyo Simi.

The Environmental Coalition’s Moorpark Branch was awarded about $3,500, which will go to compensate Roseann Mikos, manager of the restoration project.

“The city claimed it was extra money,” Mikos said. “They wanted us to do the work so that they could get paid for it. . . . The judge listened to both sides and ruled in our favor.”

The case ends a dispute started when the state grant was awarded in 1993. At that time, Councilman Scott Montgomery tried to prevent any of the grant money from going to members of the environmental group, saying that the project should be done by volunteers.

The restoration work proceeded apace, and half of the more than 7,500 hours of work was donated.

Mikos herself said she donated more than 1,500 hours supervising replanting the area along the Arroyo Simi with native vegetation.

After the work was completed at the end of last summer, about $4,500 of the grant remained. Instead of paying the money to the Environmental Coalition, city officials who were administering the state grant wanted to split the money with the group.

Mikos and the Environmental Coalition balked at the proposal and took the case to small claims court. On Monday the court ruled in the coalition’s favor. Mikos said she felt vindicated but jaded by the experience, pledging never to work with the city again.

Volunteers with the organization plan to revisit the site over the next several weeks to see how the restoration work held up over the winter, she said.