City Council to Consider Additional $50,000 for Zeanah’s Legal Bills

The City Council today will consider setting aside another $50,000 for a lawyer representing Councilwoman Elois Zeanah in the ongoing federal investigation of a massive sewer spill--a probe that already has cost the city nearly $1 million in legal fees.

City Atty. Mark Sellers is recommending the appropriation because Zeanah’s legal bills in the inquiry--and a similar state investigation--have consumed $50,000 set aside in May.

The allocation only increases the city’s legal fees for fighting the twin investigations into February’s 86-million-gallon sewer spill. So far, lawyers have billed the city for $906,311. The city is also appealing a $2.3-million penalty for the spill assessed earlier this year by state regulators.

Zeanah said the appropriation on the City Council agenda is excessive, as her legal bills have only reached $56,000--not $100,000.

“I have not asked for this [appropriation], nor has my attorney asked for it,” Zeanah said Monday. “My attorney said this expenditure was unnecessary. . . . I don’t want the money. I frankly hope [the agenda item] is not meant to give the false impression that I personally need this, because I don’t.”

The councilwoman said she does not require the extra money because she is not the center of the federal probe.

“My attorney has been informally assured that I am not the target or subject of the criminal investigation,” she said. “I am a witness.”

Neither Sellers nor federal investigators were available Monday--a federal holiday--to respond to Zeanah’s comments.

City officials recommended that council members hire city-paid lawyers after the investigation began into whether the city violated the Clean Water Act by failing to make sewer system repairs that could have prevented the spill. Only Zeanah and City Councilwoman Linda Parks acted on the idea.

Although federal investigators have not said how their investigation is proceeding, critics have accused Zeanah and Parks of stalling sewer system upgrades for two years by voting against rate increases.

Parks and Zeanah have contended that the money meant for sewer line repairs was diverted to build the Civic Arts Plaza.

In the earlier state investigation, regulators argued that the city was negligent because the spill could have been avoided if the sewer system upgrade had occurred earlier.

The city claimed that the spill was an “act of God.”

Beyond the $2.3-million fine and Zeanah’s attorney costs, the city has run up several legal bills related to the sewer spill:

* About $385,000 for the legal team led by former U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner. Of that sum, more than $232,000 has been paid.

* Nearly $106,000 for environmental lawyer Tad Foster.

* More than $311,000 for experts who investigated the spill and presented their findings at a daylong Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board hearing this summer.

* More than $48,000 for a lawyer to represent Parks, all of which has been paid.