Lawsuit announced over disputed property in Newport Beach’s Back Bay
Buck Johns is suing Orange County for a .32-acre piece of Upper Newport Bay parkland that’s become the center of attention for not only local activists, but a county grand jury and state agencies as well.
Beginning in 2019 Johns attempted to purchase the land — which abuts his private property — for about $13,000 from the county, a deal facilitated by Michelle Steel, then a member of the county Board of Supervisors, according to an Orange County grand jury report on the matter.
Steel, a Republican whose 2020 campaign for Congress was supported with a financial contribution from Johns, a prominent GOP donor, was elected to that seat and left the county Board of Supervisors before April 2021, when the sale of the parcel was on the board’s agenda.
Current Supervisor Katrina Foley, a Democrat who had been elected to Steel’s seat on the board, pulled the item off the agenda that April, and it was tabled for a later discussion. Activists hoping to prevent the sale of the public land to Johns caught wind of the proposed sale and successfully petitioned to bar it from occurring.
While the county still owns the parcel, it remains fenced off to the general public. A recent protest, the grand jury, the state Coastal Commission and the state lands commission have all issued calls for the fence’s removal, which they say privatizes public land.
But the county backed down from removing the fence after receiving a letter from Johns’ attorney, Patrick Muñoz, that threatened legal action if the fence was taken down.
Johns made good on those threats Monday, according to Muñoz. While the lawsuit as of Friday morning was not showing in the county’s court records, the attorney confirmed Johns’ intention to litigate the issue in a letter addressed to the Board of Supervisors, a copy of which he provided to the Daily Pilot.
“It appeared from the county’s response to our letter that an opportunity existed to seek solutions short of litigation and that politically driven actions that might lead to litigation could be avoided,” reads the letter. “Unfortunately, it is sadly apparent that politics have undermined the board’s direction and that political forces have elevated this issue to the grand jury, the Coastal Commission and the State Lands Commission.”
The letter goes on to criticize the grand jury report, which was released in June, arguing the jury’s characterization of the Johns’ claim to the property as “nonsense” was dismissive.
Muñoz argues in his letter that Johns sought to “maintain the exact status quo since approximately 1951” and that he and his client, along with the county, believed the .32-acre parcel was already part of the property and sought to correct it when they realized it was not.
“No special favors existed, no land grab occurred, no sweetheart deal was concocted and no change in circumstances were proposed,” wrote Muñoz, pushing back against claims from opponents.
A draft of the lawsuit states Johns and his wife, Colleen, are seeking an equitable easement and injunctive relief against the county of Orange to keep from further “interfering” with that easement. It also seeks attorney’s fees and damages.
The Board of Supervisors met Tuesday in closed session to discuss the lawsuit and, during public comments on the item, community watchdog Jim Mosher called for greater transparency in the board’s agenda on what was being discussed.
“What I want to say is that despite the closed session notice, the county does not face any exposure to litigation from the Coastal Commission if you simply do the right thing and direct your staff to remove the fence,” Mosher said, adding that if supervisors were opposed to it to at least publicly state which of the supervisors were against the fence’s removal from the land.
A county spokesperson said Friday morning there would be no public comment on the suit at this time.
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