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Two Joe Debely Stadium Renovation Project items on the Turlock Unified School District (TUSD) Board Meeting agenda for January 5, 2010 were effected by a pending lawsuit by the Turlock Citizens Coalition (TCC) regarding spending City Redevelopment Agency funds on it and the legal development process the project must go through.TCC Attorney Richard Harriman requested that the TUSD Board table an action to contract inspection services for the Joe Debely Stadium project as his client’s court documents ask for a stay of expending any public funds to real parties of interest without further order of the court in regards to complying with the legal development process.
Harriman stated that he was to meet with the TUSD legal counsel early on Thursday and asked that no action be taken until after that meeting.
TUSD Superintendent Dr. Sonny Da Marto stated that tabling this item until the next meeting would not impact the project’s scheduled timeline.
The TUSD Board postponed authorization to accept a proposal for inspection services from United Inspections, Inc. for the Joe Debely Stadium Track and Field Renovation Project until the next Board Meeting on January 19, 2009.
Another agenda item recommended by staff requested that the Board of Trustees authorize the use of a competitive Lease/Leaseback construction delivery method for the Joe Debely Stadium Renovation Project.
Harriman again requested that action on this item be postponed.
TUSD Deputy Superintendent Ed Felt stated that this action is time sensitive and is needed to move forward if the stadium project’s completion deadline is to be met.
The TUSD Board of Trustees authorized the competitive Lease/Leaseback delivery method but agreed for it not to be of affect and that no money was spend on advertising the request for services until Friday, after Thursday’s meeting between TCC Attorney Harriman and TUSD legal counsel.
The petitioners’ lawsuit referenced is basically calling to put a stop to the project until the respondents comply with CEQA, the CEQA Guidelines, and Public Resources Code sections 21168 and 21168.5 toward finding requirements of the Community Redevelopment Law.
The legal document is demanding that a restraining order to spend any public funds on the project be put in place until the government agencies are in full compliance with the requirements of the Community Redevelopment Law, CEQA, and the CEQA Guidelines and have filed a return on the writ of mandate issued by the Court.
The lawsuit also requests that the individuals named in the lawsuit as defendants (Turlock City Council and TUSD Board Members) pay for the total amount of all transfers, disbursements, and expenditures of public funds in violation of the Community Redevelopment Law, CEQA, and the CEQA Guidelines, pursuant to the Code of Civil Procedure section 526a, to be reimbursed to the respondents, City of Turlock, Turlock Redevelopment Agency, and Turlock Unified School District.
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Turlock Citizens Sue City Council and School Board, Members Named Individually
