Back in October, the North Coast Railroad Authority managed to settle a year-old lawsuit brought by the city of Novato. Novato had alleged that the railroad had violated California’s open government law — the Brown Act — as well as the California Environmental Quality Act.
Initial rulings had gone Novato’s way, but the NCRA got the city to drop the case by agreeing to over a million dollars worth of upgrades, and by paying the city’s legal fees. The railroad authority agreed to this despite the fact that it had no money to pay for these things. So it had to raise money — and the way it went about raising money now looks to earn it a whole brand spanking new Brown Act lawsuit.
Earlier today, three Humboldt County environmental organizations — the Friends of the Eel, Humboldt Baykeeper, and the Environmental Protection Information Center — sent the NCRA a letter demanding that the agency reverse its decision to mortgage land in the City of Ukiah to pay off Novato. (We wrote about this in December.) The groups argue that the decision to mortgage the property was not properly noticed, and that therefore concerned citizens — and the city of Ukiah itself — had no way of speaking to the matter. Specifically, the agenda for the meeting never mentioned the property in question.
The authority has 30 days to reverse the action before the groups sue.
David Keller, Bay Area Director of Friends of the Eel and a former Petaluma City Councilmember, said today that the NCRA should have known that their decision to press ahead would spell legal consequences.
“They were warned by Caltrans, they were warned by me, they were warned by [the Mendocino County Association of Governments,” Keller said. “They ignored it.”
This article appears in New Year’s Eve.
[…] 10:56 Filed under: Humboldt, Mendocino, NCRA, Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Railroad, Ukiah Earlier today, three Humboldt County environmental organizations — the Friends of the Eel, Humbold… (We wrote about this in December.) The groups argue that the decision to mortgage the property was […]
one question: how does a former council member of Petaluma, a city that benefits from diversions from the Eel River get to be a friend of the Eel River. This is why the friends of the Eel River is a joke organization that has run off professionals trying to help and kept a bunch off pols in place that have done nothing to restore the eel river flows over the past twenty years of existence.
Hank how about a little print on what the fiends of the eel river has “done” for our river with all that money they raise.
Ahh, the predatory litigious orgs must be running low on cash. What’s “Baykeeper” (Moneykeeper) got to do with Ukiah? Are they just in there to make it look BIG? How much are they hoping to get in ‘go away’ money from this one?
Is “Humboldt Baykeeper” acting as “Baykeeper” or as ERF?
You seem to envision the NCRA as a big cash-stuffed pinata. They’re broke!
You think it is a ‘goodness of their hearts’ charitable act?
Well, it ain’t for the money, ’cause there ain’t no money.
there will be soon when Obama rebuilds our decaying infrastructure.
The question I ask is: how much money given to protect the bay is being spent by baykeeper on these kind of projects that are not directly linked to the bay? The NCRA hasn’t even got real plans to extend into our county yet.
in a press release dated Feb 2008 NCRA indicates that since 2006 the CA transportation Commission has advanced about $35 million to the NCRA with the final installments paid this year. Something tells me they have a few shekels hidden away. they also got promises from Sacto for a total of $50 mill so far. Just a promise though.