IOC & CATER craters on Anaheim Convention Center Expansion Lawsuit

That sound you hear in Anaheim is the Building/Trade unions cheering that any legal challenges to Anaheim’s Convention Center expansion project are done.  The Coalition of Anaheim Taxpayers for Economic Responsibility (CATER), a “good government” group has dropped its legal challenge to the financing plans for the expansion of Anaheim’s Convention Center. The Inland Oversight Committee (IOC) also dropped their challenge to the case.

It cost Anaheim taxpayers nearly a quarter million to defend the case and the delays hurt union workers counting on high paying construction jobs.  In exchange for CATER and IOC to drop the case, the city agreed not to pursue cost of litigation fees against the two groups which will likely save CATE president Cynthia Ward from having to pay thousands of dollars.

Here’s the announcement from the city of Anaheim:

LEGAL OPPOSITION DROPPED BY PLAINTIFFS IN ANAHEIM CONVENTION CENTER EXPANSION PROJECT

ANAHEIM, Calif. (February 19, 2015)  The two groups opposing the Anaheim Convention Center Expansion bond financing have voluntarily dismissed their legal challenge to that financing and their attempts to block the progress of this needed City project.  As a result, the litigation challenging the validity of the bonds has been completely terminated.

Last fall, Orange County Superior Court Judge Sherman ruled against plaintiffs Coalition of Anaheim Taxpayers for Economic Responsibility (CATER) and the Inland Oversight Committee (IOC) in their legal challenge to the bond financing, concluding that the Anaheim Public Financing Authority acted properly in approving the issuance of up to $300 Million in bonds for this project, which benefits the City, the region and the community. Following that decision, one of the challengers, IOC, appealed the trial court ruling.

In light of the trial court rejecting the legal challenge to the bond financing, on November 5, 2014, the Anaheim Public Financing Authority successfully sold all of the bonds it was planning to issue, evidencing the fact that the bond market agreed that these bonds were valid.

Following that issuance, IOC asked the Court of Appeal to bar the City from spending the bond proceeds while its appeal of Judge Sherman’s ruling was pending. On January 8, 2015, the Court of Appeal summarily rejected that request.

In response to that ruling, IOC agreed to voluntarily dismiss its appeal , and both IOC and CATER agreed to release and dismiss any claims they had against the City in relation to the bonds, in exchange for the City’s agreement to not seek reimbursement of litigation costs from them.  Pursuant to that agreement, the appeal has now been fully dismissed, and IOC and CATER have released and dismissed all claims stemming from the bond transactions.

“CATER and IOC’s abandonment of their litigation against the City confirms what I have said all along – that these challenges were legally meritless.  Both the trial court victory and the Court of Appeal’s summary rejection of CATER and IOC’s request to prohibit our spending the bond proceeds demonstrates this point.  It is unfortunate that the City has had to spend more than $220,000 in attorneys’ fees to vindicate itself,” said City Attorney Michael R.W. Houston.

The expansion of the Anaheim Convention Center, LEED certified and the largest convention center on the west coast, is slated to be completed in 2017, and will include the addition of 200,000 square feet of flexible space that can be used for exhibits, meetings and banquets. The expansion will also replace Car Park 1, as well as provide new loading docks and an improved vehicular entrance. The expanded space will also provide a climate-controlled connection to the second level of the existing convention center.