COMET (Community of Mentone Empowered Together) appeared in San Bernardino Superior Court through its lawyer on Tuesday morning, September 3, for a status conference (Ed.’s note: previously, cases could linger for the full statutory five years to trial, with the judges only wondering what was taking place; the Legislature enacted rules that now require lawyers to appear every three months or so and tell the Judge how the case is going and for help with opposing counsel if they need it).
The case had just been reassigned that morning from the Honorable Michael Sachs to the Honorable Donald Alvarez.
COMET’s Motion for a Preliminary Injunction was set to be heard on Wednesday, September 4; however, COMET had new information for the Court that its attorney argued on Tuesday was “crucial” and “critical” to the Court’s decision the next day. Over Redlands/LAFCO’s attorney’s objections Judge Alvarez allowed the additional information to be filed and continued the Motion hearing until Friday, September 6.
The Motion for Injunction seeks an order of the Court that Redlands cease demanding annexation in exchange for water to new developments ; its new information was based on case law that existed when Redlands enacted its 1997 “Measure U” and legislated authority in 2000-2001.
The Motion also seeks an order of the Court that any previously-signed Annexation “Agreements” be prevented from being enforced, but that Redlands still provide water and sewer services to new developments.
The Motion additionally requests that the Court also order Redlands to provide water to new developments without demanding that the developer pay “Development Impact Fees” for fire, police, parks, libraries, and other services that only benefit or are provided only to Redlands and instead that the developer only need pay for the cost of connection or perhaps enlarging the “infrastructure.”
“Redlands and LAFCO opposed the Motion in a lengthy document that never provided any authority in support of its demanded annexations, which the Motion additionally briefed was extortionate, ” COMET’s attorney said. “Their basic position is that Redlands can do what it does because it says so, but our position is that no other existing law allows it,” she added.
The additional case law COMET served and filed was provided in the footnotes to a case that Redlands/LAFCO’s attorney had repeatedly cited and quoted in their Opposition to the Motion. It included rulings by the Fourth District Court of Appeals, (Ed.’s Note: this is important because the Fourth District does not publish many cases; unpublished cases may be read but not cited in Court documents). The Fourth District covers San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and San Diego Counties, said COMET’s attorney.
If granted, the Preliminary Injunction will expire at trial, when COMET will seek a Permanent Injunction against Redlands’ and LAFCO’s actions, as stated above. if the Preliminary Injunction is not granted now on legal grounds, COMET can immediately file a Notice of Appeal with the Fourth District. If it is granted Redlands/LAFCO can appeal. If it were denied now on procedural grounds or technicalities, COMET can re-file the Motion.
Within the last month, Redlands had demanded that Perry Karpouzis execute the Annexation “Agreement” the day before its City Council meeting but still had not agreed with him on the amount of “Development Impact Fees” to connect for water. He declined to sign the “Agreement” at that time, pending the outcome of the Motion, according to Raul Madrid, another developer who has assisted Karpouzis in getting the City to reduce its fees from the more than $650,000 it demanded in 2009 to approximately $55,000 at this time. However, those fees still all benefit only Redlands by its demand for payment for services it only provides to itself. “The only cost for connecting to water should be what is reasonably related to the cost of enlarging the infrastructure, if any; that’s the law,” he added. Local history is that there previously was a gas station and also a church on the property; as stated in the Motion, Redlands had left the meter there for years after the demolition of the previous buildings. During construction of the Toms Burgers building, Karpouzis complained that it was leaking and asked that it be replaced. Redlands instead removed it and demand that Karpouzis for “new service” to the site.
On February 19, 2019 meeting, immediately after the Redlands City Council approved the “pre-annexation Agreement” that Dollar General signed, and a local resident, a Mr. Bell, read into the record his objections to the “pre-annexation,” Redlands’ Mayor expressed his irritation with repeated objections to the annexations and stated that “Redlands has no interest in annexing Mentone.”