Former Marin supervisor, coastal commissioner Kinsey, others, facing $959,000 legal bill

Former Marin County supervisor Steve Kinsey and four other current or former members of the California Coastal Commission have been ordered to pay more than $959,000 in court costs and attorney fees stemming from a lawsuit accusing the commissioners of failing to properly disclose private “ex parte” meetings with developers, lobbyists and others.

“I don’t have any comment at this time,” Kinsey said Thursday. “Obviously, it is a concern. I regret the mistakes that I made in my filing, although the court did make it clear there was no malfeasance. It’s still being reviewed by all parties.”

The lawsuit was filed against the five current and former commissioners in August 2016 by Spotlight On Coastal Corruption.

The suit alleged Kinsey, alone, violated disclosure rules 140 times while serving on the commission from 2011 to 2016. The commissioners were defended in court by the state Attorney General’s office.

In May, San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor ruled in favor of Spotlight. Taylor imposed a combined $57,100 in penalties ranging from $30,300 for Kinsey to $2,600 for former commissioner Martha McClure.

Despite losing the case, the Attorney General’s office asked the court to order Spotlight to pay the Attorney General $649,000 to cover its legal costs.The Attorney General based its request on the fact that Spotlight failed to prove all of the violations it alleged and was granted far less than the $22 million in fines that it was seeking.

On Sept. 7, Taylor rejected the request from the Attorney General’s Office and ordered the defendants to pay about $30,000 in court costs and approximately $929,000 in attorney fees. The attorney fees awarded to San Diego-based Briggs Law Corp. include a $400,000 bonus granted by Taylor in recognition of the lawsuit’s difficulty and novelty, and Briggs’ specialized skill in prosecuting the suit.

The commissioners have been ordered to pay the $959,000 “jointly and severally,” which means that if one commissioner runs out of money the remaining commissioners could be required to pay more than their equal share.

The Attorney General’s Office has filed an appeal of the underlying judgment and Spotlight has filed a cross-appeal based on the fact that the Superior Court looked at violations only within the 12-month period before the suit was filed.

Cory Briggs, the principal of Briggs Law, said the commissioners are the ones responsible for paying the court costs and legal expenses, not the state of California.

“That is the law,” said Briggs, who has a reputation for winning high-profile environmental cases against large corporations. “When you harm the taxpayers and you harm the public, the taxpayers and the public do not pay for your harm. You do.”

Briggs doesn’t see the costs as onerous.

“Not at all,” he said. “The commissioners reaped a lot of benefits from their special positions. They’re treated like royalty. They get flown all over the state. They get wined and dined and schmoozed.

“These are appointments that people would kill for,” Briggs said. “They are among the most coveted positions in the state.”

Spotlight, a small nonprofit, was formed for the sole purpose of pursuing the lawsuit after the Los Angeles Times ran stories disclosing that Kinsey, chairman of the Coastal Commission at the time, had neglected to report some private meetings with the developer of the Newport Banning Ranch project. The project called for 895 homes, 45,100 square feet of retail space, a 75-room hotel and a 20-bed hostel on a redeveloped oil field overlooking West Coast Highway in the Orange County city of Newport Beach.

During the trial, Kinsey acknowledged that he failed to disclose ex parte communications with representatives of developer Newport Banning Ranch LLC, but said he never intentionally withheld information. Kinsey testified that at the time he was preoccupied with relocating his 90-year-old parents from Arizona to live with his family and overseeing construction of a small building for his parents to live in on his property.

Kinsey recused himself from voting on the project, and the Coastal Commission denied approval of the development.

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