City either sues or is being sued

Dear editor: As I have observed the frequent legal dealings of Penticton city hall over recent years, either suing someone or being sued, I wonder at the fascination that city management has with big-city lawyers, particularly firms from Victoria.

Is it because their legal advice is superior to that available from local firms, or is their won-loss record exemplary? I can’t imagine that they are cheaper given the travel expenses involved. Going by the results that I have observed, I find them to be abysmal. Some examples are as follows: Eckhardt Avenue dormitory fiasco: In this instance the city allowed the prospective purchaser of a section of city land to commence construction on their property prior to the sale being finalized.

I believe that this is a “no-no” for reasons that later developed. These included lawsuits from contractors who were not paid for work that reportedly cost $1 million in legal fees, liens on the city property, cleanup to remove the work done costing an undisclosed amount, and an undisclosed settlement with said contractors. In a nutshell, a costly self-created fiasco.

The city sued one of the tourist promotion groups that it provided funding to because they did not spend the money fast enough. This seems strange because this lack of spending was actually saving the taxpayer money.

The city sued the firefighters because they were successful in an arbitration case for higher pay. The city cited poverty. At the time the city was proposing to install a $500,000 light canopy over the 100 block of Main Street.

The city sued a senior citizen for criticizing the performance of highly paid senior staff at City Hall. After the lawyer sent an initial letter to the senior, the matter was never pursued as the senior received massive public support.

The senior in question continues to express her opinions as is her right as a taxpayer and resident. Result, money wasted and credibility lost.

The results of the recent lawsuit against a panhandler that would not follow a city bylaw have just been announced. Result: Panhandler 1, City 0.

The city managed to get itself sued by its own residents who are “theoretically” their employer to try to get them to listen to reason regarding what the city was proposing for Skaha Lake Park

It is obvious that most of these legal costs should not have been necessary in the first place, but arose entirely from self-created problems resulting from a basic lack of common sense. Thankfully there are periodic elections to clear the slate if necessary, but, unfortunately, the interval between them is too long. Claude Bergman Penticton