LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Just as the City of Las Vegas makes its final payment on the first Badlands case, councilmembers voted today to spend more as the Badlands debacle drags on.
Our report last week revealed for the first time just how the city is struggling under the weight of the first Badlands judgment payout—being forced to freeze positions, cut capital improvement projects, and look at selling off city land.
The city has already lost three out of four Badlands lawsuits in District Court, resulting in judgments of more than $235 million. The fourth case, involving the biggest parcel of land, has barely begun but the city will likely lose that, too, if it insists on keeping up the fight.
"As I have for the past three years, I oppose the motion to provide additional funding for outside council on the Badlands lawsuit," said Ward 2 councilwoman and mayoral candidate Victoria Seaman.
"Our outside council has no incentive to settle. We have 14 civil attorneys in house and we need to resolve this. I refuse to pour another $500,000 down this black hole at a time when the city is freezing needed positions and looking to cut capital improvement projects. We must settle this lawsuit now and not continue to throw good money after bad."
Seaman was the lone "No" vote on the Consent Agenda item as the rest of the council approved another half-million dollars to pay private lawyers with public money.
The city lost the first Badlands case in a unanimous Nevada Supreme Court decision in April when justices confirmed the government had illegally taken developer Yohan Lowie's land.
In addition to the land value, the court ruled that the city had to reimburse Lowie's property taxes, costs, and attorneys fees.
The city continued dragging its feet for four months, with interest accruing at more than $1,500 per day, until District Court Judge Timothy Williams banged his gavel on the bleeding of tax dollars by giving the city a deadline on August 12 to pay up within 30 days.
The city waited a week after that, which added almost $11,000 more in interest, forking over the last of the money on Monday for a grand total of $64.15 million.
And remember, that's just one of four cases.
Settlement talks about how to pay the tab continue but to date, no meaningful progress has been reported.
