Couples get $150,000 each for tank settlement

Lisa Blanco Jimenez of Neumiller & Beardsley in Stockton said the Fox Road homeowners met with city officials and attorneys Aug. 7. The mediation took place at a law office in Modesto and the city agreed to the settlements pending city council approval. The council approved them Sept. 14.

“I do want to make clear, though, that the settlement is an agreement and not an award,” said Jimenez, a colleague of City Attorney John Stovall’s at Neumiller & Beardsley. “An ‘award’ implies that the cases were decided on the merits. These cases were not decided on the merits; there has not been any finding of liability or wrongdoing on the part of the city.”

Originally, a trial was set for Nov. 3 for any of the water tank cases not settled prior to that date. Jimenez said the trial was taken off the calendar shortly before mediation and on Nov. 16, Judge Roger Beauchesne at Stanislaus County Superior Court will either set the cases for trial or schedule another case management conference.

The Parrases live just east of the tank and the Billingses live to the west. Neither family would comment on the proceedings.

The controversy first erupted in August 2006 as overflowing crowds took over Hughson City Council chambers. Citizen after citizen approached the podium, saying the 35-foot-tall water container severely decreased their home values as it looms over them and obstructs sunlight and the nighttime sky. Now more than three years later, attorneys for four other homeowners are still haggling over the $2.5 million, 750,000-gallon water storage tank just east of Charles Street. On Aug. 8, 2005, the council received a preliminary report on the apparatus and on Sept. 26, 2005, the councilmen accepted the site and adopted a mitigated negative declaration. Part of the plan was to plant tall trees to mitigate the tank’s obstructive view, city staff noted.

The homeowners claim city staff should have gone door-to-door in their neighborhoods when the water container was first considered a year earlier. They should have personally presented information on the tank’s dimensions or at least send out the data in certified mail, the citizens state.

City officials argued that council hearings on the tank were properly noticed through legal ads in the Hughson Chronicle and the city’s website.

Nonetheless, the Billings filed a complaint on March 12, 2007, while Scott and Jeanette Ricardo followed suit on July 20, 2007. The remaining plaintiffs filed on August 3, 2007. That list includes Joanne Walker-Porter, Robert Gascon and Jason and Amie Coley. The Ricardos have since moved to Washington State.

But one-time Willow Street homeowner Scott Ricardo noted that the council chose the fourth best of six possible locations for the tank.

Jimenez said the complaints filed by the remaining plaintiffs seek money damages in an unspecified amount plus attorney fees and costs of suit.

“The remaining plaintiffs made some specific demands at the mediation session, but those amounts cannot be disclosed,” she added, saying the details of what occurred at the mediation must remain confidential.