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Home My WebLink About2018-06-12; City Council; ; Conference with Legal Counsel regarding Existing LitigationCA Review --- Meeting Date: 6/12/2018 To: Mayor and City Council From: Celia Brewer, City Attorney Staff Contact: Marissa Kawecki, Deputy City Attorney Subject Conference with Legal Counsel regarding Existing Litigation Recommended Action That the City Council, by motion, authorize a closed session regarding existing litigation in the matter of: City of Carlsbad v. Ludvik Grigoras; Veronica Grigoras, Case No.37-2016-00003099-CU-MC-NC pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9(d){1). June 12, 2018 Item #2 Page 1 of 1 RUTAN R.~TAN City of Carlsbad vs. Grigoras OPTIONS FOR RESOLUTION June 12, 2018 Carlsbad City Council Meeting Public Comment on Closed Session Item Presented By: Jeremy Jungreis, Ludvik Grigoras, Veronica Grigoras OUTLINE • Who are the Grigoras' and Carlsbad Alkaline Water ("CAW") • How We Got Here • What the Stipulated Judgment Requires • Grigoras' Efforts to Comply with the Stipulated Judgment • Fairness and Equity (and the Law) Do not Support Imposition of Further Fines/Penalties Who are the Grigoras' and Carlsbad Alkaline Water ("CAW") I. CAW is a proud Carlsbad business that brings thousands of customers into Downtown to shop and eat every year. 2. Originally started in 1882 on current location. 3. Rebuilt by the Grigoras family in early 90s and reopened in 1996; family owned and operated since that time as a Carlsbad small business. 4. CAW replaced smaller (and compliant) water tanks that met City Code requirements with larger tanks from 20 IO to 2014. 6/12/2018 1 How We Got Here CAW believed tanks were compliant; turns out they were not. A NOVs followed re height of the tanks and fence height 8 City ultimately sued CAW for $39,000 in civil penalties plus late fees 2. City and CAW agree to settle NOYs in a stipulated judgment. A Grigoras' agreed to pay a fine of $5,000 and comply with the judgment B City Agreed to waive $34,000 in fines and penalties in exchange for Grigoras' good faith effort to come into compliance RUTAN How We Got Here 3. The Parties understood that getting into compliance would be expensive and take time. A. Before the new tanks could be moved, CAW needed two discretionary permits from the City, an Administrative Village Review Permit and a Coastal Development Permit. B CAW then had to apply for a building permit C CAW then had 120 days following issuance of the building permit to request a final inspection. D. Knowing the process could be difficult, Parties agreed to a "'safe harbor" for delays incurred by CAW in good faith. RUTAN PARAGRAPH 6(b) OF THE STIPULATED JUDGEMENT If at any time Defendants miss a deadline. .then the full amount of civil penalties ($39,000.00 less any prior payment of civil penalties) becomes due unless Plaintiff agrees to a reasonable extension of the deadline in advance and in writing. Plaintiff agrees it will not deny timely requests for extensions of deadlines stated herein where Defendants are diligently and in good faith endeavoring to comply with all pertinent timelines and milestones imposed in this Stipulated Judgment. RUT"N 6/12/2018 2 RUTAN RUTAN CAW GOOD FAITH EFFORTS TO COMPLY WITH THE JUDGMENT City Council approved the building permit on June 30, 2017, but CAW gets authorization from City planning department to start building the concrete pad for the tanks on September 8, 2017; more than half of the 120 days are already gone. Meanwhile, July 9, 2017, CA W's main well goes down, imperiling survival of the business. -Emergency repair of well is immediately required, and obtaining a drill rig that can fit within the small space at CAW is very difficult -No way to complete work on the tanks while drill rig on site 6/12/2018 3 RUTAN CAW GOOD FAITH EFFORTS TO COMPLV WITH THE JUDGMENT 120 days set to expire on October 27. 2017 Because of rig on site, CAW cannot even begin on concrete pad until October 17, within 3 days of demobilization of drilling rig CAW, per Paragraph 6B of the Judgment, and in good faith requests extension to July 30, 2018, the amount of time CAW reasonably believes is necessary to complete the pad and move the tanks City denies request~citing lack of coordination on drilling of the back up wells That leaves CAW JO days to finish construction on a project anticipated to take 120 days CAW GOOD FAITH EFFORTS TO COMPLV WITH THE JUDGMENT • Ultimately City agrees to "final" much shorter extension to December 6, 20 I 7. CAW agrees because it has no choice. -CAW finishes construction of the pad and movement of the tanks by December 20 after paying extra for quick curing concrete and faster construction -No way to have completed the work more quickly (see timeline) -City begins issuing NOVs on December 7 immediately after deadline passes -No way for CAW to be in compliance on December 6 as construction was ongoing and site conditions delayed finish RUTAN CAW GOOD FAITH EFFORTS TO COMPLV WITH THE JUDGMENT Next three months are spent arguing over an element of work that was not part of the stipulated judgment, the landscape plan -CAW had already requested, and obtained a final inspection of the tasks addressed in the stipulated judgment in December 2018 -Word "landscape plan" is not found in stipulated judgment -Landscape plan ultimately approved by City is same or similar as the landscape plan previously rejected by the City -Landscape design favored by the City would have potentially damaged the foundation of the historic structure and been inconsistent with the village administrative permit R.LJTAN 6/12/2018 4 Fairness and Equity (and the Law) Do not Support Imposition of Further Fines/Penalties Paragraph 6b of stipulated judgment required City to grant an extension to CAW to allow them to finish the work included within the stipulated Judgment. -City staff cannot reasonably say that CAW did not "diligently and in good faith endeavor to comply with all pertinent timelines and milestones" They clearly did -CAW was in compliance with the Judgment on December 20, 2018, having requested a final inspection of the work described in the stipulated judgment We'd respectfully ask the City Council to find a way to put this dispute to rest without further litigation. Its the right thing to do. RUTAN ""'""-'"'"M·-M"~ =···-~ ... ,,,..,,,.,_ .. ,_ Mr. Grigoras' Closing Thoughts RUTAN 6/12/2018 5 ~ ~~ ~ ~ TT Of 2802 CARLSBAD BLVD CARLSBAD 3:uikfing Division INSPECTION RECORD ~ INSPECTION RECORD CARD WITH APPROVED PLANS MUST BE KEPT ON THE JOB ~ CALL BEFORE 3:00 pm FOR NEXT WORK DAY INSPECTION CARLSBAD ALKALINE 4 EXISTING TANKS & EXISTING WATER LINES WATER: RELOCATE RECONNECT TO 2031730100 11/8/2016 ~ FOR BUILDING INSPECTION CALL: 760-602-2725 OR GO TO: www.Carlsbadca.gov/Building AND CLICK ON ""Request Inspection" a ·::) CBC2016-0005 >ATE: (~ - Required Prior to Requesting Building Fina l If Checked YES Planning/Landscape 7 60-944-8463 Allow 48 hours CM&I (Engineering Inspections) 7 60-438-389 l Call before 2 pm , Fire Prevention 76o-602-4660 Allow 48 hours Type of Inspection CODE # ELECTRICAL Date Inspector #31 0 ELECTRIC UNDERGROUND O UFER #34 ROUGH ELECTRIC #33 0 ELECTRIC SERVICE O TEMPORARY #35 PHOTO VOLTAIC #39 FINAL ' CODE # MECHANICAL #44 0 DUCT & PLENUM O REF. PIPING #43 HEAT-AIR COND. SYSTEMS -----------+-----1----------1 #49 FINAL CODE# COMBO INSPECTION #81 UNDERGROUND (11,12,21,31) #82 DRYWALL,EXT LAnt, GAS TES ( 17,18,23) #83 ROOF SH EATING, EXT SHEAR (13,15) #84 FRAME ROUGH COMBO (14,24,34,44) #85 T-Bar (14,24,34,44) CODE # PLUMBING Date Ins ector #89 FINAL OCCUPANCY (19,29,39,49) ~ 0 SEWER & BL/CO D PL/CO FIRE Date Ins or ;n1 UNDERGROUND OWASTE O WTR #24 TOP OUT DWASTE OWTR A/S UNDERGROUND VISUAL ;;27 TUB & SHOWER PAN A/S UNDERGROUND HYDRO ;;23 O GASTEST 0 GAS PIPING A/S UNDERGROUND FLUSH #25 WATER HEATER A/S OVERHEAD VISUAL #28 SOLAR WATER A/S OVERHEAD HYDROSTATIC #29 FINAL A/SANAL CODE# STORM WATER F/A ROUGH-IN #600 PRE-CONSTRUCTION MEETING F/AANAL #603 FOLLOW UP INSPECTION AXED EXTINGUISHING SYSTEM ROUGH-IN #605 NOTICE TO CLEAN FIXED EXTING SYSTEM HYDROSTATIC TEST #607 WRITTEN WARNING FIXED EXTINGUISHING SYSTEM ANAL #609 NOTICE OF VIOLATION MEDICAL GAS PRESSURE TEST #610 VERBAL WARNING MEDICAL GAS FINAL Rt:--V 10/2012 SEE BACK FOR SPECIAL NOTES Jl-q-,j"-z! ~/ /~7 M(P,-.</ U/Cp/;,;_, 7/1 7P 7 ZX )/<ZU/ 0e/4-c/r/~'17 ....s-z!qdec/ CJ~ :P/7//7 qpyc/MvMI-stt::/-~ CM -p;A-?'7 r:~1~/2 ~ ///!7 ;'-/« j-,/ q J"~ ,rq__s-, -s-/H s zlq-~~ /(/ a-;/4c r ~P¢7 -? ,-( pr s-L / L -;yb L ,1<v L 4' /r'c?/7 5 p /YI 11.& /W // ~ /PU,/;.,! 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