Did you Know? The County of El Dorado and the EDHCSD were sued in 2015 by Thomas and Helen Austin for failure to file Mitigation Fee Act Reports. It is my understanding that the Court of Appeal awarded the Austins and the people over $30,000,000 or which roughly $5,000,000 of that was against the EDHCSD.
Below is a press release from the EDC Auditor/Controller Joe Harn.
News Release $30 Million Lawsuit filed against El Dorado County Cameron Park, December 4, 2015—A $30 million law suit was filed on December 2, 2015, against El Dorado County by two homeowners of El Dorado Hills for the refund of building fees to property owners charged by El Dorado County under the auspices of the California Mitigation Fee Act. The cause of action arose because of the County’s failure to file a series of five-year findings required under the Mitigation Fee Act. A recent unanimous Appellate Court decision said that the failure to file these statutorily required findings also had a statutorily mandated remedy which is to refund all unexpended moneys in the specific Mitigation Fee Act account to the current property owners of record upon which these fees were exacted. This lawsuit covers the residents of three El Dorado Hills’ (EDH) districts for which Mitigation Fee Act development fees have been charged including the EDH Community Services District Park and Recreation, EDH Fire, EDH Sheriff’s sub-station, in addition to County-wide Traffic Impact Mitigation fees charged throughout the County. The County has approximately $30 million in unexpended funds in its various accounts collected from property owners through building fees. The two homeowners allege that since the County failed to file the mandated reports, the unexpended funds must be refunded. If they prevail, the refunds awarded will go to all current property owners whose lots were charged mitigation impact fees under the Mitigation Fee Act. (end)
That last sentence points to about 1,200 homeowners mostly in El Dorado Hills who are owed their portion of the award. $30,000,000/1200=. You do the math. EDC and EDHCSD talk about lawsuits in Closed Session so that “we the people” don’t know about these issues. But in this case “we the people” of EDH are the beneficiaries and our government agencies are suppose to protect our interests. Your Auditor/Controller Joe Harn put it in writing so contact your representatives to get their side of this story and have them put in writing.
Offhand, “Transparency” isn’t just a campaign slogan!!
Vote For Steve Ferry For CSD Board.
