From: ELLIOTT BLINDERMAN, M.D. on Sat, 20 Sep 1997 Subject: Bernardi upholds LA Downtown Cap, is Awarded Attorneys Fees      The stake has pierced the dragon's heart .... for now, anyway. Ex-LA City Councilman Ernani Bernardi frosted the cake of his victory over the Los Angeles Redevelopment Agency when the court awarded him all of his attorneys fees. It was a long time coming.      The judgment awarding fees was signed on September 16, 1997.      The controvery began in 1975 ... over 20 years ago .... when the Los Angeles City Council decided to make 1549 acres of downtown Los Angeles a redevelopment project. Then Councilman Bernardi challenged the project in a validation action.      The litigation was resolved when the City and the Agency agreed to a stipulated judgment, setting a $750 million limit on the use of tax increments and a time limit for incurring debt of July 19, 1995. It was a final validation judgment, binding on everyone.      In 1993, the Agency felt contrained by the judgment, so it entered into behind the scenes negotiations with Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles County Unified School District, the County flood Control District and the Los Angeles College District (all of which had been intervenors in and signatories to the 1977 stipulation) to attack the debt limit.      Unwilling to go through a public process, the governmental agencies devised a scheme whereby they signed an agreement, on December 21, 1993, that obligated them to go back to court to attempt to set aside the 1977 judgment and, if they succeeded, to share among themselves any tax increment moneys that might result from the lifting of the cap ... from $750 million to $7.1 BILLION.      They did not take into account that Mr. Bernardi, then retired from the Council and 82 years old, would challenge their attack on a court judgment.      On July 25 of this year [1997], after many petitions and appeals, the California Supreme Court ended the battle when it declined to review the appellate court and trial court's determination that the courts had no jurisdiction to modify a final validation judgment.      On the hearing for attorneys' fees, the trial court found that Mr. Bernardi had prevailed on an important right affecting the public interest and had conferred a significant beneift on the general public by upholding the 1977 judgment and was therefore entitled to recovery of his attorneys' fees in the amount of $107,800, plus his costs.      The Los Angeles Daily News recognized Mr. Bernardi's contribution in its editorial of June 18, 1997, saying: "One man. One vote. One long-running, 20 year battle of persistence and principle to prevent the Community Redevelopment Agency from having unbridled access to taxpayer money." They concluded: "If ever there was an argument for human cloning, Bernardi is it. "      Mr. Bernardi was represented by Los Angeles attorneys Barbara Blinderman, Jeffrey Cohen, and Trevor A. Grimm in his successful effort to insure that his judgment would be enforced.      Mr. Bernardi will be 86 in October. Happy birthday, Ernani Bernardi!    [RETURN to Main Page]