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# Something not right in City Hall
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/something-not-right-in-city-hall-editor/
- Published: 2003-09-16T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:56:13.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Pier, #archive-import

*By Dan Kolhoff Santa Monica*

Let me get this straight. Santa Monica officials claim that it cost them around $50,000 in attorney’s fees to get rid of the Boathouse, a business that had a long history in Santa Monica, so that we could have a chain restaurant on the pier (SMDP, Sept. 12, page 1). Yet when it pursued a dead end case against ATM fees all the way to the US Supreme Court that work was called “in-house” or free, therefore not a burden to the local taxpayer. As one who has appealed a case in federal court, it is an expensive endeavor if only measured in hours worked on the case. Something is not right at City Hall.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 16, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/091603.pdf?ref=smdp.com)