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.