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Jun 23, 2005

CITY ATTORNEY PUNTS; TAXPAYERS TO COUGH UP $800K

Once again the City Attorney's office recommended settling a lawsuit instead of taking it to trial.  The City Commission agreed yesterday.  City taxpayers are out $800,000.

The sad story behind all this is that of Joseph Valenciano, a local resident who was driving home from his nursing job at Metropolitan Hospital five years ago when he pulled in front of an oncoming City snowplow driven by Kenneth Kibby.  Mr. Valenciano was severely injured in the accident.  He suffers permanent brain injuries, must live in a group home, and can no longer hold down his nursing job.

It appears that Kibby, a City employee, had a driving record littered with violations, including two at-fault accidents within the five years leading up to the Valenciano accident.  However, the police neither cited Kibby nor found him at fault in this accident.  Yes, it looks like Kibby was a reckless driver, and the incompetent City let have a job driving a City vehicle.  But, he didn't cause the accident.  So why have the City Attorney's office and the City Commission agreed to shell out $800,000 taxpayer dollars to Mr. Valenciano?

We can certainly feel sorry for Mr. Valenciano, but justice is not served if City taxpayers are made responsible for the accident he caused.  For eight hundred K in the middle of budget crisis, I think we can get a little more fight than this out of the slugs in the City Attorney's office.  I also think we can get our elected representatives in the City Commission kicking some ass to get a decent performance out these staffers.  Maybe if the staff of the City Attorney's office spent less time writing briefs for long-shot appeals to the Supreme Court, inventing ways to block FOIA requests, and pursuing pointless vendettas, they could concentrate on defending taxpayers in cases like Mr. Valenciano instead of giving up.

Surrender_monkeyBut then the surrender monkeys at the City Attorney's office may be too wedded to their ways to change.  If so, time for the broom.

Posted by Wm Tingley on Jun 23, 2005 at 12:29 PM in City Government |

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Comments

if ophoff were my attorney, I'd surrender too.

Posted by: Brian Tingley | Jun 24, 2005 at 07:43 AM

I can't top that, Brian.

Bill

Posted by: The Executive Director | Jun 24, 2005 at 01:06 PM

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