Subdivision lawsuit settlements explained

By Jeff Burrows, Chairman, Ravalli County Board of Commissioners

This letter is in response to the misinformation and political hit pieces in regards to the Big Sky and Morado Mountain settlements. Both of these settlements were the results of botched decisions by a previous three commissioners (Jim Rokosch, Kathleen Driscoll, and Carlotta Grandstaff). The anti-development at all costs (especially when it is taxpayer money) mentality of these three commissioners resulted in a district court ruling that found the commissioners’ decisions to be arbitrary and capricious, which created a significant liability to Ravalli County and its taxpayers.
In 2008, Big Sky Development and Morado Mountain Estates brought suit against Ravalli County alleging statutory and constitutional violations associated with the county’s denial of their subdivision applications. On December 8, 2010, the court found the Commissioners’ decision to re-vote on May 27, 2008 was arbitrary and capricious because it failed to evaluate whether the public had the opportunity to comment on additional information. The court also found the board guilty of an arbitrary and capricious denial of the variance request, which constituted a taking of the developers’ rights to compensation. The subdivisions were remanded back to the commission and were conditionally approved in July 2011.
The subsequent approval did NOT settle the suit filed against Ravalli County, the developers were still entitled to seek damages for delays. The Board of County Commissioners in 2012 were tasked with cleaning up the litigious mess left by the majority of a previous commission. None of the sitting commissioners were complicit in the decision for which the plaintiffs were seeking relief. There were multiple unsuccessful settlement conferences where neither side could agree on a settlement amount. After discussions with expert witnesses and much research, our attorneys assessed the county’s potential liability to exceed $3,000,000 for the Big Sky development alone. This number was based on expert reports assessing economic harm, attorney’s fees and five years of prejudgment interest at 10% per year.
The final settlement on the Big Sky development was $675,000 to be paid as follows: $250,000 in FY 2014, $250,000 in FY 2015, $43,750 in FY 2016-2019. The board decided to assess a judgment levy so cash reserves would not be depleted to a critical level. The levy would be assessed at $225,000 for three years. Only one assessment was made for $225,000. This year the board absorbed the remainder of the settlement amount into the county budget and removed the remainder judgment levy from the tax bills for the next two years.
Morado Mountain was approximately half the size of the Big Sky development and was settled for less than half of the amount at $300,000 and was to be paid as follows: $80,000 in FY 2013, $70,000 in FY 2014, and $37,500 in FY 2015-2018. These payments were paid from the county’s general fund, decreasing the level of service received by the citizens of Ravalli County.
The two settlements totaled $975,000 for the illegal decisions on the two subdivisions. The attorneys representing Ravalli County estimated the potential liability to be approximately $4.5 million for these two lawsuits. Ravalli County was represented by both local attorneys from the County Attorney’s office and MACo attorneys. The developers were not happy with the settlement decision(s) and felt they were not made whole, but were willing to move on.
It seems apparent that there has been an attempt to shift responsibility for illegal and expensive actions from three commissioners that made the decisions to the current board. This makes as much sense as punishing someone for someone else’s actions. This letter was written to respond to the misinformation being presented by a small group in support of the previous commission responsible (Rokosch, Driscoll, Grandstaff) and the request for information and justification on the settlements to ensure our citizens know the source of these liabilities.