Critic must pay the city $6,900

GLENDALE — A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Tuesday ruled that City Council critic Herbert Molano is liable for $6,900 in costs the city incurred while vetting the massive administrative record used in his lawsuit challenging the Downtown Specific Plan.

Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs issued the ruling after Molano and his co-plaintiff, Los Angeles-based Conquest Student Housing LLC, filed a motion in November seeking to eliminate the original $27,500 bill that the city filed with the court to cover paralegal and staff costs.

The same judge in August dismissed Molano’s lawsuit against the city that alleges that the 2006 Downtown Specific Plan — a blueprint for future development in Glendale’s core — failed to adequately address the environmental impacts of more density.

The city attorney’s office on Tuesday had not decided what action it would take on the ruling.

“We’re reviewing the ruling and deciding what we’re doing,” Chief Assistant City Atty. Mike Garcia said.

For his part, Molano said he would appeal the ruling in an effort to push back against “blatant intimidation” from the city when it filed the $27,500 bill.

“I have to fight them because it’s not just me, it’s everyone else,” he said. “Everyone who challenges the city is going to think the city’s going to hang this cost over their head. That’s not good for anyone in Glendale.”

It is not the first time the city has sought to recoup legal costs associated with defending itself in court, but Molano has repeatedly said that his activism at City Hall has made him a target — one the city has hit with legal intimidation.

City officials reject that assertion, arguing Conquest is using Molano in an attempt to bog down the Verdugo Gardens project, a 24-story, 287-unit condominium tower, of which Urban Partners — a Conquest competitor — holds a stake.

Conquest is now embroiled in a federal lawsuit over its alleged legal strategy of using lawsuits to delay competing projects.

Molano’s legal battle with the city over its the downtown plan took a two-month break in August after Janavs dismissed his lawsuit, but was set on a path for restart in late October when he filed a notice of appeal to her ruling.