Contractor Files Claim Seeking to Clear Name

Setting the stage for a possible lawsuit, embattled contractor Tom Staben has filed a $10,000 claim against the county, alleging officials falsely accused him of breaking environmental laws.

The county violated Staben’s constitutional rights by intentionally distributing false information about him that resulted in the publication of many local and national newspaper articles portraying him as an environmental scourge, according to the claim.

As a result, Staben maintains that he has suffered substantial monetary damage, emotional distress, anxiety, ongoing reduced self-esteem, sleeplessness and has lost his reputation as a responsible contractor.

“I want to be vindicated of any environmental wrongdoing,” Staben said in an interview Wednesday. “Yes, I have a zoning problem at my ranch. But there is a big difference between a zoning violation and being branded as some kind of polluter.”

But County Counsel Jim McBride questioned the legitimacy of the claim, which accuses the supervisors and county staff of intentional negligence, libel, slander, defamation and abuse of power.

“The claim is totally without merit,” McBride said. “These are routine [zoning] violations that come up--storing equipment on a flood plain. That the county violated his civil rights, in my view is nonsense.”

The claim specifically lists three county employees: Art Goulet, director of the Public Works Agency; Gloria Goldman, a code enforcement officer for the zoning administration section; and Barry Marczuk of the Environmental Health department.

In the past nine years, Staben has been cited 22 times for violations on some of the 10 or so parcels he owns throughout the county. Conversely, the county has awarded the Moorpark businessman nine contracts totaling about $2.4 million to clean out flood basins, remove slide debris and repair roads.

McBride said he will meet with supervisors next week in closed session and advise against awarding Staben the $10,000. He added that in order to file a suit against the county, a plaintiff must first submit a claim.

“Some of these claims never ripen into a lawsuit,” McBride said. “But I don’t know what’s going to happen to this one.”

Staben said he wants county officials to admit publicly that he has not been convicted of breaking a single environmental law.

“If the county doesn’t come out and say I haven’t done anything environmentally wrong, the only thing left for me to do is sue,” Staben said.

His claim was filed Nov. 24, about two weeks after supervisors decided against awarding him a $142,000 public works project, although he had submitted the lowest of six bids.

In a 3-1 vote, supervisors said they wanted county attorneys to complete their investigation into all of Staben’s outstanding zoning citations before considering him for any further contract work. Supervisor Frank Schillo was absent.

During that Nov. 10 board meeting, Staben had implored supervisors to clear his name.

“I didn’t want to do anything like this at all,” Staben said. “All I was looking for was to be vindicated. I just wanted my family [harmony] back and to continue working for the county, trouble-free.”

But Schillo said Wednesday that in light of the claim, the county would be leery about hiring Staben in the future.

“I felt bad about Tom Staben because he’s an independent guy--there’s nothing wrong with that--but he does things his own way. He’s not going to change. But I’m afraid he may have burned his bridges with us.”

McBride, however, said the county could not legally refuse to hire a qualified bidder solely because the contractor had filed a claim or lawsuit against it.

Supervisor John Flynn, who had been Staben’s harshest critic, said he has called for a meeting with Staben, Staben’s attorney, supervisors, county counsel and Public Works Agency officials in an effort to resolve the matter.

“We need to put all the issues on the table and take them one by one,” Flynn said. “There’s a cloud over his head and we need to find a way to lift the cloud. Whose fault it is that there is a cloud, I don’t know.”