City to settle lawsuit, again

Deirdre Newman

With an air of deja vu, Mayor Gary Monahan emerged from behind closed

doors late Monday night and announced that another settlement

agreement had been reached with former City Atty. Jerry Scheer.

This time, though, the statement was followed by a caveat:

“contingent on all people signing it.”

The lack of one signee -- Senior Deputy City Atty. Marianne

Milligan -- derailed the first settlement agreement reached by Scheer

and the defendants in October.

On Monday, the City Council unanimously approved the second

settlement agreement. Peter Brown, the attorney representing the

city, emphasized that it was only a proposed agreement and said it

included minor changes from the first one. The $750,000 price tag

remains.

The proposed agreement is the second attempt to culminate a

lawsuit launched by Scheer in September against six defendants -- the

city, former Councilwomen Linda Dixon and Karen Robinson, Mayor Gary

Monahan, Councilwoman Libby Cowan and Milligan.

Doug Sutton, a resident who has been a vocal critic of the city’s

handling of Scheer’s case, expressed dismay at the defendants’

eagerness to settle. He wants the defendants to explain how events

mushroomed to force out a veteran city employee and cost the city so

much money.

“We need an explanation,” Sutton said. “We need to make sure this

garbage doesn’t happen again. We need to make sure our senior

management is protected from whatever the feeling of the moment is by

the council. It’s flat out wrong, and it’s not in Costa Mesa’s best

interest.”

Brown was confident that this agreement proposal would be

finalized this week. So far, Monahan, Cowan and Milligan have signed

it.

“I feel very good,” Milligan said. “I’m glad this whole thing is

over.”

Dan Stormer, who represents Scheer, could not be reached on

Tuesday and Scheer declined to comment.

Milligan said she hesitated signing the first settlement agreement

because doing so would have prevented her from filing claims against

the city or Scheer in the future. Impatient that Milligan had not

signed on, Scheer refiled his complaint against the defendants in

mid-December.

Robinson and Dixon didn’t have to sign either agreement because of

an arrangement worked out by Brown and Stormer in November. This deal

removed the two former councilwomen as defendants from the lawsuit in

exchange for letters from them waiving their claims against Scheer.

Scheer’s lawsuit charged the defendants with 16 complaints

including slander, defamation, retaliation and violation of the Brown

Act Open Meeting law. The lawsuit was based on a series of events

starting in July 2001 when Milligan, then known as Marianne Reger,

made a written complaint against Scheer containing a number of

accusations. Scheer was cleared of those allegations by an

independent counsel and investigator, but his troubles with the city

persisted.

In September of 2002, he was put on administrative leave, pending

an investigation. He was reinstated that October and returned to work

but couldn’t fulfill his responsibilities since he wasn’t able to log

onto his computer, according to the lawsuit. He chose to take sick

leave on Oct. 21.

Tuesday, Milligan said she had resolved her issues with the city,

freeing her to sign the agreement. She declined to elaborate on what

those issues were or how they were resolved.

A second agreement was negotiated between Brown and Stormer

because both sides realized they wanted to tweak some aspects of the

first one, Brown said. The second agreement will not be made public

until all parties have signed on, Brown said.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].