Dock litigants threaten ‘millions’ in claims

Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The city would pay huge damages if it loses a legal battle, a Blakely resident says.

It’s not that it could cost taxpayers just millions of dollars.

Losing a legal battle over docks in Blakely Harbor could cost the city still “millions more,” litigant Bob Hacker told the City Council on Monday night.

Hacker said he will take the city back to court if it strays from a legal settlement he and other harbor residents struck with the council to amend city code allowing more docks.

While the city has for the last few months heard many island residents express support for the current limit of two community docks and one public-use dock, Hacker urged the council to look at the bottom line.

“If the city doesn’t accept some version of (the settlement option), this will go back to court,” he said, stressing the high cost of legal fees and eventual pay-outs to litigants.

Hacker and the other Blakely litigants won’t be alone in the legal arena. As of this week, the battle became a two-front fight.

Island Keepers, a local environmental group, is challenging the city’s determination that new docks would not significantly impact the harbor’s marine ecosystem.

The city’s formal “determination of non-significance,” made under the State Environmental Policy Act, “fails to identify and analyze mitigation measures for environmental impacts on the natural resources, endangered and threatened species, the community, views and navigation,” according to the appeal filed with the city hearing examiner on Friday.

The city’s SEPA determination was “infected by hasty decision-making” and contained “flawed assumptions” about the possible impacts to threatened species, including Chinook salmon and orca whales, the appellants said.

Some on the council had hoped to defuse the harbor’s dock controversy with a compromise proposal.

Crafted by Councilwoman Debbie Vancil, the proposed resolution would retain current rules while establishing a task force to implement the community and public-use docks allowed under the ordinance.

Vancil plans to formally introduce the resolution tonight as the council makes its final decision on a range of options governing the harbor’s docks.

Some on the council just want the issue resolved.

“I’d like to see this process go away,” said Councilman Kjell Stoknes at Monday’s hearing. “It’s taking so much energy from the city. I’m hoping we can put this to rest soon.”

The city won’t rest easy unless its legal mattress is padded with dollars, warned others.

“If the council decides to maintain the current ordinance, we know we’re going to have to defend the ordinance in court,” said Council Chair Bob Scales. “The city will need all the help it can get.”

The city faces damage claims from several harbor residents after a now-defunct dock moratorium was struck down in court.

The current ordinance limiting future docks has withstood two legal challenges, but Scales said the council’s related settlement was crafted with potential legal costs in mind.

The city’s legal team “does not advise us on the best policy, they advise us on risk and on the potential costs,” he said.

Hinting that the city’s legal advisors are feeling queasy about the odds on a new legal fight, Scales asked the ordinance’s supporters – both at the state and local levels – to back the city with much more than talk.

“Bainbridge Island is not going to single-handedly save Puget Sound,” he said, referring to elected officials who have identified Blakely Harbor preservation as a key part of the sound’s environmental recovery.

Scales cited letters drafted by Gov. Chris Gregoire’s Puget Sound Action Team, state Sen. Phil Rockefeller, state Rep. Sherry Appleton and Congressman Jay Inslee that urged the council to curb Blakely docks for the greater ecological good.

Scales noted that no checks were tucked inside the envelopes along with the impassioned letters.

“If they want Bainbridge Island to be the spearhead, the state and feds should be willing to support us financially,” he said. “We can’t do it alone.”

If the government won’t ante up, islanders will, said Shannon Drive resident Mike Suraci.

“If you asked everybody on the island to put in a nickel, I think you’d get it,” he said. “If you said, ‘hey Mike, you support Blakely Harbor, put in a thousand bucks,’ I’d say ‘absolutely.’

“I think 90 percent of the people in this room who support (the ordinance) would be willing to do that too.”

If Suraci’s taking a collection, island resident Simon Ffitch may be the first to chip in.

“I urge you to stand up,” he told the council.

“If it costs money and costs time, as an island taxpayer, I’m willing to do my part to aid that defense.”

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Pier pressure

The City Council is scheduled to make a final decision on proposed amendments to the ordinance governing Blakely Harbor docks tonight at City Hall. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.