For about a year, the county and developers of land that was involved in former County Commissioner Betti Flores' guilty plea in the public corruption case have maneuvered for position.

Last week, the developers filed a motion to compel the county to binding arbitration, apparently hoping to squash a potential lawsuit. (See motion at bottom of story.) The county, for its part, continues to assess a lawsuit, most recently discussing the issue in executive session Monday.

The issue in a nutshell:

-- The land sale began well more than 10 years ago, and ended up in a dispute that went to the Texas Supreme Court. The case, Gregory W. Collins v. County of El Paso, was settled by the county at a special meeting Dec. 22, 2003. Although the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the county was not bound by contract to sell the land, County Commissioners' Court agreed 4-1 on a motion by Flores to settle the lawsuit and sell a portion of the property for about $3 million. [minutes]

-- The land by that time was owned by Catalina Development, which entered into a partnership with Carefree Homes and Tropicana Development. The developers, represented by David Escobar, threatened to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court; the threat led to the county settlement. [NPT, Feb. 9, 2004]

-- In July, 2007, Flores pleaded guilty to taking money in exchange for a vote to settle a lawsuit against the county over a tract of land owned by the county and then to sell that land to “clients of another known but not named herein.” [NPT, July 6, 2007]

-- In February, 2008, El Paso County Commissioners' Court unanimously approved allowing County Attorney Jose Rodriguez to begin “pre-litigation discovery,” which essentially is the preliminary work involved prior to filing suit against any parties.

In a statement issued last week as a response to questions from NewspaperTree.com, Rodriguez's office last week wrote: “As a result of the information plead to by former County Commissioner Betti Flores, the County previously filed a petition to take deposition before suit.

"That petition was to determine whether the County had claims that should be pursued to protect the public’s interest," read the statement. "As a result of that process, the County is now planning on filing litigation to protect the County’s interest and the interest of its citizens resulting from the Catalina Development settlement.

"It is premature at this time to discuss the petition to compel arbitration filed by Tropicana Development and Carefree Homes I.”

The lawyer for Carefree Homes, L.P., Larry Baskind, did not return calls seeking comment. Bryan Hall, who represents Tropicana Homes and Americas Loop 375, L.P., also did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

The petition, filed March 4, asserts that the settlement in 2003 compels the parties to resolve any disputes through binding arbitration.

The land sale, for $3.2 million, also brought the county several benefits, the petition states: The land was annexed to the city, and the developers spent $7.3 million to complete such infrastructure as roads and water and sewer, raising the land's value and the taxes the county receives.

In addition, the land now is largely developed, with the $10 million John Drugan elementary school in the Socorro Independent School District, a 12-acre, 180-unit low-income housing project, and 150 homes built. The petition states that 133 acres of raw land from the original 304 acres remain unplatted and undeveloped.

It states that "on Monday, March 2, 2009, the County Attorney informed counsel for Carefree Homes that the County of El Paso would not agree to submit the disputed claims to binding arbitration. It is reasonably anticipated that the County intends to file litigation."

The petition argues that the potential claim arises from Flores' guilty plea, notes that all parties were represented by counsel and asserts that "none of the plaintiffs or their principals participated in or had any knowledge whatsoever of any wrongdoing by Betti Flores or any other Commissioner."

El Paso County Commissioner Veronica Escobar said there wasn't much she could say about the county's pending lawsuit.

“I think the public should keep their eyes on this,” Escobar said. “I wish there was more I could say, but we need to preserve our ability to proceed with this in court, and I don't want to do anything that will harm that effort.”

Escobar said the public can expect to see more legal issues like this arise in the coming year or so.

“This is the fallout on one issue in just one of the 11 guilty pleas, we’ve had so far,” she said. “From a regular citizen’s perspective, not my role as a county commissioner, I think that in the next several years in our community we’re going to see a lot of these issues unravel in and outside of court.”

In another instance, the county already is suing Sonny Garcia and his company, LKG, for the $600,000 it received for services to the Children’s Mental Health Collaborative that were not delivered. The problems with that contract arose in the investigation and the guilty plea by County Judge Anthony Cobos’ former chief of staff, John Travis Ketner, two years ago. [NPT, April 3, 2008]

Ten others have pleaded guilty to corruption, conspiracy, fraud and bribery related charges since Ketner.

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