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Mecklenburg County has spent close to a half-million dollars so far to defend a complicated land swap that will let the Charlotte Knights build a new minor-league baseball stadium in Third Ward.
It's a fight that pits elected officials against a lone Charlotte lawyer, and taxpayers are picking up the tab.
County commissioners say the stadium would be good for the community. But attorney Jerry Reese says it wouldn't be good enough. He wants major-league baseball in Charlotte, and has filed four lawsuits to try to stop the stadium deal. Three of the cases have been dismissed, but Reese is appealing those rulings.
While some elected officials say residents have a right to challenge decisions made by government, they also say they must defend what they believe is a sound project.
The county has spent about $455,862 on legal fees related to the lawsuits, and the money is being taken from a risk management reserve fund, said Michelle Lancaster, an associate general manager for the county. The fees are split among nine attorneys from five law firms, and the county is receiving a discount for most of the work.
County officials said the complexity of the Reese lawsuits, plus the fact that he has sued the county four times, is driving up the price tag. The county has also been involved in other high-cost lawsuits including a years-long fight with Time Warner Cable over a data network for government buildings. That suit has cost about $1.2 million so far.
The county has a $4.45 million budget this year for legal counsel, which also includes the salaries of 18 employees.
It is unlikely the county could recoup any of the legal fees. County Attorney Marvin Bethune, who is not a county employee, said there are very limited circumstances where attorney fees could be reimbursed. In addition, a provision that could have held the baseball team liable for the county's legal bills if the stadium project fell through was stripped before the final lease was approved.
“Obviously, I am disappointed that the county has been required to spend that kind of money to carry out a plan which the city, the county and the school board have all believed was a good thing for this community,” said Parks Helms, the commissioners' vice chairman and a longtime supporter of the Knights project. “At the same time, I think Jerry Reese, as a citizen, has the right to continue this litigation until it's concluded.”
Opponent has another idea
Reese's lawsuits have sought to overturn or deem illegal decisions related to a complex swap of public and private land that would free up room for the baseball stadium, as well as a park and mixed-use development.
The Knights plan to build a roughly 10,000-seat stadium on county land between Mint, Graham and Fourth streets and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard – land originally eyed for a public park.
Reese thinks the stadium project is ill-conceived, and has developed his own “Brooklyn Renaissance” mixed-use development that would include a major-league stadium. He said he has spent $150,000 in legal fees on lawsuits and other work on the project, including hiring prominent attorney Bill Diehl to represent him on one suit. Plus, Reese estimated he has put in about $300,000 of his own time for the effort.
The county is only one party to the Reese lawsuits. Also named in one or more suits are the Knights, the city of Charlotte, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education and private developers.
The lawsuits have played a part in preventing major construction from starting on the stadium, and was a factor in the decision to push back the opening of the site by one year to 2010. In the meantime, the stadium's price tag has jumped to $50 million, up from $35 million in 2005.
“We're just working as hard as we can to get this project done,” Dan Rajkowski, the team's vice president and general manager said. “…Certainly this legal process is hampering it, however we'll continue to work as a team to get it done.”
Trading blame
Commissioners chairman Jennifer Roberts said lawsuits are to be expected within county government, and said that with the baseball suits, “you have to pay to defend yourself for decisions that you think are correct.”
“It's unfortunate that there are individuals who are willing to go to the extremes that Mr. Reese is to make a point that obviously no one else is,” Roberts said. “It's unfortunate, but it's nothing that you can really prevent.”
But commissioners Dan Bishop and Bill James – critics of the baseball plan – blame the county's legal fight over what they consider poor decision-making by county leaders.
“If we weren't tinkering with having a professional sports team, if we weren't involving ourselves with what ought to be privately-operated redevelopments of landscape, we wouldn't have a half-million-dollar legal bill,” Bishop said. He also said the county is losing about $40 million, which he said is the value of the park land the stadium is being built on and the price of a grant to pay for infrastructure work near the stadium.
James, meanwhile, said the lawsuits stem from indecision over the years about what to put on the planned site for the stadium. “We've spent as much money planning putting a park there as we have defending putting baseball there,” James said.
April Bethea: 704-358-6013
