Five years ago, after then-Mayor Kevin Faulconer evacuated 1,000 or more workers from the 101 Ash St. office tower to protect them from asbestos just weeks after they moved in, the San Diego City Council hired an outside law firm to defend against potential lawsuits.
Three months later, the initial $150,000 contract with the Hugo Parker law firm of San Francisco was boosted to $350,000. In 2022, it was increased to $600,000 and extended to the close of 2024.
Now, at the request of newly sworn-in City Attorney Heather Ferbert, council members have agreed to add two more years to the deal, meaning Hugo Parker will defend the city in its Ash Street asbestos litigation through the end of next year.
The contract extension, which passed on an 8-1 vote with Councilmember Vivian Moreno opposed, did not come with any additional cost identified. Rather, the financial considerations were “not applicable,” according to the city attorney’s report to the council.
The decision was one of five legal agreements the City Council approved Monday, adding millions of dollars to the city’s cost of defending itself from Ash Street plaintiffs, people whose homes flooded in southeastern San Diego last year and other high-profile lawsuits.
“There are simply not enough attorneys to handle all of the lawsuits that come through,” Councilmember Raul Campillo said just ahead of the vote.
While no dollar amount was included in the Hugo Parker contract extension, council members unanimously agreed to extend or sign new agreements with four other firms that will help the city mitigate damages from Ash Street and other ongoing litigation.
Assistant City Attorney M. Travis Phelps told the council that the city already is confronting 35 separate lawsuits from more than 1,500 plaintiffs claiming millions of dollars in damages related to the January 2024 flood — and more are coming.
“Cases are still being filed to this day,” he told council members.
In all, the council approved the hiring of one new outside law firm and amended three existing contracts.
The action increased the spending on outside lawyers by $3.1 million, for a total of $6.1 million — not including any additional money that may be paid to Hugo Parker beyond the $600,000 that was previously approved.
Much of the new legal work will be related to the flooding early last year that drove hundreds of people from their homes along Chollas Creek.
Scores of properties in Southcrest and Logan Heights were overrun with millions of gallons of water from clogged flood-control channels. Many residents were forced to leave their homes; some remain unable to return or rebuild.
Councilmember Marni von Wilpert pressed Phelps to make sure the outside lawyers do not duplicate their efforts.
“That’s going to be some complex billing there,” she said.
The top assistant to the newly elected city attorney assured von Wilpert that the staff has deliberately delegated various elements of the legal defense.
“We are coordinating that all in-house,” he said.
Moreno opposed the Hugo Parker amendment, saying she is no longer willing to approve spending any more money on the troubled Ash Street office tower.
“The city has already spent too many taxpayer dollars on matters concerning the 101 Ash St. building,” she said before voting no.
The city’s newest outside counsel will be McDougal Boehmer Foley Lyon Mitchell & Erickson, a La Mesa firm that will be devoted to the flood litigation. Initial payments to the firm were capped at $500,000.
Council members also approved an additional $1 million to Dean Gazzo Roistacher LLP, which was first hired in 2023 at a cap of $500,000.
The new contract boosts the agreement to a total of $1.5 million. Just $206,000 has been paid to the firm so far.
Among other cases, Dean Gazzo Roistacher is defending the city In a lawsuit stemming from a 2018 crash involving YouTube personality Trevor Heitmann, who killed a 43-year-old mother and her 12-year-old daughter in a fiery collision after police responded to Heitmann’s home.
Early last year, the City Council agreed to pay the family of Aileen and Aryana Pizarro $6.1 million to settle two claims but separate litigation remains active.
The firm also is helping to defend the city in a case brought by a developer challenging housing fees, a complaint filed by a man whose wife was killed by a driver who veered into a city bicycle lane and the ongoing flood litigation.
The new legal spending also boosts a $1.4 million agreement with Buchalter, a downtown San Diego law firm that has been representing the city in litigation over 101 Ash St., flood-related legal claims and the long-running dispute over the city’s 2003 eviction of residents at the De Anza Cove mobile home park on Mission Bay.
The firm’s second contract amendment approved this week boosts payments to Buchalter to $2 million.
The last amendment to a legal services agreement approved by the City Council this week was awarded to Schwartz Semerdjian, the San Diego law firm that represented the city in Ash Street litigation and other cases.
The initial $500,000 deal was raised to $1.5 million, with much of that billing related to claims that workers and contractors were wrongly exposed to asbestos inside the Ash Street property. The firm also has defended lawsuits related to electric-scooter injuries and the 2024 flood.
San Diego’s annual spending on outside legal help is not made immediately available in public records.
But the City Attorney’s Office’s yearly budget has risen significantly in recent years, climbing from $62.4 million in fiscal year 2021 to $85.5 million in the current fiscal year, up 37 percent, city documents show.
