CI Y hire
a orney to defend
them in tre pass case
BENTO HARBOR-A
St. Joseph attorney will defend
the city against a trespass law-·
uit filed . . it.
At the MODday, November
13, Benton Harbor City Com-
.• "'C"din& the commis-
io went into 3O-minute
closed 'on to disc a Iaw-
uit filed by Michigan Citizen
publisher Charles Kelly
naming the city as one of th�
defend . The other defen­
dant are the Do ntown
Development Authority
(DDA), the DDA Director
Aaron Anthony and Allen
Demolition of Sagin w.
After the closed ession the
commi 'on approved a resolu­
tion to hire Attorney Richard
Lindenfeld of St. Joseph, to rep­
resent the city.
. Kelly i �arging that the city
failed to give proper notice of
alIedged violations in a building
he owned at 77 Wan Street.
Kelly also charges in the suit
that he made the required
. repairs to t e property; that the
city did not ha an inspection
report of all edged violations
nd that the city trespassed,
taking his property willfuUy and
wro lIy.
Kelly is seeking damages in
exce s of $30,000 and has
re ained Benton Harbor Attor­
_. ey K. orris Gavin to repre­
nthim.
City Man ger Steve Man­
ning said the city appointed At­
torney Lindenfeld to represent
the city because the city's attor­
ney, John Po telli is tied up with
economic development
projects, which include the clos­
ing of Sumetic Parcel, the Cor­
rectional Center; handling
optio of the Department- of
Social Services office building
and various transactions. With
that, he ould n be able to
give the "case 100% attention."
·1 feel very strongly in light of
conversatio that I've h d with
both Mr. KeUy and with Mr.
Kelly's attor y that I want to
pursue tills case agressively, not
on an as time permits bas' but
gressively. Either get it Settled
out of court or resolved in our
f vor in front of judge", Man­
ning continued.
"The city offici folio ed
th ordinance to the letter of
the Ia d proper notice
given to Kelly b in
mer.·
"The sbesto as ot
re 0Yed m the building until
September d the building
demolished in October, Man­
ning aid. Even though Mr.
. Joe
Kelly was given notice at I
four months prior that there
was a problem - that there
an unsafe condition, and no ac­
tion was taken on his part - so
I feel very strongly that we fol­
lowed the unsafe building or­
dinance to the letter of the taw.·
Records show the building
was demolished in August.
It was ed if it was going to
cost the city more in the long
run to fight the suit, rather than
to settle ou of court, ManDing
responded by saying, "I am
going to be working very close­
ly with Mr. Lindenfeld and if
Santa Claus is good to me, it
won't cost the city any money
out of pocket, but if it does, fine,
so be it, but at least I will feel
comfortable that we agressively
defended ourselves in this mat­
ter."
Manning said, the city attor­
ney is going to have a lead posi­
tion in this case and he was
going to be a "law clerk" for both
the city attorney and Linden­
feld. "I feel strongly about this
case and I will be doing most of
the middle work and the re­
search work for both of them,"
he added.
At an earlier workshop ses­
sion with the commission, Man­
ning had told the commission he
could "handle" it, but commis­
sioners said an attorney must be
retained.
The resolution also said that
the co t of the removal of the a -
bestos and to demolish the
tructure cost $17,505.
The city Commission voted in
October to try and acquire
Kelly's property at 77 Wall
Street through eminent domain
and the city authorized Linden­
feld to rue the eminent domain
suit also.
Manning said the city wants
to acquire Kelly' property and
use it for parking lot, ong
with three other city-owned
properties on Wall Street. The
parking lot is "much needed" for
all the development that has
taken place on Wall St., and
parking is just not available,
aid Manning.
All commi sion voted in
favor to hire Lindenfeld, except
Commissioner Charles
Yarbrough, who abstained.
In other matter , during
citizen comment , Joan Brown,
540 Division St., s id she
wanted to direct all her con­
cerns to Commission George
Wy inger. She told Wysinger
that "it ould be very helpful to
him as a city commissioner if he
ould be a little more sensitive
and 0 more concern for the
16
.-
for an
ailing
com,nunlty
"WET AKE OUl'lDte' PO& nfAT �1IIRI1II
� 1.) 127-1757 .