CC SR 20170516 S - Rejection of Fantore Claim Against the CityRANCHO PALOS VERDES CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA REPORT
AGENDA DESCRIPTION:
MEETING DATE: 05/16/2017
AGENDA HEADING: Consent Calendar
Consideration and possible action regarding a claim against the City by Michael
Fantore.
RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION:
1) Reject the claim and direct Staff to notify the claimant.
FISCAL IMPACT: None
Amount Budgeted: N/A
Additional Appropriation: N/A
Account Number(s): N/A
ORIGINATED BY:
Dave Aleshire, City Attorney
REVIEWED BY:
Gabriella Yap, Deputy City Manager-
anager-APPROVED
APPROVEDBY:
Doug Willmore, City Manager ",f.,1_'
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION:
Mr. Michael Fantore ("Claimant") alleges as follows: he was granted an after -the -fact
permit to construct a deck on his property at 30530 Ganado Drive (Permit No.
ZON2015-00355) on August 4, 2015. After the permit was approved, he engaged
engineers and incurred $5,807.50 for their services related to construction of the deck.
The permit was then revoked on December 16, 2015. Claimant filed a claim for
damages in the amount of $5,807.50 on April 17, 2017, claiming that the City was liable
for the engineering expenses he incurred in reliance on the permit approval.
The City Attorney's office has reviewed the claim and advised the City to reject it for
three reasons:
1) The claim was presented to the City late. Pursuant to California Government
Code § 911.2(a), claims of this kind must be presented to the City within one
year of the alleged incident, which in this case occurred on December 16, 2015.
2) There is no basis for the City's liability. The Claimant improperly constructed the
deck without a permit. After the City notified the Claimant of the violation and
received an application for an after -the -fact permit, the City issued the permit.
The City then learned that the Claimant had submitted false information on his
application. As such, the permit was invalid and revoked and the permit fee was
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returned. The revocation was upheld at a revocation hearing on December 16,
2015.
3) The City is immune from liability for alleged damages arising out of the City's
exercise of discretion to issue, deny, suspend, or revoke permits such as the
permit at issue in this claim, pursuant to Government Code § 818.4.
If the City Council does not act on Claimant's claim for damages, the claim will be
deemed rejected as a matter of law 45 days after date of the claim, which in this case is
April 17, 2017. If a claim is rejected as a matter of law, the Claimant has two years from
the date of the alleged incident in which to file a lawsuit, pursuant to Government Code
§ 945.6(a)(2). If, however, the City Council adopts Staff's recommendation to reject the
claim, Claimant's statute of limitations will be reduced to six months from the date that
the rejection is personally served or deposited in the mail, pursuant to Government
Code § 945.6(a)(1).
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