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Even though the City of Elk Grove did not formally initiate litigation against contractors involved in the construction of the District56 facility until July 2019, records reveal expenditures associated with the actions were logged almost one year prior. That revelation was uncovered by a public record request from an Elk Grove citizen regarding expenses over the construction delays and cost overruns litigation.The accounting showed three outside contractors received payment totaling over $115,000. The three contractors include the city's primary outside counsel Sacramento-based law firm Kronick, Moskovitz, Nichols Consulting Engineers, and Hayes and Associates. According to information released by the city, Kronick Moskovitz received 10 payments of $58,966 between November 21, 2018, and November 14, 2019; Nichols Consulting Engineers received six payments totaling $29,819 between September 20, 2018, and June 20, 2019; and Hayes and Associates earned $26,504 in three payments between October 4, 2018, and November 29, 2018. Interestingly, even though the city has a legal staff of four full-time attorneys, one paralegal, and a budget of over $1.5 million, they continue to use the services of Kronick Moskovitz. Before being hired as a city employee, city attorney Jonathan Hobbs was a partner with Kronick Moskovitz.The ongoing litigation has become a sore spot for the city after one of the defendants, Big B Construction, a subcontractor on the Distric56 aquatics center, has repeatedly appeared before the city council asserting the cost overruns and delayed opening are the responsibility of the city's largest contractor and designer of the facility, the Willdan Group. As a result of the comments, last year, the city took the unusual step of releasing a statement countering those claims.The litigation costs, especially payments to Kronick Moskovitz, are expected to continue. A video of one of those commentaries is below.
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