School Board Denies Public Records Request Seeking Legal Costs in Balfour Case

The Torrance Unified School District (TUSD) is refusing to comply with a public records request seeking to ascertain how much TUSD has spent fighting a lawsuit that could return millions of dollars to the District.

The public records request sought copies of all invoices received from and/or payments made to the law office of Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud, & Romo for legal costs associated with cases involving plaintiff Jim McGee and the District’s construction consultant Balfour Beatty.

In a letter, written by the aforementioned law firm, the District claimed that legal invoices are exempt from disclosure as they are privileged attorney-client communications.  The letter was silent, however, on the reasoning behind not providing payment documents such as checks written to the law firm.

When asked about the legal costs School Board member Don Lee responded via a public Facebook group by stating, “I’m not telling you how much we are spending on the lawsuit because McGee will not tell me how much he is spending on his attorneys.”

One member of the Bond Oversight Committee had previously confirmed that the District was using funds stemming from the bond measures to pay the legal costs.  That notion, however, was refuted by Lee who has asserted that the District is not using bond money to pay for the lawsuits.

The issue has risen to the forefront after the Second District Court of Appeals recently ruled in McGee’s favor with regard to his claim that the District’s contractual relationship with Balfour Beatty violated long-standing conflict of interest laws.

Despite losing on that issue, and another where the District tried to claim McGee lacked standing to bring the lawsuit, the District sent out a press release vilifying the plaintiffs for bringing frivolous lawsuits and asserting it had won a “major legal victory.”  That press release also contained a quote from the District’s lawyers stating that, “School districts shouldn’t have to spend their limited resources defending against these baseless lawsuits.” In addition to the attorney’s representing the School District, the suit is being defended by attorneys representing Balfour Beatty as well as attorneys representing several other special interest groups.

Contrarily, the plaintiff’s have repeatedly asked the District to stop using their limited resources to fight the lawsuit and continue to insist that the District would be better served by joining them in their quest to return taxpayer dollars to Torrance schools.