Judge may toss lawsuit over Mendocino supe's travel expenses

Mendocino Supervisor Kendall Smith spent $3,067 on hotel rooms in 2005

By GLENDA ANDERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 1:16 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 7:54 p.m.

A lawsuit aimed at forcing a Mendocino County supervisor to repay $3,087 in travel expenses appeared unlikely to be upheld following a hearing in small claims court Wednesday night.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge John Behnke took the issue under submission but said he was inclined to dismiss the case brought against Supervisor Kendall Smith by Anderson Valley Advertiser publisher Bruce Anderson.

Anderson, as have three grand juries, said Smith wrongfully claimed mileage between her Fort Bragg home and Ukiah when she actually spent nights in Ukiah. He was asking that the money be reimbursed to the county.

Smith said using mileage funds for lodging was a standard practice at the time and that she had been advised by her predecessor and the clerk of the board that it was acceptable. Coast supervisors must drive more than an hour each way on a winding road to reach the county offices, and Smith said she would stay overnight when she conducted county business in Ukiah two days in a row.

But it appears the underlying allegations that have dogged Smith for almost four years won't be resolved in court.

“I sincerely doubt I have jurisdiction,” Behnke said. The judge said either the district attorney or county counsel have jurisdiction when allegations of false claims are made against government officials.

Former District Attorney Meredith Lintott already has declined to prosecute Smith, saying there was no evidence she intended to defraud the county.

Behnke also noted that the incidents that gave rise to the lawsuit occurred in 2005 and 2006, likely placing them outside the statute of limitations.

Behnke dismissed outright the allegations against Smith's co-plaintiff, Auditor-Controller Meredith Ford, saying she could not be sued for decisions made in good faith in her official capacity.

The issue of mileage reimbursement was first raised in the 2006-07 Mendocino County Grand Jury report.

Two subsequent grand juries also raised the issue and urged Lintott to demand a reimbursement. She initially declined but last year ordered Ford to garnish Smith's wages.

Ford sought legal advice from the County Counsel's Office, which referred the issue to the Sonoma County Counsel's Office.

The Sonoma County Counsel's Office said that Lintott did not have the authority to order the garnishing without a court judgment.

There's been a “scrupulous passing of the buck,” Anderson told Behnke, while explaining why he had not filed a claim until late last year.

Smith called the allegations against her “untimely and unproven.”

Grand jury findings “should not be taken as fact,” she told the judge. She said the $3,087 figures was an estimate made by the grand jury and had not been substantiated.

More than a dozen spectators, many of them members and former members of county grand juries, packed into the small courtroom where the lawsuit was heard. The grand jury members declined to comment.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20110105/ARTICLES/110109797?Title=Mendocino-supe-s-travel-expense-case-goes-to-court