The Viewpoint last reported that the lawsuit filed against the City of Sacramento, SCNA, Andrea Rosen and Eric Johnson was scheduled to be heard on the merits on May 12. Instead, the Court hearing on this date was devoted to ongoing wrangling over documents sought by Petrovich as his side seeks to enhance the administrative record on which the suit will be decided. The parties also disputed the scheduling and scope of the four depositions allowed by the judge.
Briefly, at earlier hearings the Court reviewed detailed declarations submitted by city officials, including Councilmember Jay Schenirer, regarding their disposition of texts and emails concerning city business conducted on their private emails or cell phones. Due to a change in the law announced in March 2017 by the California Supreme Court requiring public agencies to produce some of these private emails and texts as public records, the Court has allowed some depositions to see if these witnesses can recall the content of any of those emails or texts that were deleted prior to the change in law.
Judge Michael Kenny resisted the mighty efforts of Petrovich’s lawyers to order the deposition of Councilmember Jay Schenirer, noting that Schenirer’s declaration and production of emails and texts were satisfactory. The fact that Petrovich has filed two lawsuits against the city (one for damages and one seeking to overturn the city’s denial of the permit to build the megafuel center) has complicated the deposition scheduling. After the judge declined to micro-manage the scheduling conflict, both parties agreed to move forward.
The hearing on the merits of the case challenging the city’s denial of the fuel station permit was tentatively set for Oct. 13.