Facing mounting legal costs, Mountain View sets aside another $1.2M to cover future lawsuits

Citing a funding shortfall, the city of Mountain View plans to reallocate $1.21 million from its annual budget to cover litigation expenses for the rest of the fiscal year.

When the city adopted its budget in June, it allocated $1.2 million to its Liability Insurance Fund, with $1 million set aside for outside litigation counsel costs and $200,000 for claims and settlements.

Five months into the fiscal year, almost all of the $1 million for outside counsel has been used for existing litigation, according to a recent council report.

To cover any additional litigation costs, city officials are recommending that the council appropriate an extra $1 million from its Liability Self-Insurance Fund and $210,000 from its Wastewater Fund, the report said. The City Council is set to vote on the extra funding at its Dec. 5 meeting.

The council can authorize the transfer of unused funds from the annual budget and use it for other purposes, with an affirmative vote from five council members, according to the report.

Since July, the City Council has discussed nine different litigation cases in closed session. This includes several lawsuits alleging unsafe walking conditions on city property and a federal lawsuit from San Francisco Baykeeper that claims the city’s aging sewer pipes are leaking and polluting the Bay.

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