Mayor predicts legal victory
Mayor Pete Tucker said the city will win the day when a potentially bankrupting, $700 million lawsuit comes to trial. He also outlined ways the city is addressing the economic downturn, and praised municipal workers and the town’s private sector as he delivered the annual State of the City address. Speaking to public officials, activists and businesspeople in a banquet room of the Beach House Hotel on Thursday, Tucker first addressed the breach-of-contract lawsuit by Macpherson Oil Company, which at one time had secured permission to slant-drill for oil under the Pacific Ocean, from a base on city-owned land. “We as a city feel we have a great defense for our case,” Tucker said. “…We believe when we go to trial we will win this case.” After a 12-year fight up and down the court system, the city has been told that it can get out from under the breach-of-contract claim if it can convince a jury that the oil drilling project was too dangerous to allow. A civil trial focusing on alleged dangers of the project is scheduled to begin Jan. 18, 2012. Tucker said he and fellow councilman Michael DiVirgilio, appointed as a subcommittee by the full council, have met with Macpherson…
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