A judge has ordered Promote La Jolla (PLJ) to seat Nancy Warwick and Bob Collins on the board immediately, after PLJ lost a court battle over the group’s November elections.
On Feb. 21, Judge John S. Meyer signed a petition ordering PLJ, La Jolla’s business improvement district, to seat Warwick and Collins. The two will fill vacancies from the November election, in which they ran, after it was found that two of the incumbent candidates were ineligible and should not have run for re-election.
Warwick and Collins were challengers in the November PLJ election and were runners-up when Izzy Tihanyi and Gregory Rizzi won the last two spots. When Rizzi and Tihanyi were later found to be ineligible under the PLJ bylaws, PLJ began interviewing candidates to fill the vacancies, including their own accountant. Warwick and Collins then filed suit against PLJ.
Meyer found PLJ violated its own bylaws, saying the group should have seated Warwick and Collins for the next term. Also, both parties brought up La Jolla’s paid on-street parking issue, but Meyer said it had no bearing on the case.
“It seems obvious, at least to me,” Meyer said during the original hearing on Feb. 8. “This seems pretty straightforward.”
Just days after their win in court, Warwick and Collins attended the monthly PLJ meeting and watched as the board elected the year’s officers. They were not seated at that time, and there was an indication that PLJ would appeal the ruling.
Warwick said she has been the victim of “repeated false and personal attacks directed at [her] business…” by those who want paid parking in La Jolla. In a letter, she wrote that her store, Warwick’s on Girard Avenue, has been targeted by people in favor of parking who said her store contributed to the parking problem, among other things.
During PLJ’s monthly meeting on Feb. 13, Tom Cerruti, a La Jolla village business owner, asked PLJ President Deborah Marengo how much money PLJ is spending in attorney’s fees on the Warwick and Collins case.
“No comment,” Marengo said.
“Do you have a budget for legal fees?” Cerruti asked.
“No comment,” Marengo said.
Cerrruti, who is a member of PLJ, said fees are attached to all La Jolla Village business owners’ business taxes and that he has a right to know what his money is used for. Other members in attendance asked to speak, but Marengo said she had already called for public comment.
Board members then voted in officers for the year, even though there were two vacancies on the board ” the spots Collins and Warwick would later be given by the judge’s ruling.
“I’m not sure if they’re allowed to do that, or not,” Cerruti said. “But it sure is ungracious.”