It Won’t Cost Asbury Park Much Money To Sue To Retake The Casino

In the end, the City will make money.

If you were at the February 18 special City  Council meeting to address issues about waterfront redevelopment, you saw some information, and a lot of propaganda.

There was a clear push to dissuade the public from wanting the City to take legal action to recapture the Casino.  They insisted  it might be too costly.  Words were thrown around like “could cost millions” and “bankrupt the city.”

Applesauce.  Let’s look closer.

This isn’t 2006 and the City isn’t broke anymore.  They operate in the black thanks to over  $10 million annual revenue in parking and beach fees (your money).  Over the past 5 years many property taxes doubled or tripled, resulting in annual revenue to the City approaching $50 million (your money).  I’m not even including those abusive parking ticket fines (also your money).

Funny how the City didn’t think it cost too much money when they used Eminent Domain to take our neighbors’ homes and businesses to turn them over to the waterfront redeveloper.

They didn’t think it would bankrupt the City when they took the Albion Hotel from Carol Torre, Asbury’s LGBTQ+ pioneer and local legend.  No complaints of cost when they took the home of the elderly Angie Hampilos. There were no cost considerations when they went after the Kary family.  Johna Karpinski picked up her home and moved it so the ravenous developer wouldn’t destroy one of the oldest homes in Asbury (let’s all praise Johna for being tough enough to beat the billionaires).

The City didn’t cry poverty when they went to court to try to make Rich DiPietro, developer of the Britwood, pay for the waterfront developer’s infrastructure obligations.  

Don’t even get me started on their treatment of Pat Fasano, a man who was the biggest driver of Downtown redevelopment in Asbury Park history.  They treated him so poorly he refocused his efforts on developing another City.

Why when the City sues one of us, it’s full steam ahead, but when it’s time to sue names like iStar and Madison Marquette the City clutches their piggy bank full of our money?

There are two different legal theories the City can use to take the Casino.  One is a breach of contract action.  The other is through condemnation or Eminent Domain.

The contract action has the best chance of success.  It is also cheaper and faster. The issues are more certain. It’s the way to go.

The City ignored that contract at the meeting and focused on the difficulties of Eminent Domain, for no other reason than to scare you.

The problem with Eminent Domain is the City would have to pay “fair market value” of the Casino to the developer.  Any lawyer will tell you deciding what that means results in long court cases.  The City will have an expert say it’s worth one number.  iStar and Madison Marquette will have an expert say a much higher number.   Only a full trial will decide. 

The scare (they say) is that if the Court says the Casino is worth a very high number, the taxpayer will be on the hook for it.  I’m not sure how the developer will say the Casino is worth a lot while also applying for demolition permits because the building is worthless, but they’ll try.  So put Eminent Domain aside.

The contract case has no such problem.  The contract says what the City will have to pay for the Casino if they take it back after default - $1.5 million.  At that price, new developers will line up outside the Court offering to buy it from the City for far more than that.

There were two other scare tactics at the meeting.

First, the City said the developer’s lawyers would bury us in documents and paperwork.  Not so. 

There is much less paperwork in a contract case because what needs to be decided is the meaning of the words in the contract.  The court won’t even look to other documents unless the the contract itself has ambiguous terms.  Even if they show that, there won’t be many other documents to review.

Also, has the City heard of this new tool called “AI?”  I can upload a 5000-page document, ask it to pull out every paragraph that addresses an issue, and have the answer in under a minute.  That used to take all day.  Lawyers aren’t afraid of paper today.

Second, it was stated that the developer would indiscriminately “start taking everyone’s  deposition.”  No. Vexatious use of discovery to stall and harass is disallowed by the Court Rules.  Lawyers end up in trouble when they try that.  Courts put a stop to it.

Also, there are laws that protect a City from depositions more than the rest of us.  The law is clear that you don’t get to just depose people like mayors and other decision makers.  You must show first that they have first-hand knowledge of certain facts, AND that you can’t discover those facts anyway else.  Even if you do win the right to depose an office holder, the Court very much limits the topics you can ask.

So the contract action won’t cost the City a great deal of money. It’s clear Asbury can win that case, which is laid out here.  There is no excuse to not file that action right now.

One final thought:  The City should go ahead and order an appraisal right now anyway.  You are going to need to know what to charge the next developer when you strip the Casino from the pretend developers who have ignored it for 24 years.