City hires attorneys to represent subpoenaed workers

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The city has appointed attorneys to represent two

employees and a former city official involved in the Orange County Grand

Jury’s investigation of allegations surrounding sewer leaks running under

Downtown during the 1990s.

Legal counsel has been hired for Public Works Director Robert

Beardsley; the city’s maintenance supervisor, Don Noble; and Les Jones, a

former director of public works who now works for the city of Garden

Grove.

In a report released last week, City Atty. Gail Hutton stated that the

City Council unanimously approved hiring Orange-based attorney Julian

Bailey to represent Beardsley, Costa Mesa attorney Paul Meyer for Noble

and Barry Groveman, based in Los Angeles, to advise and represent Jones.

The three men comprise half of a group subpoenaed by the grand jury

last month as it investigates whether the city failed to properly report

massive sewer leaks running beneath the Downtown and Old Town sections in

1996. City officials said City Administrator Ray Silver and Public Works

Department crew leader Jerry Dilks were two of the the other three

subpoenaed. The identity of the sixth person and whether legal counsel

has also been arranged for Silver and Dilks, was not confirmed Tuesday.

Hutton and attorneys for Beardsley, Noble and Jones did not return

repeated phone calls.

The attorney appointments come as the grand jury is looking into

claims that the city failed to properly report the 1996 sewage leaks,

which have since been sealed through repair projects. The leaks,

speculated by some to have allowed more than 70,000 gallons of sewage to

seep from leaky pipes, were found using video cameras to survey Downtown

and Old Town sewer lines. Officials with the local branch of the

California Regional Water Quality Control Board have said they weren’t

aware of the problem at the time.

Repair projects began in Old Town in October 1998, with similar ones

completed recently in Downtown. City officials have developed new

protocols to report sewage leaks and spills in the future.

Councilwoman Debbie Cook said hiring outside counsel to represent city

officials is a standard operating procedure in handling an investigation

such as the one facing Huntington Beach.

The attorneys “may or may not be needed, depending on whether the

[Orange County] district attorney’s office offers a settlement,” she

added.

Officials with the district attorney’s office did not comment on the

case or whether a settlement proposal was in the works Tuesday.