Landowners Issue City Ultimatum Buy Property By Aug. 5 Or It’s Back To Court, Say Ronalds

Steve and Leslie Ronald have issued an ultimatum to Spokane city officials.

Pay $2.18 million for their riverfront property by Aug. 5 or meet them in court at least once and possibly twice more.

“The city has held the Ronalds hostage for more than four years,” the couple’s attorney, Mike Maurer, wrote in a letter sent Monday to City Attorney Jim Sloane and the City Council.

“Should it desire the property, the city may save the taxpayers millions of dollars by accepting the Ronalds’ offer. … Should the city reject or continue to ignore this settlement, the consequence will be fiscally and politically disastrous.”

On Tuesday, Councilman Jeff Colliton called the Ronalds’ offer “unacceptable,” while Mayor Jack Geraghty said the council likely isn’t interested in “looking at this stuff.”

Geraghty blasted Maurer for making the letter public.

“I’m absolutely amazed and outraged that a member of one of our most prestigious law firms … wants to have this tried in the public media and not a court of law,” he said.

Attempts to reach other council members on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

The Ronalds planned to build a seven-story condominium complex on the 1.34-acre slip of land, but the council voted in 1995 to condemn the site to save the view of the falls from the downtown library.

After a six-day trial last April, jurors decided the Ronalds’ land was worth $2.184 million - nearly 50 times the value set by one appraiser hired by the city.

Council members debated walking away from the condemnation, saying the city couldn’t afford the jurors’ price tag. But the city appealed the jury’s ruling.

The couple’s offer in Monday’s letter states:

The city pays the Ronalds the $2.184 million, plus $150,000 in attorneys and expert witness fees.

In exchange, the couple drops a $3 million lawsuit scheduled for trial in December alleging the city blocked the Ronalds from building on the land.

The couple also releases the city from its state-mandated obligation to pay them interest on the jury award.

The Ronalds earn $719 every day in interest - about $250,000 a year - until the city buys the land or withdraws from the condemnation.

State law also requires the city to pay the couple’s legal fees if officials choose to buy the land or drop the condemnation.

If the city doesn’t agree to the offer, the Ronalds will proceed to court in December, Maurer wrote.

The couple also plans to file a second lawsuit alleging the city has “inversely condemned” the property by agreeing to buy the land as part of a settlement with attorney Steve Eugster over the Lincoln Street bridge project, Maurer said.

Eugster sued to stop the bridge from being built, but dropped the case when the city agreed to buy the Ronalds’ land to preserve open space near the bridge.

City Attorney Sloane refused to comment on the possibility of a second lawsuit.

Maurer said his clients desperately want to stop the seemingly endless battles over the property. “This has caused a lot of anguish to them,” he said Tuesday. “They are not greedy people. They want to resolve this and they want it out of their lives.”

So far, city officials haven’t contacted the Ronalds over the recent discovery that the city needs 200 square feet of the couple’s land to build the Lincoln Street bridge, Maurer said.

While engineers for the city think the land is necessary, neither Geraghty or Colliton is convinced, they said. Both said the bridge could be built smaller than originally planned.

“There may be portions of the bridge we can take off,” Colliton said.

, DataTimes