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Alleging conflict over ballpark, county wants appraiser inquiry
One of the commissioners who helped decide the land's value had ties to the owners, the county claims.
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Though the condemnation case involving the land for the new Minnesota Twins stadium is over, the fighting between the two sides goes on.
On Friday, Hennepin County asked for a court hearing to level sanctions against Larry Tucker, an appraiser who most closely sided with the original sale price sought by the stadium site's landowners. The reason: The county said Tucker had a conflict of interest that was never disclosed.
"This is just retribution and sour grapes on [the county's] part," said Rich Pogin, an official who represented the landowners. "The bitterness of kind of the whole process -- it certainly doesn't surprise me that they would do that."
In a legal motion, Hennepin County argued that Tucker -- one of three people appointed to hear last summer's emotional condemnation case -- was at the time a paid consultant for an attorney for the landowners. The county has asked for a hearing and wants Tucker to be barred for five years from serving as a court-appointed commissioner in condemnation cases in Hennepin County District Court.
The county also wants Tucker to repay the nearly $16,000 he received for being a commissioner, and wants landowner attorney Mark Savin and his law firm, Faegre & Benson, to pay the $37,000 in fees paid to the two other commissioners.
Efforts to reach Tucker on Saturday were unsuccessful.
In August, the three-person panel announced that the stadium property was worth $23.8 million. But hours after the figure was released, Tucker filed a dissent and said the property was worth $33.2 million.
In October, the two sides agreed on a $28.25 million price -- although county officials said that the figure was closer to $29 million after calculating interest. The ballpark is scheduled to open in 2010.
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