A lawsuit filed against the city of St. Paul by a group of downtown churches angry over their street assessments is still alive, and the attorney for the plaintiffs is trying to get St. Paul City Council Member Dave Thune on the stand for deposition. The city, in the legal response below, maintains that isn’t going to happen.
Here is the assistant city attorney’s legal response to Hoeschler’s request to bring Thune to the stand: City Response to Deposition Request in Church Suit
The Minnesota Court of Appeals last year sent the lawsuit back to Ramsey County District Court, reigniting the case, which had been tossed out by the lower court in 2012.
Attorney Jack Hoeschler was on his way to Ramsey County District Court on Thursday to depose another city employee who was once involved in a report to the city council on how property taxes might be impacted if the street assessments were done away with altogether. Hoeschler maintains that small businesses — particularly those located on commercial corners — would get a tax break if the street assessment system were folded into property taxes.
Here’s the back-story:
Three Lowertown churches, the First Baptist Church of St. Paul, the Assumption Church, and St. Mary’s Church, sued the city of St. Paul in 2012, arguing that it was unfair they were being assessed for street frontage at $16.20 per foot in 2011 — the same rate as much larger buildings and businesses, such as the Wells Fargo Tower and the Piper Jaffray Tower. Outside of downtown, most churches paid the residential rate of $3.20 per foot in 2011.
While recognizing that the street assessment system wasn’t exactly perfect, city officials said the downtown churches benefit from street cleaning, snow plowing, tree trimming, sidewalk patching and other day-to-day street work on a much more regular basis than churches in residential neighborhoods. City attorneys said the churches were treated the same as most other downtown properties, including nonprofit, business and government buildings. Condos are assessed differently.
The Assumption Church was also part of the original suit but did not participate in the appeal. Minnesota Public Radio and the two plaintiff churches have two similar suits pending related to street assessments from 2012 and 2013, also filed by Hoeschler. “Those cases have all been put on suspension pending what happens in 2011,” he said.