Sweet wednesday March 16,2005

For the first time in nearly 7 years it is good to live in El Cerrito. There is the smell of victory in the air. The little guy went up against Goliath and we think won! In 1991 or 92 El Cerrito imposed an illegal tax, the property transfer tax. On of the recent propositions passed by California voters amd subsequent supreme court decisions declared the tax illegal, yet the city of El Cerrito continued to impose and collect the tax even though they knew it was illegal. In fact the city council made a secret decision to not go public about the illegality of the tax and to continue to collect. The El Cerrito citizens alliance in May of 2003 after investigating went to the city council and openly told them they knew what they were up to and that money was owed.
Well it wasnt until July 4 2003(independence day!) that the local paper , The Journal, published an article about it. Well Cyrill Wyatt-Donelly and her husband who had purchased ther home in El Cerrito in April 2002 thought they ought to apply for a refund of their money. They filed a claim, the claim was rejected. THey went to court and sued. They won their suit and the City appealed the decision, and today in Superior court Cyrill looks like she won! The city claimed there was no disputing the fact that they had collected the money illegally but what the substance of their case was the statute of limitations. claiming their ordinance was superior to California State Law. Well the judge didnt agree! The fun part was also the fact that the city attorney who first claims there is no dispute as to the actions of the city then says it was adjucated as illegal. nevertheless it was certainly wonderful to watch them look stupid. And even more so the claim is only for $3k, and the city attorney has probably billed the city $50K for the work .Nice Job! The sun is shining, the air is sweet and we won a small but vitally important victory.