St. Paul asks for pause on $22 million suit over building permits

In March Patrick Bollom sued the city of St Paul as well as the director of the city s Department of Safety and Inspections and a plan review supervisor claiming he had been overcharged for in building permits to perform construction on his Berkeley Avenue home Rather than solely demand a partial refund on his own behalf the Macalester-Groveland homeowner has maintained that his matter forms the basis of a class-action lawsuit that could force the city to rewrite its permitting fees and possibly return million to million in overcharges per year to permit holders The cumulative citywide overcharges according to his lawsuit total more than million from to alone and were documented in the city s own building reports to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry Bollom a self-described serial entrepreneur and former sales manager for apparatus consultants has called for refunds in essence for everyone The city has denied Bollom s states and maintained that they ve acted within their rights and duties to collect permit fees including remittances required for state coffers Still City Hall s efforts to get his lawsuit dismissed in Ramsey County District Court have been unsuccessful to date In August the city requested and received a -day pause in legal proceedings given the impact of a weeks-long cyberattack that had made accessing city records arduous if not impossible Continuance sought On Nov St Paul City Attorney Lyndsey Olson petitioned Judge Leonardo Castro for another -day stay in legal proceedings given that greater part permitting records have yet to be transferred to the city s new record-keeping platform known as PAULIE The judge s response has yet to be filed On Tuesday Shawn Raiter Bollom s attorney with the St Paul law firm of Larson King filed a response indicating they were open to a partial stay on a few aspects of the occurrence but there are numerous other things that can be accomplished without that evidence If granted by Ramsey County District Court the continuance would push the situation into February leaving unanswered legal questions in the lap of a new mayoral administration and possibly a new city attorney just as a new city budget rolls out amid federal funding cuts and other fiscal challenges State Rep Kaohly Her this month won voting as mayor over incumbent Mayor Melvin Carter who had sought a third term in office Her has not indicated whether she will replace all or greater part of the city s department leaders and other top City Hall staff but chosen officers have disclosed they have no illusions that their time may be limited Pass-through fees or revenue generators The city council held a closed-door meeting last week to discuss Bollom s litigation Building permit costs are determined by the city s fee schedule and required for new construction and building additions including certain plumbing mechanical and electrical installation as well as construction removal remodeling or repair Bollom s lawsuit notes that a state rule governing building permits says the fees must be proportionate to the actual cost of the facility for which the fee is imposed but chosen cities use building permit revenue to pad their general funds The issue has been highlighted by particular state lawmakers and housing advocates such as the Housing Affordability Institute Bollom maintains permit fees are intended to be a pass-through of actual costs related to permitting and not a way to generate new general revenue He noted that in October Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed new licensing fees related to carbon dioxide toxicity noting the fees would expose the city to legal action because they did not appear to be calculated around actual costs of provision and likely would constitute in the eyes of the law an unauthorized tax Bollom declared he was charged by the city for electrical permits warm air permits mechanical permits a plumbing permit and a building permit all of which added up to His lawsuit does not specify the degree of refund he maintains he is entitled to A call to his attorney was not returned Friday and efforts to reach him directly were unsuccessful He contends however that in the affair of his Berkeley Avenue home his permit costs exceeded the actual cost St Paul incurred to perform the services needed to review and approve the applications which he maintains violates the Minnesota Constitution amounts to unlawful taxation a due process violation unjust enrichment and disgorgement Lawsuit Filed March his eight-count -page lawsuit is seeking a writ of mandamus or court order to the city to perform a legally required duty and declaratory and injunctive relief The city has denied all of his insists including that they form the basis for a class action In addition to the city and the director of DSI Bollom s lawsuit specifically lists plan review supervisor James Williamette as a defendant Williamette a past chairman of the Association of Minnesota Building Personnel was featured in a investigative story by the Minnesota Star Tribune which had uncovered an email that he had sent to fellow association board members the bulk of them municipal building executives acknowledging that overcharges were both illegal and widespread We all have to agree we know it has been happening We all know that when we declared something about it it fell on deaf ears mentioned Williamette in the email which is quoted at length in Bollom s lawsuit We all know that pushing this issue with management was inevitably tough and a sparse of our peers were let go over this Williamette reported in the email that municipal building personnel had little control over how the money is allocated and the fact is preponderance cities depend on permit revenue to help balance the budget Defendants published from circumstance In June Castro granted the city s request to release Williamette and DSI Director Angie Wiese as defendants in the situation as well as other unnamed city building agents noting the lawsuit failed to state specific alleges against them The city has rolled out the new online permitting and record-keeping tool known as PAULIE and it has yet to absorb all of the records that were stored in the previous interfaces known as AMANDA and ECLIPS according to the city attorney s memorandum in patronage of a practicable legal continuance PAULIE only contains complete records for permit applications submitted after July as the city is still in the process of transferring older documents DSI relies heavily on its digital portals relative to permit and plan reviews The cyberattack severely impacted DSI in its ability to administer permits and review plans reads the legal memo Because of the cyber-attack s impact on those systems to date the city has been unable to successfully transfer that evidence to PAULIE On Tuesday a spokesperson for the mayor s office declined further comment noting the city generally avoids commenting on pending litigation Related Articles St Paul City Council President Rebecca Noecker to run for Ramsey County Board MN History Center Five objects with Minnesota stories to tell St Paul City Council bans cryptocurrency kiosks Give to the Max Day aims to raise millions Thursday for nonprofits schools St Paul Parks Conservancy to absorb Great River Passage Conservancy