Trump omitted some facts

From Wednesday's Letters to the Editor, a letter from RPV Councilman Doug Stern:

Trump omitted some facts

The Daily Breeze reported that Donald Trump had sued the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, claiming that it had required too much geological review of portions of the Trump National Golf Course after the infamous 18th-hole landslide. Trump was apparently not happy with the Dec. 19 Daily Breeze article written by staff writer Nick Green, titled "Trump sues RPV for $100M." So he sent his response as a letter to the editor, chastising Green for "omitting" facts that Trump thought important. According to Trump, "As usual, your reporter, Nick Green, who is absolutely terrible, misstated the facts."

But Trump also forgot to mention a rather important fact himself.

Trump agreed (first in 2003, restated in 2004) to resolve all geologic disputes through a three-person panel of geologic experts, and to be bound by those decisions. The agreement states: "The Panel shall resolve disagreements between city's geological and geotechnical experts and the experts that are performing work on behalf of developer.

"City and developer agree not to restrict the areas that the panel may explore to make such determination and to defer to the judgment of the panel with respect to what additional geologic studies and tests, if any, should be conducted in order to permit such residential development.

"The parties hereby acknowledge that the panel is being retained to resolve differences between the respective geological/geotechnical experts retained by the parties in order to allow developer to complete the development of the project.

"City and developer hereby covenant and agree that any decisions and recommendations rendered by the panel shall be binding on both city and developer." Rancho Palos Verdes has complied with the agreement and accepted the determinations of the panel.

Yet Trump is now suing Rancho Palos Verdes and some of the geologic panel members as a result of the determinations of that agreed-upon panel of experts. He is claiming that the panel of experts that evaluated the geology, determined the necessary geologic analysis and directed that those tests be conducted required too much of him. So much for agreeing to be bound by the determinations of the panel.

- DOUGLAS W. STERN