Philip
Seymour, Farr’s attorney, cited several cases to justify Pappas paying Farr’s
legal fees, but McLafferty ruled that Farr’s claim
did not fall under the law.
Stan Green,
one of Pappas’ attorneys, said the outcome was as he expected, since Farr’s
motion did not fall under a category of public interest, where statutes for
attorney’s fees would apply.
“There was no
provision for attorneys’ fees in this situation,” he said in a phone interview.
“(They had) two statues that they were using for their motion, but frankly, it
was really a stretch. They took their chances.”
During the
hearing, Seymour admitted there was no published statute for this type of
situation, though the manner of the case did qualify as public interest, he
said.
“There should
be a law,” Seymour said to McLafferty after the decision.
Neither Farr
nor Pappas were in attendance for the hearing, Farr called election law
“archaic” and said she will be appealing the decision.
She said
current election law needs to be updated so this type of situation can’t happen
again. When asked if she thought her legal bills were worth the defense of her
supervisorial seat, she said, “I don’t know how you put a price on protecting
people’s right to have their votes counted. I think that’s priceless and for
the integrity of the process.”
She said
several members of the public told her the law is unfair, and without her
prompting, have written letters to Senator Tony
Strickland and Assembly Member Pedro Nava about the issue.
Telephone
calls to Pappas for his comments were not returned by press time.
Pappas, who
lost the 3rd District supervisorial race to Farr by 806 votes, contested the
election results in January and filed a lawsuit against Farr. Farr received
more votes in the election from the precincts in Isla Vista and Goleta,
according to official election returns, while Pappas got more in the Santa Ynez
Valley.
While Pappas
emphasized earlier in the legal process that he didn’t think Farr did anything
wrong, the only way for him to contest the results of the election was to sue
her personally.
The Pappas
team alleged that thousands of voter registration forms from the precincts at
the University of California-Santa Barbara and in Isla Vista were gathered and
certified in violation of county election protocol.
Though McLafferty ruled against Pappas in March — even criticizing
Pappas for pursuing a lawsuit without evidence — Pappas appealed the result in
April.
Green said
that appeal is still pending, and he hopes to have a hearing date before the
end of the year.
Reach
Lauren Crecelius at lcrecelius@syvjournal.com.