It has been fivecto ten years ago but the City of Half Moon Bay also made a huge blunder. Long story short they made a developer widen a road to their specs, which blocked a culvert. Water backed up and created a ‘wetlands’ they then denied him a building permit on that basis. He sued and eventually won 43 million ( if memory serves). The city then declared bankruptcy so as to not pay off the debt. That was were it stood when I moved away so my info is not current after that.
I vaguely remember that.
There’s no limit to the lengths people will go to keep their jobs.
I bet they considered having the guy wasted, but couldn’t find anyone that would do the deed and who would keep their names out of it.
Here’s the latest I could find on HMB. Looks as though they settled for $18 million, but they had to functionally unincorporate to pay the judgement. We go there once in a while for a seafood dinner
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704278404576038390054784916