Right here in River City?
The Sacramento-based law firm of Somach, Simmons and Dunn filed suit on November 5 against Riverside Motorsports Park (RMP) for breach of a promissory note. Somach alleges that John Condren, CEO of Riverside, signed a promissory note on August 17 for $147,703.32, payable on November 1 for legal services the firm rendered to RMP. The two Somach attorneys representing RMP departed that firm for another Sacramento firm about that time, presumably piling up new, unpaid legal bills. Only one of the questions raised by the Somach suit is who will pay RMP attorneys to defend against it.
There were recent reports about a similar situation between RMP and Merced County, currently being sued under the California Environmental Quality Act for approving the racetrack project. RMP is indemnifying the county for the lawsuit, presumably paying all its legal bills. Lawsuits are now flying around the Altamont Speedway, another RMP project. Then, there were the post-Merced County-approval revelations about Condren's prior unsavory business affairs. An interesting portrait is beginning to emerge. We don't refer to the portrait of Condren, who is beginning to look like a practitioner of a fascinating criminal specialty better dealt with by dramatic geniuses like David Mamet than by mere country bloggers. We refer to now suspected suckers in high places, the same glorious Merced business, professional and political leadership that brought the city the highest mortgage-foreclosure rate in the nation last month.
Common sense and a decent hope suggest that the talented impresario might vanish, a sack of other peoples' money in hand and a trail of unpaid bills behind him. If that came to pass, perhaps a little trail of smooth dirt could be fashioned on one or two of those RMP parcels, where the above-mentioned "leaders" caked with the well-known substance could peddle their grandchildrens' plastic tricycles and chant in unison, "Vroom, Vroom, Vroom," for public amusement at the First Annual Suckers 500.
Badlands Journal editorial board