Amador County – Superior Court Judge Don Howard ruled Tuesday against an Amador County request for an injunction to stop the closing process of the Preston Correctional Youth Facility in Ione.
The suit in Amador Superior Court continues and the next date involved is a mandatory settlement conference scheduled for March 28.
Amador County is suing the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation to stop the closure of Preston on the grounds that CDCR did not properly follow the California Environmental Quality Act when it determined that Preston should be closed.
Deputy County Counsel Greg Gillott said Tuesday’s hearing was the county’s request for a preliminary injunction, which would have at least temporarily stopped the process of closing Preston on the merits of the pending lawsuit. Judge Howard denied the petition for a preliminary injunction.
Gillott said the county had to show two things to prevail. He said the judge had to find that ultimately the county would prevail in the suit. The judge also had to find that the county showed that there was immediate irreparable harm that would happen to county as a result of the closure.
Gillott said either Judge Howard believed the county did not make sufficient showing that it would prevail, or if it did, the county did not show irreparable harm would befall the county. He said the closure process will continue and the county’s lawsuit will continue.
Amador County believes there are impacts to CEQA, Gillott said, such as the county’s understanding that Preston’s closure will stop operation of a pump out of a pond that runs a sprinkler system in front of Preston Castle. He said the county thinks things like that are significant and CDCR should have evaluated things like that before making a decision to close, and should have come up with mitigation. If the county prevails, CDCR would have to go back and do CEQA analysis of its decision.
No hearing date has been set, but the county and CDCR have a settlement conference, required under CEQA, which is set for March 28. They will also talk about hearing dates in the future.
CDCR will have to prepare an administrative record of everything it evaluated when it made the decision to close Preston, Gillott said, and “that’s ultimately what the court will rule on.” The county may have issues with what is or is not included in that record.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
