A Fresno County Superior Court judge appears to be leaning toward a trial in the city of Fresno’s effort to evict a nonprofit from operating the Granite Park Sports Complex.

The city is seeking to remove the nonprofit Central Valley Community Sports Foundation over failing to pay rent and violating the lease.

Judge Maria G. Diaz heard arguments for more than an hour Monday afternoon on the city’s motion for summary judgment — asking the judge to decide the case based on the facts instead of sending it to a jury.

“Summary judgment is to save everybody time and money if there’s nothing that a jury would serve a purpose for. It’s the city’s position that this is really the judge’s call because the facts are the facts here,” said Kristi Marshall, a contracted attorney for the city with the firm Whitney, Thompson and Jeffcoach.

However, Paul Armo, the CVCSF attorney, argued that there was nothing but disputes of fact and how the law applies.

“This isn’t anything that can be decided right now,” Armo told the court. “There are too many outstanding issues.”

Diaz called it a complex case with numerous factual issues. She took the matter under advisement and said she aims to issue a ruling next week.

“The court, reading between the lines, I think is implying that there’s a lot of issues that at this time can’t be decided, but that doesn’t mean it’s not factual,” Armo said after the hearing.

A trial is set for April 27.

“The court needs to review the evidence again. This motion will be granted or denied based on admissible evidence,” Diaz said.

She said she needs to examine the lease provisions, and court cases cited by Marshall.

City’s Third Eviction Attempt in Court

This is the city’s third attempt to file an unlawful detainer against CVCSF. The first case was thrown out because the city did not provide proper notice, but the judge allowed the city to refile.

When the city refiled, a lender for the nonprofit filed to intervene, and the city dropped its case — temporarily.

The most recent filing last December corrected any timing issues. LandValue Management LLC, the lender, again filed to intervene. Diaz said she expects to rule on that motion next week.

Marshall argued in court that CVCSF owes $600,000 in rent and utilities. She said several arguments made by CVCSF were without foundation or lacked admissible evidence to support them.

Marshall also challenged allegations made by CVCSF president and CEO Terance Frazier in court documents that the eviction attempt is retaliation.

Frazier has an ongoing civil rights lawsuit against the city in federal court. He attended Monday’s hearing.

“We have a situation where the landlord had a legitimate issue, where there is no evidence of retaliatory actions,” Marshall said.

‘Wrongful Conduct by the City’

Armo disagreed, saying these are issues that need to be tried in court. He also said that the legal response time of five days for an unlawful detainer is not enough to address 3,000 pages of motions.

“This $600,000 that is alleged to be due is caused by wrongful conduct by the city,” Armo said.

Armo said the city never placed the city-owned park into a special PG&E program that could have reduced rates. The city also never made an effort to provide purple water — recycled water — to the park, the attorney said, citing comments from Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias.

Arias’ arguments should not be admissible, Marshall told the judge.

Armo asked for another hearing to question city employees on the stand. Diaz rejected the request.

Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz said he would have no comment on the case until Diaz makes a ruling.

However, Fresno City Manager Georgeanne White issued this statement to GV Wire:

“I think the question is why we didn’t pursue eviction sooner. It’s our responsibility as the landlord of an asset owned by the taxpayers to hold our tenants accountable. Central Valley Community Sports Foundation has been in default for well over a year. Both the Foundation and its lender have been given multiple opportunities to cure the default, but have not.  There have been serious public safety issues that have exposed the public to danger. This and the loss of the parking license as a result of the Foundation’s unpermitted and unsafe events have exposed the city to legal liability.  Given these failures, and our repeated attempts to address these defaults, we were left with no choice but to pursue litigation.”