Star Tribune - January 12, 2008

By David Brewster, Star Tribune

Construction continues on the new Twins ballpark. This is how it appeared on Thursday. It's scheduled to open in 2010.

Conflict of interest in Twins stadium land?

By MIKE KASZUBA, Star Tribune
Last update: January 12, 2008 - 11:49 AM

Though the condemnation case involving the land for the new Minnesota Twins stadium is over, the fighting between the two sides goes on.

On Friday, Hennepin County asked for a court hearing to level sanctions against Larry Tucker, an appraiser who most closely sided with the original sale price sought by the stadium site's landowners. The reason: The county said Tucker had a conflict of interest that was never disclosed.

"This is just retribution and sour grapes on their part," Rich Pogin, an official who represented the landowners, said of the county. "The bitterness of kind of the whole process -- it certainly doesn't surprise me that they would do that."

In a legal motion, Hennepin County argued that Tucker -- one of three people appointed to hear last summer's emotional condemnation case -- was at the time a paid consultant for an attorney for the landowners. The county has asked for a hearing, and wants Tucker to be barred for five years from serving as a court-appointed commissioner in condemnation cases in Hennepin County district court.

The county also wants Tucker to repay the nearly $16,000 he received for being a commissioner, and wants landowner attorney Mark Savin and his law firm, Faegre & Benson, to pay the $37,000 in fees paid to the two other commissioners.

Last August, the three-person panel announced that the stadium property was worth $23.8 million. But hours after the figure was released, Tucker filed a dissent and said the property was worth $33.2 million.

In October, the two sides agreed on a $28.25 million price -- although county officials said that the figure was closer to $29 million after calculating interest. The ballpark is scheduled to open in 2010.

MIKE KASZUBA