Second suit on River Campus filed

Cape Girardeau businessman Jim Drury on Tuesday filed a second lawsuit against the proposed River Campus project even as he waits for a Missouri Supreme Court ruling in his first lawsuit.

In his latest filing, Drury contends the Cape Girardeau City Council ignored a Dec. 31, 2001, self-imposed funding deadline and extended an agreement with Southeast Missouri State University on the River Campus arts school project, violating the state's Hancock Amendment.

Last November the city council gave the university two more years to come up with private and state funding for the planned arts school in Cape Girardeau. University officials have said the original lawsuit hampered fund raising.

Mayor Al Spradling III said late Tuesday afternoon that he hadn't seen the most recent lawsuit. But Spradling said he wasn't surprised that Drury is suing again.

"Mr. Drury is not going to give up. He is going to do everything in his power to thwart the will of the people," Spradling said.

Drury, for his part, said there's no reason why city money should be used to help fund the university project. He claims the city's financing of the project is dead and can't be revived without voter approval.

Voters in November 1998 approved a measure hiking the motel tax and extending both the motel and restaurant taxes to Dec. 31, 2030, to provide the city's part of project funding. Drury sued the city, claiming that the title of the 1998 tax ordinance was too vague. Lower courts agreed, prompting the city to appeal to the state's highest court.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule by March.

But Spradling said a Supreme Court ruling might allow the city to proceed with the project even while the second lawsuit is pending.

"If the Supreme Court decides in our favor, I think that is enough for us to go forward," the mayor said.

Don Dickerson, president of Southeast's Board of Regents, said city funding is crucial for the project. Southeast wants to turn a former Catholic seminary in Cape Girardeau into a visual and performing arts school at a cost of $36 million.

Approximately half the cost would come from the state. The city would raise nearly $9 million, and approximately $9 million more would come from the university.

New lawsuit

The latest lawsuit was filed in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court.

It centers on the city's original ordinance, passed by the council in August 1998, which spelled out the River Campus financing plan that voters approved three months later.

A provision in that ordinance states that the tax measure would be terminated if the city council found that the state and university hadn't committed sufficient money for the River Campus project by Dec. 31, 2001. The money that had been raised since the 1998 vote then would go toward paying off the Show Me Center bonds under the terms of the ordinance.

But the council voted to extend the deadline two years in November.

The lawsuit suggests a provision of the Hancock Amendment requiring voters to approve taxes was violated when the city council extended the deadline in November.

Spradling said the council can't decide whether sufficient funding exists to proceed with the project until Drury's first lawsuit is resolved.

State funding for the project depends on securing the city funding, which the lawsuit has put in question.

More lawsuits?

Drury and his attorney, Walter S. Drusch of Cape Girardeau, said the city council can't extend the deadline. Under the Missouri Constitution, voter approval would be needed to extend the funding deadline, he said.

But Spradling dismissed the litigation and said there's no assurance that Drury won't file more lawsuits to block the project.

The mayor said Drury has the money to keep fighting the city in court. "Most people don't have frivolous cash on hand to spend thousands and thousand of dollars suing the city," Spradling said.

Drury said his lawsuit isn't frivolous. He said city officials won't resubmit the tax issue to voters because they fear it would be defeated.

Drusch said the latest lawsuit could leave the project in limbo for at least a year unless the Supreme Court rules in Drury's favor on the first lawsuit.

"If the Supreme Court rules for us, then our new lawsuit is moot," Drusch said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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