City attorney Mark Christensen is moving forward with legal action against Jeff McClure and Andala Building, LLC, Mayor Earl Johnson told council members last night.

“Frankly, they have not lived up to their obligation,” Johnson said. “They’ve had far more than a reasonable amount of time to do something with the building.”

The mayor said the city is asking for a declaratory judgment action stating that only the city has rights to the building.

“We’re seeking ejectment action, which is a final determination so that when we work with someone on the property in the future, they (McClure and others associated with him) can’t come in and claim rights.

“This can be ended at any time Mr. McClure will come and sit down with us, and we have made him that offer,” Johnson said.

The city entered an agreement with Pacific Equity Investments in August of 2006 in which the city agreed to purchase the Andala building and two adjacent lots from John Tisdale for $270,000. The city agreed to build a parking lot on the adjacent lots, to contribute $30,000 toward a new roof on the Andala building and to hold a mortgage on the adjacent First National Bank building (also known as the Timmerman building) to secure its investment, according to Star-News files.

In return, McClure and Pacific Equity were to develop both the Andala building and the bank building.

In several interviews with The Star-News, McClure, a California developer, discussed plans to put a restaurant and a game room in the Andala building.

Johnson said the agreement on the bank building is a separate deal and is not included in this action.

In other business, the council:

Approved a bid of $197,510 from Carter’s Contracting Service, Inc. for construction of Kirkpatrick Park. The bid specs call for construction to be completed in 100 days.

Approved an ordinance for temporary financing of a new police training facility. Long-term, the facility will be financed through the USDA.

Was told by Johnson that city attorney Mark Christensen is working with the city BOE attorney to resolve a legal question of whether funds contributed by the city to the BOE count toward the 10-mill minimum required by the state.