Speaker urges council to revisit family’s eminent domain settlement

Frank j Otto Ferrer Jr. used his public-comment time to renew a long-running grievance he said began with the city’s use of eminent domain. Ferrer described his father’s case as one of those that helped prompt state-level reforms and said, in the family’s view, the city underpaid when it acquired the property.

Ferrer cited an assessed value and said a 2.5-times multiplier would have produced about $410,000 at the time; he urged the council to address the outstanding balance and toward a remedy. "You can always make a right out of a wrong," Ferrer said, urging council members to act. He cited recorded council meetings from October 2001 and recommended the council correct what his family regards as an injustice.

The comment was a request for political and corrective action from the council; no formal motion or council response was recorded in the transcript.