Fuhrman threatens further legal action against City

Former Menifee City Council member Tom Fuhrman remains involved in a legal battle with the City. (File photo)

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The six-year battle between former City Council member Tom Fuhrman and the City of Menifee has included two lawsuits and may include a third legal action before it’s all over.

Fuhrman, who has twice sued the City for what he believes are illegal citations given to his 23-acre Wooden Nickel Ranch, has served written notice that he will pursue further action if the City doesn’t respond to his latest request by Feb. 19. Fuhrman's litigation was listed on the agenda for closed session consideration at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, but there was no reportable action from that item.

In a letter submitted to City Council members on Jan. 19, Fuhrman accuses City officials of disregarding the Council’s 4-1 vote during a 2016 meeting in which building permits for agricultural property was discussed. Fuhrman contends that then-Mayor Scott Mann kept the item from returning to the Planning Commission, effectively killing any reconsideration of City policy regarding construction on horse ranches.

In a civil suit filed in 2016, Fuhrman accuses Mann of looking for reasons to issue citations against Fuhrman’s ranch. In a news article in Menifee 24/7 that year, Fuhrman claims that after he defeated Mann for a City Council position before Mann returned to Council as mayor, Mann told him, “I’ll be back with a vengeance.”

That lawsuit contends that the City is incorrectly denying Fuhrman a business license exemption, ruling that his ranch does not quality as a commercial agricultural operation. A judge ruled in the City’s favor, while at the same time suggesting that City officials were unfairly going after Fuhrman over an extended period of time.

"The evidence indicates that the city is not treating Mr. Fuhrman fairly," judge Janet Kintner wrote in a 2016 court document. "One of the major problems is the mayor's e-mails, which indicate a great deal of animosity and too much focus on Mr. Fuhrman. And I hear from the history that there is a problem between them since they both ran for the same office, and at one point Mr. Fuhrman won and now Mr. Scott Mann is the mayor, who -- he never testified. I never heard from him.

"To put that much pressure on other people in the city like he apparently is doing causes a great deal of concern about whether they're being fair to Mr. Fuhrman. So what that indicates, is it possible for him to get a license? Is it possible for him to get building permits? Are they making it so expensive that it's not possible?"

In 2018, Fuhrman won an appeal of numerous citations given his ranch, but he says the issue of the business license exemption remains unresolved. And in a second letter to the Council on Jan. 19, he wrote the following:

“Mayor Bill Zimmerman and the present council have been repeatedly notified of this situation but have yet to even acknowledge that a problem exists. They have taken no corrective measures that I am aware of. I contend the City’s ongoing failure to address this issue constitutes a continuing violation of the public trust and is therefore actionable.

“I am simultaneously submitting this statement of my remarks and demand to the district attorney and to the FPPC [Fair Political Practices Commission], requesting and expecting their assistance in the process, all to the furtherance of good and open government.”

Fuhrman’s most recent court action was the submission of a legal brief on Sept. 30, 2021 supporting his appeal of citations against him. A court order regarding the previous lawsuit cited numerous delays because of COVID-19 court closures and set the date of May 19 for a hearing on the matter.