California Attorney General Opinion 24-701

Syllabus

QUESTIONS: SANDRIDGE PARTNERS, L.P., has applied for leave to sue MICHAEL SULLIVAN in quo warranto to remove him from public office on the Board of Trustees of the Tulare Lake Reclamation District No. 761 (Reclamation District). The application asserts that Sullivan, while serving as a Reclamation District Trustee, assumed a second and incompatible public office on the Board of Directors of the Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District (Water District), in violation of Government Code section 1099, and by doing so forfeited his seat on the Reclamation District Board. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that there are substantial legal issues as to whether Sullivan's two Board seats are legally incompatible, and as to whether he can be removed from the Reclamation District Board even though he recently resigned from the Water District Board. We further conclude that the public interest will be served by allowing the proposed quo warranto action to proceed. Consequently, the application for leave to sue is GRANTED.