Welcome to a horse race where no one will be surprised if every nag brakes to a dead halt just short of the finish line, the latest round in the many-sided, often opaque argument over the rules for the Baldwin Hills oil field.
After a 9-month lull, bitter adversaries in a 7- or 8-way dispute over regulations governing the oil field are scheduled to sit down tomorrow for mediation, to begin negotiating a settlement that most but not al of them hope will skirt the next courtroom date, March 29.
Until the bodies are counted in a certain conference room, it is not known whether all parties will be present — and when Culver City or the County alludes to “all parties,” they mean they are not positive whether the Plains Exploration and Production Co., the bullseye of four separate lawsuits, will participate.
At a community meeting last Wednesday, County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas pledged that no one of the estimated 20 persons would escape the room until denouement was reached, no matter how long it took.
Attorney Ken Kutcher, whose Culver Crest residence and law practice are directly involved, is not optimistic. “It took us three weeks just to settle on March 1,” he said.
“Until we sit down, I don’t know,” he said. But he added that unless there is hugely significant concurrence tomorrow, that could be the last chance to gain a settlement before the next court date.
