Fratus v. Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors

MEMORANDUM

Plaintiffs brought claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , alleging violations of their procedural and substantive due process rights. Plaintiffs argue that the Contra Costa County Department of Conservation and Development (“DCD”) violated their rights when, it concluded that a 1951 county ordinance prohibited Plaintiffs from maintaining second units on the lower levels of them properties. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review the district court’s grant of summary judgment on Plaintiffs’ claims de novo, and we affirm.

Plaintiffs make two procedural due process arguments, but our precedents preclude the first and Plaintiffs waived the second. Plaintiffs argue that DCD’s Deputy Director Jason Crapo, who heard Plaintiffs’ administrative appeals, was a biased hearing officer because of DCD’s financial stake in the case and Crapo’s prior involvement in the matter. First, this court previously denied an analogous claim based on an adjudicator’s financial bias because that adjudicator derived no more than five percent of its budget from the fees at issue. Alpha Epsilon Phi Tau Chapter Hous. Ass’n v. City of Berkeley, 114 F.3d 840, 847 (9th Cir.1997). Here, DCD…