BHGR Intervenes: CERES v. Boulder County Commissioners

Three Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti attorneys—Rudy Verner, Josh Marks, and Andrew Fischer—again helped Marshall Together, a community non-profit organized by and for Marshall Fire survivors, intervene in a lawsuit seeking to stop work under Boulder County’s coordinated cleanup contract.

The firm helped Marshall Together for the first time in April of this year, filing a motion to intervene and complaint in the Boulder County District Court case Demanding Integrity in Government Spending v. Boulder County. The judge ultimately dismissed that lawsuit.

When Ceres Environmental Services, Inc., a losing bidder, later sued Boulder County and requested that the Boulder County District Court invalidate and terminate the County’s contract with DRC Emergency Services, LLC (DRC), the winning bidder for the County’s coordinated Private Property Debris Removal (PPDR) contract, Marshall Together again retained Berg Hill to intervene. The Ceres lawsuit alleged that the County awarded DRC the $60 million contract after a flawed bidding process, and Ceres requested that the court immediately pause work under the contract. After Berg Hill laid out Marshall Together’s clear and strong interest in allowing work under the contract to continue, the judge granted Marshall Together’s motion to intervene and, ultimately, dismissed Ceres’s lawsuit for lack of standing—a win for Marshall Together and Marshall Fire survivors.

Marshall Together is a board-managed nonprofit corporation based in Louisville, founded and run solely by Marshall Fire survivors, with a mission to engage and empower the communities affected by the Marshall Fire to restore their lives, homes, neighborhoods, and businesses. Marshall Together provides a community and organization through which Marshall Fire survivors can crowdsource information and work together on their fire recoveries.

In recognition of the immense loss that Marshall Fire survivors and so many others in the firm’s Boulder County community suffered and continue to suffer, Berg Hill represented Marshall Together at no cost (pro bono).