Three condominium owners owed rental revenue from David Holland Resort Lodging (DHRL) filed small claims suits in Third District Court last month. Their court date: October 7.

There doesn’t seem to be any rush from the executive side of local government either. Summit County manager Brian Bellamy and county attorney David Brickey both said they’re still gathering information before making decisions on what to do.

The three cases in small claims court were filed July 13, July 17 and July 28. For the first filer, that’s a 12-week wait. Debbie Faust, judicial case manager, said the court’s case load has increased significantly since 2007. A 10-week wait is normal now, and it’s worse in Salt Lake City, she said.

For example, the court assigns chronological numbers to cases. The numbers used now for new filings are the same ones that used to appear in November, she said.

County attorney David Brickey said he recently had a meeting with the detective on the case as well as Paul Christensen from the Park City Area Lodging Association and said there are still things “not completely ironed out.”

He said he’s met with the state Attorney General’s office to discuss economic crimes and have met with local attorneys on the case as well.

“All those components are being looked at and considered. No decision has been made no decision yet,” he said.

Last spring, Brickey said detectives were studying the rental contracts to see if the company promised anything they didn’t deliver on. That would constitute fraud. What’s taking so long, he explained on Wednesday, is that now detectives are studying DHRL’s business practices to see if anything that was done contradicted anything they said they’d contractually do.

“If all the bills are paid, and there’s no money left over, is that poor business dealings, tough economic times or criminal conduct?” he said. “If it’s a reflection of poor economic times and a bad business model in place, that’s civil (not criminal).”

He also said he and the investigators will be very interested to see what happens in the small claims court and that they’ll be attending that.

Then there’s still the issue of taxes. Both David Holland Resort Lodging and the now defunct Deer Valley Lodging collected sales tax but failed to pass it on to the state. DHRL owes less than the latter, but the issue still causes concern for the county.

“We haven’t done anything with it yet,” said interim county manager Brian Bellamy.

There are meetings planned for next week with attorneys to discuss the issue and explore options.

“We’ll see where they want to go with that,” he said.

Prosecution would be left up to the Utah State Tax Commission. Charley Roberts, commission spokesperson, said “There are no criminal investigations at this time.” The issue is still under review.

Meanwhile, property owners are continuing to lose patience.

The board of trustees for The Lodge at Mountain Village, the condominiums at the base of Park City Mountain Resort, elected in July to go with Compass Homeowners Association Management to manage the property and All Seasons Resort Lodging to manage the hotel services.

This is a big loss for David Holland as The Lodge is “home base,” in a way, for the company whose offices are in the same complex.

The HOA president, Tom Mccausland, was also one of the company’s defenders earlier this year.

On Wednesday he said that the trustees heard presentations from three Park City companies, the new David Holland-and-Phoenix Realty hybrid being one of them, and elected to go with the Compass and All Seasons.

While Mccausland will also turn nightly rental of his own condominium over to All Seasons, he said that’s a choice each individual owner will make for themselves. The contract is only for the providing of hotel services such as managing the front desk and valet parking.

Ski season is fast approaching and these decisions needed to be made now, he explained.

Mccausland made clear these were business decisions, but that he’s also disappointed Zatz has not committed to repaying every owner regardless of whether they agree to re-sign with the new Holland/Phoenix partnership.

“What most of us are disappointed in is the fact that this wasn’t something that just happened the third week in March this was something that was certainly on the horizon as early as last fall,” he said. “Being up front and candid with owners and boards about that could have allowed people to advise him on different alternatives and maybe not keep himself in the same situation during the winter months.”

Steve Salvatori, a condominium owner at Park Station, which likewise went with another company in July, said he’s “incredulous and bewildered” by Zatz’s claim that the financial shortage came as a surprise in early spring.

For example, he said in an email sent July 31, if David Holland Resort Lodging made $1 million every year, their share of that income would be $500,000. If business was down 35 percent, as is reported, then his share would be $325,000. If business was down that much, then the hotel services should also have had that much less work to do, he reasoned. And like most other businesses in town, he would have been expected to make lay-offs proportional to the decrease in business. All of this is reasonable business behavior that would have kept him within budget.

Assuming he did not cut his budget, he would only have needed $175,000 (in the hypothetical situation) of the owners’ money. Where’s the rest, Salvatori is wondering.

“It is almost beyond belief that a successful business person could be so incompetent all of a sudden,” he said.