Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: City Council Meeting

In the remote chance that it were an oral agreement, it is not one that culd be enforced by a decree of specific performance. In other words, a court would never order the city to go ahead with its promise and make the funds available to you, at least not on the strength of the oral agreement alone. Your remedy for breach of the agreement would be money damages based on harm to you from any actions you took in reliance on the oral contract. It's very unlikely you took any actions in that 24-hour or less period that resulted in damage.

Since you would have a tough time proving that the council room chatter resulted in a contract, and a tough time showing harm resulting from the breach, overall I'd say your prospects of getting any relief in court are very remote.

Further, there are other principles of public-contract law that make it even harder to assert that a contract arose out of an oral discussion, including laws limiting the ways a public agency can incur an obligation, the lack of any right to rely upon opinions expressed by public officers (try avoiding a tax liability after an IRS employee gives you incorrect advice!), and specific procedures for applying for and receiving grants and loans from public agencies.

Re: City Council Meeting

Mr. Whipple has done a great job of describing the oral contract implications of your question, but your inquiry begs the question? Why does the City owe you money? Is this pursuant to a claim that you filed? In order to evaluate the heart of the matter, which is, how do I get paid by the City - more background info will be needed. If the Mayor and Council indicated that funds would be available, this may be deemed an admission that your claim is valid and you are owed money. Going about recovering that money may or may not require the assistance of an attorney.