Sidney Schreiber

“ A public entity is not liable for the exercise of discretion when, in the face of competing demands, it determines whether and how to utilize or apply existing resources, including those allocated for equipment, facilities and personnel unless a court concludes that the determination of the public entity was palpably unreasonable. ”

“ When the dangerous condition arises because of the design or plan of the original construction, governmental immunity attaches and remains, even though a dangerous condition may subsequently arise because of the activities of others. However, that does not immunize a governmental body from responsibility for dangerous conditions created by its careless or negligent affirmative acts arising out of its maintenance as distinguished from improvements to its property. ”

“ Even a conscious approval of the details of the plan would not have removed it from the category of an operational decision. Moreover, subsumed within the principle that the public entity is immune when it exercises its discretion with respect to basic policy, is the necessity for demonstrating that there has in fact been an exercise of that discretion. Here, for example, assuming that a basic policy matter was involved, there is nothing to indicate that any competing policy choices were actually considered when the resurfacing plan was made and approval given. ”