Digging through the City's Files - Current Lawsuits

Mayoral candidate Mary Lindsey and I spent much of the day Friday doing our own archaeological dig through the City's records related to current lawsuits against the City. The following is what we discovered:

On August 13^th, during an interview on The Live Show on lakeworthtalk.com, “Reader” asked this question:

"Mary are you aware how many lawsuits the City has pending

and what the monetary exposure the City facing in these"

On August 14^th, I sent a request for that information, via email, to the city information officer, Queenester Nieves.

On August 15^th, I received a call from Ms. Nieves asking for clarification and following our discussion she promised to forward the request to the City Atty’s office.

On August 22^nd, I stopped in the City Atty. office to inquire on the status of my request. I was told that the city does not keep a running list of pending lawsuits and to find out I would have to go through all the office files myself under supervision of a staff member. I agreed and was promised an appointment would be arranged in the next few days to view the files the following week.

By August 25^th, I had still not been contacted so I sent another request for this information. In addition, I requested information on two other related questions.

On September 13^th, I had still not heard anything, so I submitted the requests again, via email and asked Mr. Boyer to intervene in the matter. He did and an appointment was arranged for 10am on Friday September 15^th.

On September 15^th, as arranged, I met with the City Atty. staff to review the files in an attempt to answer certain questions. I was joined by Wes Blackman, chairman of the Planning and Zoning Board and candidate for district 3, who offered to help me comb through the files. I am grateful to Wes for his valuable assistance. His notes regarding today’s events follows. These are the questions we were trying to find the answers to:

1. How many lawsuits are currently pending against the city and what is the monetary exposure?
2. How much has been paid to outside legal firms for their services on behalf of the city since 2000?
3. How many city employees (general employees, utility, fire and police) terminated in the last five years received settlement payments and in what amounts?
   

This is what we were able to determine:

1. We were shown the files of eight different cases; one regarding Sunshine Law, three regarding code enforcement, one regarding eminent domain, one regarding asbestos, one regarding a vendor dispute over uniform rentals and one regarding the Sunset Drive property. There is also an ethics violation charge but it was unclear if that is open or closed. Total – 8

Monetary exposure is impossible to figure pending the outcome or resolution of the different cases.

2. Information regarding outside legal firms is incomplete at this time. We were only able to get data on those firms we were aware of. As more firms came to light from reviewing the pending files, we requested information about them also. We did not see cases that have already been resolved and unless I ask specifically for the info by the name of the firm, there is no way to get the information.
3. This last request regarding employee termination settlements may take some time. We were told that the city does not have a list of employees termination settlement cases and the only way to get the information is to go through the employee file. The files are not arranged by year, only by employee last name. If we knew the names of the employees we wanted to know about, that information (those files) could be made available. If we knew the names, we would also know how many there were, so that wasn’t much help.

The only way to get the information is to go through all the employee files (past and present) There could be thousands. To make those files available, the staff has to redact all the personal information in those files, social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers etc. That represents a huge undertaking by staff and one that I’m not sure I’m willing to inflict on them. I will contact Mr. Boyer on Monday and ask if there is any other way to get the information.

I arrived on time at 10am as arranged by the city Atty office. Wes arrived shortly after. We worked on the files until we had reviewed everything they gave us. We must have looked at thousands and thousands of documents. The information officer, Queenester Nieves and Joni (Sorry, I don’t recall her last name) from the City Atty. office were nothing but helpful and professional. They followed their protocol precisely. They carried files a foot thick at a time from the City Atty. office on the first floor to the City Clerk’s office, downstairs in the back for us to review and then carried them back when we were finished. They must have made ten trips or more. We were not allowed to help them even though we offered. We worked until 3:30pm. All this to find out there are 8 pending cases.

Summary: That’s the timeline and outcome of the events. But what does it mean? I won’t comment on whether any of the lawsuits are frivolous, unnecessary or valid. I have an opinion about some of them, but I’ve learned that legal matters are based as much on procedure as they are on content; perhaps more so, and I am not qualified to evaluate the legal process. I will comment that in my opinion, it shouldn’t have to take this long, or be this burdensome on the support staff or the public to get a simple answer to a simple question. How many lawsuits are currently pending against the city (not including foreclosures)? If Wes and I were shown all the files related to this question and the answer is eight, not eighty, why is our City Attorney unable or unwilling to simple recite which cases they are? Half of these cases are being handled by Mr. Karns and the other half are being defended by outside counsel. I would have expected an answer something like this:

Dear Ms. Lindsey, Thank you for your interest and your inquiry. The City Atty office is currently defending four active cases and I believe there are several others being handled by outside firms. I will get back to you by _______ with the exact number. If you require more in depth information, please contact my office to arrange an appointment. As for your other inquires, we do not have that information readily available and it will take considerable time for staff to prepare the files in accordance with the Public Records Act to redact personal personnel information. Please call my office to discuss this matter further so that we can accommodate your request in a timely manner. If I may suggest an option, contact one of your Commissioners who receive monthly updates from this office on the status of all activities in the City Atty. office as was suggested when my contract was renewed last Spring.

That would have been a responsive, accountable and polite answer to a reasonable question posed by the public. Such a reply would demonstrate respect and professionalism. The Attorney General has written numerous opinions on the Sunshine Law and the Public Records Act. Overwhelmingly, he has supported compliance by public agencies not only to the letter of the law, but also to the spirit of the law. I look forward to a new spirit of accountability to and cooperation with the public under the direction of the City Atty.

Mary Lindsey

September 15, 2006

“Political advertisement paid for and approved by Mary Lindsey for Mayor”

Thanks Mary. I volunteered to help since I am no stranger to pouring over and poking through municipal files – it’s part of what I do for a living. The thing that struck me is that the information that we were looking for was very basic. I kept thinking, as we watched the hard working staff people from the Clerk’s office retrieve files, wouldn’t it make sense to have a simple spreadsheet available that would identify the current status of lawsuits against the City? Just a brief summary of the matter and who the City selected to represent them is the most basic information and something that the citizens should have ready access to. If that was kept current, it wouldn’t take precious time away from other staff tasks. By the City not having the information readily available and making it cumbersome, it comes across as if the City has something it is trying to hide.

What we found is that the City has nothing to hide (especially in light of the open records laws). The eight current lawsuits are really reflective of a moderate amount of lawsuits – part of doing business as a municipality. But the perception generated through the difficulty retrieving the information leads the public to believe and think the worst – that we have hundreds of lawsuits, or more.

Can we please come to a time when we anticipate the public’s need for information and prepare it in a digestible form? That would be the difference between an inwardly looking bureaucracy (the bunker mentality that currently exists) or one that is outward looking (one that understands the needs of its citizens for timely and accurate information). It also begs for, at a minimum, a twice a year report about all the current legal actions against the City at a City Commission meeting.

Is that too much to ask for? It is something that I would demand as a Commissioner. This is all part of the need for transparency in all City of Lake Worth matters. It’s the only way we can begin to build trust in our City government.

Wes Blackman

September 15, 2006

“Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner, District 3”