Metro Jacksonville

Several members of City Council have been quite open in their concerns about top city attorney Cindy Laquidara.  Some have called a meeting to discuss her ouster.

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Jacksonville City Council members will talk next week about whether they want city General Counsel Cindy Laquidara removed from her job.

Councilman Matt Schellenberg said he scheduled a public meeting Tuesday with Bill Gulliford, the council’s incoming president, as a way to sound out opinions from the 19-member council. Some members have argued that Laquidara's office defers too much to the Mayor's Office. 

“If all I get [attending] is Bill Gulliford, this will be dead on arrival,” said Schellenberg, who said he hasn’t had a city lawyer prepare any legislation yet.

The council can’t fire Laquidara, who under the city charter “may be removed by the mayor but ... only for cause” and with agreement of most of the council. But Schellenberg said the council could send a resolution to Mayor Alvin Brown listing objections or concerns.

“Hopefully, he’ll take that into consideration,” Schellenberg said.

A Mayor’s Office spokesman didn’t respond to a phone message left Thursday night.

Under city and state open-government laws, council members aren’t allowed to talk to each other about public business except in open meetings. Any number of council members can take part in a meeting once two of them have publicly announced it.

Gulliford said he agreed to meet with Schellenberg because the subject is important, but hadn’t formed an opinion.

“I’d love to see the resolution,” Gulliford said. “… I don’t know if there’s merit to it.”

Schellenberg said he wanted to get any uncertainty resolved quickly to avoid it becoming a distraction to the council.

“I think there has been concern about the office and I wanted to bring it to a head. …We need to at least get it on the table, discuss it,” he said.

Concerns about whether Laquidara acts in a genuinely independent way  â€" treating the mayor, council and other public bodies as clients deserving equal representation  â€" have simmered for some time

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-06-13/story/jacksonville-council-discuss-seeking-ouster-citys-top-lawyer#ixzz2WDzMof00

There is reason to be concerned about how Laquidara is handling her job.  Check out this letter sent to her from Ethics Officer Carla Miller on May 7, 2013

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Cindy Laquidara
General Counsel
117 West Duval Street
Jacksonville, Florida 32202


Dear Cindy:

On August 6th, 2012, as the Director of the Ethics Office, I started a study on the “Senior Pension Plan” (SPP) of the Police and Fire Pension Fund (PFPF). On behalf of the citizens of Jacksonville, I have been monitoring the city’s handling of this situation. This is a function of the Ethics Office as, by Code, “the Office shall ensure the investigation of all situations involving fraud, waste, corruption and conflicts of interest by city officials”.

As you know, the SPP was a special pension plan set up within the PFPF for 3 top executives, only one of whom is still working, Director John Keane. A week after I started studying the Plan, (8/14/2012) you issued a legal opinion that the PFPB was not authorized under the Charter to create this “Senior Pension Plan”.  Representations were later made to the City Council that a lawsuit would be filed in this matter.  In the interim time period, I have had several conversations with city officials about the potential illegality of the plan and other related PFPB salary expenditures. (Such as Director Keane’s salary which increased annually from $128,346 in 2001 to the current amount of $291,000; numerous retroactive salary payments; and a recent vacation time bonus of $163,400.)

It has been 9 months since OGC issued its opinion on the Plan and a lawsuit on this has not yet been filed by the City. Additionally, City Council Auditor started an audit on the PFPF over a year ago. That audit has not been released to date.

The city is also getting sued by the TU over secret negotiations related to the Pension Fund. Laquidara participated in the settlement negotiations.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-06-06/story/times-union-sues-mayor-alvin-brown-and-public-safety-pension-fund-over

Then there is recent news that John Germany and Dylan Reingold of the OGC are leaving the city for other jobs. Reingold is getting a promotion, so its very possible that he's simply leaving for a better opportunity...however there is the chance of it being tied to Laquidara. I'm sure the council either knows or will soon find out.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=539659&searchtext=dylan

What a mess. Here's a resolution from Councilmen Schellenberg.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/148426974/Draft-resolution-seeking-to-terminate-Jacksonville-general-counsel-Cindy-Laquidara

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-06-17/story/tensions-about-loyalties-underlie-talk-about-ousting-jacksonville

From this mornings meeting.

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http://news.wjct.org/post/mayor-alvin-brown-backs-general-counsel-laquidara#.UcDCKK9cP68.facebook

Some members of the Jacksonville City Council are unhappy with the legal representation they are getting from General Counsel Cindy Laquidara. They held a meeting Tuesday morning to talk about proposed legislation written by Councilman Matt Schellenberg that would ask Laquidara to resign or be replaced by Mayor Alvin Brown.

Brown says he has full confidence in his General Counsel and has no intention of replacing her. 

Under the city charter, only the Mayor can fire the General Counsel and it must be for cause. 

Enlarge image
Credit Kevin Meerschaert
General Counsel Cindy Laquidara attends a city council Finance Committee meeting.

Council members had little to say about the Schellenberg's resolution but did express some frustration with Laquidara. They wee unhappy with the problems that happened last year  when Laquidara sent a letter to Jaguars Owner Shad Khan that stated the team was violating its lease with the city over the contract negotiations with SMG, which runs the day to day operations at Everbank Field. Khan sent an angry letter in return regarding how much the team has done for the city and the Mayor's office apologized calling it all a misunderstanding.

Others on the council, including Council President Bill Bishop say Laquidara shouldn't have been so closely involved in the negotiations between the administration, the Fire and Police Unions and the Police and Fire Pension Board over pension reform.

That deal is under scrutiny and has led the Florida Times-Union to sue the city saying the deal violated the states Sunshine Laws because collective bargaining negotiations must be open to the public.

Council members are worried if the courts rule in favor of the newspaper, ther deal will be struck down as illegal and proposed budget savings in the deal won't be realized

Who can forget this 'awesome move' by our outstanding councilwoman?

www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,13406.1950.html

Quote from: I-10east on June 18, 2013, 05:00:41 PM
Who can forget this 'awesome move' by our outstanding councilwoman?

www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,13406.1950.html

Did you mean to say our top lawyer in the office of General Council?

^^^Exactly. My bad for butchering her tongue twisting title LOL

What if found interesting is the fact that she is hired to represent all of the city and by extension the city council members.  It seems a bit odd that only the mayor can fire the head of General Council. 

Now COJ appears to have outside counsel threatening the TU to stop their suit,

“Should you continue to prosecute the above-referenced matter, [the] defendants … will seek sanctions against you,” reads a letter apparently sent Tuesday by Michael Grogan and Kort Parde, lawyers at Allen Norton & Blue, a firm the city hired to help with changes in police and fire pension systems."

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-06-19/story/drop-suit-or-risk-paying-citys-fees-says-lawyers-defending-jacksonville#ixzz2WluLDKzA

I know we have some lawyers here. Thoughts?

I am no lawyer but this is clearly "bluster"!  Doubt this will change the minds of the lawyers at the T.U. 

Quote from: CityLife on June 20, 2013, 11:45:12 AM
Now COJ appears to have outside counsel threatening the TU to stop their suit,

“Should you continue to prosecute the above-referenced matter, [the] defendants … will seek sanctions against you,” reads a letter apparently sent Tuesday by Michael Grogan and Kort Parde, lawyers at Allen Norton & Blue, a firm the city hired to help with changes in police and fire pension systems."

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-06-19/story/drop-suit-or-risk-paying-citys-fees-says-lawyers-defending-jacksonville#ixzz2WluLDKzA

I know we have some lawyers here. Thoughts?

Here is the response of the Times Union to this threat.  :)

QuoteThe Times-Union has filed challenges in state and federal court to a settlement agreement Brown’s office negotiated with police and fire unions and the city Police and Fire Pension Fund.

The paper is arguing the negotiations were part of collective bargaining that by law is supposed to be done in public, but was done in closed-door meetings that happened out of town. The paper argues the secret talks violated the state Sunshine Law.

State law allows a city to recover costs from the plaintiff and his lawyer for defending a Sunshine suit if the case was “frivolous,” which a judge would have to decide.

But there was nothing frivolous about the Times-Union suit, said Editor Frank Denton, who is the plaintiff. A sunshine suit has to be filed by a state resident, and the Times-Union’s parent company is based in Georgia.

“This is not a substantive response to our complaint that the mayor and his representatives negotiated the pension deal secretly in violation of state law,” Denton said Wednesday. “It’s merely an attempt to intimidate us from pursuing the case. It won’t.”

The city could put itself in a deeper hole by seeking sanctions, Times-Union attorney George Gabel told the lawyers for the city in a letter Wednesday.

Gabel noted that state law “prohibits a governmental entity from filing a claim against a person … solely because such person has exercised the right to petition for redress of grievances.”

Gabel asked: “Is it really the message the city wants to send to its citizens that they dare not seek to enforce the laws of the state, else threats and intimidation will follow?”

If the court found that the city of Jacksonville had done that, the violation could be reported to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who would notify the Cabinet and heads of both houses of the Legislature.



Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-06-19/story/drop-suit-or-risk-paying-citys-fees-says-lawyers-defending-jacksonville#ixzz2Wn6aCeG9