Closed Session Post BuckleyCounty of Monroe
The Florida Keys
Robert B. Shillinger, County Attorney"
Pedro J. Mercado, Assistant County Attorney **
Cynthia L. Hall, Assistant County Attorney **
Christine Limbert-Barrows, Assistant County Attorney **
Derek V. Howard, Assistant County Attorney**
Steven T. Williams, Assistant County Attorney**
Peter H. Morris, Assistant County Attorney
Patricia Eables, Assistant County Attorney
Chris Ambrosio, Assistant County Attorney
** Board Certified in City, County & Local Govt. Law
May 25, 2017
Kevin Madok, Clerk of the Circuit Court
Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, State of Florida
Monroe County Courthouse
500 Whitehead Street
Key West, FL 33040
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Mayor George Neugent, District 2
Mayor Pro Tern David Rice, District 4
Danny L. Kolhage, District 1
Heather Carruthers, District 3
Sylvia J. Murphy, District 5
Office of the County Attorney
1111 121h Street, Suite 408
Key West, FL 33040
(305) 292-3470 — Phone
(305) 292-3516 — Fax
In Re: Monroe County v. Post Buckley, et al., Case No.: CA-K-1995-402
Dear Mr. Madok:
Please find enclosed herewith the transcript of the following closed attorney/client sessions of
the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners regarding the above -referenced matter:
November 20, 2002; and,
September 28, 2005.
Under F.S. 286.011(8), the transcript may be part of the public record because the litigation
has concluded.
Thank you for your assistance with this matter. Please contact me should you have any
questions.
Sincerely,
Robert B. Shillinger
Monroe County Attorney
Enclosures
MONROE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
CLOSED SESSION
POST, BUCKLEY, SCHUH & JERNIGAN
APPEARANCES:
DIXIE SPEHAR, MAYOR
MURRAY NELSON, COMMISSINER
GEORGE NEUGENT, COMMISSIONER
DAVID RICE, COMMISSIONER
JAMES ROBERTS, COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
JAMES HENDRICK, ESQ., COUNTY ATTORNEY
WAYNE SMITH, ESQ., SPECIAL COUNTY ATTORNEY
Key Largo Library
101485 Overseas Highway
Key Largo, FL
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
6:45 p.m. - 7:15 p.m.
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344 1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
MR. HENDRICK: Back on the record. We again
have four members of the board. We have Mayor
Spehar, Commissioner Rice, Commissioner Neugent,
and Commissioner Nelson. Also present pursuant to
the notice, county administrator Jim Roberts;
myself, county attorney Jim Hendrick, and special
counsel Wayne Smith. We are here to discuss the
proposed settlement agreement in this case of
Monroe County versus Post, Buckley, Schuh, and
Jernigan.
MR. SMITH: For the benefit of the
commissioners that haven't been here through the
now long history of this case, the case arose from
a contract that the county had with the
engineering firm of Post, Buckley, Schuh, and
Jernigan to design the project to elevate the Card
Sound Road by five feet.
One of their tasks was to tell the
commission how much it was going to cost in order
to make financing decisions. They said it would
cost $11 million. We had $6 million. So we
borrowed 5 by issuing bonds. We issued the bonds.
They are purchased on the open markets. The
project was put out to bid. It cost slightly less
than $3.5 million. So the borrowed money wasn't
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
oil
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
necessary. The bonds were then defeased or paid
back early at then additional considerable expense
and the commission asked Post, Buckley to pay that
expense which was in the neighborhood we thought
calculated at the time of $475,000. During the
course of the trial that took place a little over
a year ago, we learned that there was $10,000
still left in the account so it was an actual loss
of about $465,000.
Post, Buckley was defended by a Miami firm
that also has offices down here in the Keys. It
was pretty hard fought litigation. We filed the
case in 1995. And they fought valiantly until it
went to trial in October of 2001. Their highest
settlement offer up until that time was $50,000.
The jury trial lasted over about a two week
period.
It was really only a one week trial but we
had the Anthrax scare at the courthouse that shut
it down and put us through a fascinating process
of getting hosed down in the middle of trial.
The jury concluded that the county should be
awarded a portion but not all of their damages in
the total amount of - they have effectively split
the baby. They awarded us $233,640. Because we
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
i
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
were the prevailing party we were entitled by law
to prejudgment interest of, today it's about
$210,000 and it's accruing at 9 percent per anum.
We were awarded our out of pocket costs of
$73,000. That's a total today of about $516,000.
In order to evaluate the settlement offer I
need to tell you one unique legal issue about the
case. Their engineers, their licensed
professionals, we sued them for malpractice.
Florida law says malpractice is kind of a contract
and kind of a tort. It's a tort because there is
negligence and that's a tort area in the law. And
it's a contract because you pay someone to do a
good job and if they don't do a good job they
haven't lived up to the contract.
So as conservative lawyers we filed a
lawsuit that said we are suing you under a
contract theory and we're suing you under a tort
theory. And the judge in what was, most people
would agree except Post, Buckley, at the last
minute the judge ruled that a rather confounding
principle in the law called the economic loss rule
forbids us from going forward on the professional
negligence claim.
The economic loss rule is a rule that says
MUNROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
if you do something bad as a tort you don't have
to pay consequential and economic losses ad
infinitum because if you did our whole system
would kind fall apart. It's a more complex
doctrine than that but that's all you want to
hear.
So we proceeded to trial on the contract and
we won. And the contract has a broad sweeping
indemnification clause that says Post, Buckley
will pay us for all of our losses incurred as a
result of the breach of the contract or as a
result of them failing to live up to a minimum
standard, including attorneys fees. Now we
couldn't have gotten attorneys fees under a
professional negligence claim. So maybe they did
us a favor by beating us on that one because then
the judge ruled that we are entitled to our
attorneys fees. There will be a hearing - I hope
this is made of wood - knock on wood, before the
end of the year because the attorneys fees are
approaching $400,000.
My estimate is that -- the process for
getting attorneys fees you get an expert in who
looks at the whole case says the fees are
reasonable. I think a worst case scenario is that
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
IN
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
047
the judge is going to give us 80 percent of the
attorneys fees which is $320,000. And I think
it's far more likely that because the county
enjoys deeply discounted rates compared to what
prevails in the marketplace, that we are likely to
get close to the whole 400,000.
That means that our judgment if it were paid
today is about $920,000. Give an allowance for
the judge to give us a haircut, as they say, on
the attorneys fees to reduce it a little bit, say
by 20 percent, we are still in the neighborhood of
$850,000.
Do we have some exposure on appeal? Yes, we
do. Can I quantify it? No, I cannot. There is
seven years of very hard fought litigation. They
claim that venue should have been changed because
everyone here is biased. They raised all kinds of
issues that frankly it's possible they could win
on appeal but statistically the odds are against
them.
Post, Buckley invited us to consider looking
at settlement again. They traveled here with a
representative of their insurance underwriter who
came from San Francisco because the judgment --
they are probably self -insured for a pretty high
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
1.1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
deductible but we have gotten up into numbers that
apparently go beyond that. Mr. Roberts and I
spent the better part of the day with them.
MR. ROBERTS: The worse part of the day.
MR. SMITH: Yes, indeed. They made a
proposal that we agreed to bring to you and the
proposal is --
MR. HENDRICK: Before that Wayne.
MR. SMITH: Yes.
MR. HENDRICK: Would you explain to them the
differences of chances on appeal with respect to
the award itself as opposed to the attorneys fees
involved.
MR. SMITH: Sure. The award itself, and
again to break the numbers out, the award with
interest is about $520,000 today. The fact that
we got the attorneys fees was -- we were elated,
and somewhat surprised. We got the attorneys fees
under a provision for which there is little
guidance in the law.
Contracts often have a clause that says if
we get into a dispute over any issue arising out
of this contract and we end up in court or
mediation or some other forum, the winner gets
attorneys fees and costs reimbursed by the loser.
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
7
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
It's called a prevailing party's attorney's
clause. There wasn't a prevailing party's
attorney's clause in this contract.
But there was this clause that said
generically, if anything happens as a result of
Post, Buckley performing services that causes
Monroe County loses then they indemnified us. Now
that would include if they designed a bridge that
collapsed and people got hurt and we had to pay
money to fix the bridge. That's commonly what
indemnification clauses cover. But this one was
(1), very broadly worded and; (2), this was key to
the judge, Post, Buckley wrote the contract. We
cut a deal with them, said be our engineer's and
they said okay, we'll write the contract. We
approved it as to sufficiency and form, you know,
the rubber stamp that is often used after someone
at the county attorney's office reviews it. But
they wrote it. There is a rule that says if there
is any question at all as to which way to
interpret the contract it goes against the party
who drafted it.
It has always been my opinion that getting
attorneys fees under that clause was a legal long
shot, one that we won. And the fact that we won
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
X
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
it I'd rather go up on appeal having won in front
of the trial court than not having won. But we
are vulnerable, we are a lot more vulnerable to
the attorneys fees for all the legal issues in my
opinion than we are in holding on to the judgment
itself.
The other side of it, we have a really kind
of interesting thing that I have to do in the
appeal. I think Judge Taylor was wrong about the
professional negligence issue so we filed a cross
appeal. But when we brief it we are going to say
we only want to have our cross appeal considered
if they are going to win on their appeal.
Otherwise we are better off under the contract
especially if we keep the attorneys fee award in
tact.
Thank you Jim. That was a really important
thing to bring up. Because in evaluating this
it's important to separate out that while we
expect the trial judge to give us between 320 and
$400,000 in attorneys fees I think they have a
much better shot of overturning that on appeal
than they do the verdict, the interest and the
costs of about 520.
They have proposed, it was the highest
MUNROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
A
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
number that we could get them to that day, they
insist it's their bottom line -- when I took the
training to be become certified as a mediator, the
man is generally recognized as the dean of
mediators in Florida, whenever someone says it's
their bottom line never believe them. But they
said that their bottom line is they would pay
$470,000. They will pay it in full by January
15th if everybody lays down their weapons and goes
home and the appeal is dismissed and that's that.
They have in effect offered not quite half
of everything we get to keep on our best day and
they have offered -- how they calculated it was,
if you take the numbers, it's the full amount of
the jury's verdict, it's all of the prejudgment
interest through the day that we met a couple of
weeks ago, and one half of the costs. I don't
know why they said one half of the costs because
if you win you get costs and there isn't much
disputing that. But the reality we face is if we
go up on appeal and they persuade the court of
appeals that a fatal error was made along the way
they will tell us to the legal equivalent to go
back to go and don't collect $200.
Now that means we get another day in court
MUlVRUE UUUM'Y CUURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
and it means we get another shot at asking the
jury to give us 460,000 instead of 235. And it
means that at the end of the day a jury could say
you take nothing.
MR. ROBERTS: More legal fees and costs.
MR. SMITH: Yes, and the legal fees and costs
that are incurred along the way. Unless you saw
any reason not to, Mr. Roberts and I said to them
that if they could not bring their number up to
$700,000 we would not bring it with a
recommendation. Because when all was said and
done we could not give an endorsement, bringing or
otherwise if it didn't meet that number. But
$470,000 is, in my opinion and I think in everyone
else who knows about this private session, is a
big enough number frankly that you all needed to
look at it and evaluate it and give us guidance as
to what to do.
I'll answer any questions you have or
elaborate on anything that I have mentioned if you
would like.
MAYOR SPEHAR: The judgment award was 520?
MR. SMITH: Yes, interest through today.
It's about 520.
MAYOR SPEHAR: And then the legal fees on top
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
11
1
2
3
C!
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
of that?
MR. SMITH: And then the legal fees on top of
that which have been awarded by the trial court.
And we will of course, if we proceed on appeal,
argue as best we know how to keep that in tact.
COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: Wayne you feel that
the numbers that you and Jim expressed with them
are some hard and fast numbers that we need to
stick to?
MR. SMITH: The other thing the good
professor said was "Nothing's that hard and fast."
It's a judgment call and it's the judgment call
that we honestly made on that day. And it's one
that I wouldn't -- nothing's happened between then
and now for me to retreat from that.
Mr. Roberts, as your chief executive
officer, and it would be appropriate I think to
hear from him having had the opportunity to
reflect on it between that meeting and today.
COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: We trust you more. He
pulls wings off of mosquito hawks, I'm sure. I've
seen him in negotiations.
MR. SMITH: I don't mean to be lawyerly about
my answer. No, I don't think it's hard and fast.
If they came back with 699 I would probably say
IVUNRUE CUUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
12
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
yeah, I would recommend that as compared to 700.
But 470 is a far cry from it.
I should also mention as you wrestle with
the issue there is nothing preventing us from
going back and telling them 700 or 600 or 900 or
any other number. While they have announced this
is the last time they are negotiating until the
court of appeals makes a decision, there is
nothing compelling them to stick to that decision.
MAYOR SPEHAR: The differences between the
two is 230,000.
MR. SMITH: Yes.
MAYOR SPEHAR: If they go half of that that
would bring it up to, I have here 115,000 on top
of 470 they said was final, that would be 585,000
is halfway.
MR. SMITH: That would definitely be meeting
halfway, numerically.
MAYOR SPEHAR: What does the board think of
that?
COMMISSIONER NELSON: Well I was thinking,
and I love your math, I was thinking just as a
round number it would seem to be a number that
would be considered by them, and not taking their
risk away, would be 550. So I think that we are
MUNRUE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
13
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
very close there.
MAYOR SPEHAR: What do you think? What is
your advice?
MR. ROBERTS: This is one of the first issues
when I arrived here in the fall of 193. As I told
people, Post, Buckley has such a long term
relationship with the county commission and county
as our engineers that in January of 194 when I
recommended you not renew their contract based
upon what had happened, I recommended it and I had
my suitcase packed behind me because I figured it
was going to be a very controversial thing but it
wasn't, as you really rose up and made a decision.
In rough numbers we claimed and we have
proved we are out about 470,000. Looking at
Wayne's summary which we had that day, attorney
fees of about $400,000. So there is $870,000 that
we're out of pocket to begin with and then you
take, if you do away with the interest and all of
that stuff -- and the costs are $73,000. You're
950 that we are out of pocket. When we talked to
them about that their attorney said well we don't
start there, instead of 470 you are down to 233
which was the original verdict from the jury. So
you start at 233 add in 400,000 for attorneys
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
14
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
fees, we are out of pocket 633,000. And costs is
another 73. Almost 700,000 out of pocket
expenses.
I want to be sure that if we settle for less
than that we do understand that there is money
that we are not going to get back that they have
spent in reference to this. And the thing that
bothers me about it, and I've said this to Wayne,
when this all happened, if Post, Buckley had come
to the county commission and said, some of the
responsibility is yours, we'll settle for 300,000.
I think the county commission back then would have
kept them on, taking the settlement, they could
have stayed on as general engineers.
I have to rely on Wayne for his legal
evaluation of what our opportunities are on
appeal. We are looking at settling and it may be
the right thing to do, we are looking at settling
for less than we are out of pocket.
COMMISSIONER NELSON: Wayne, let me ask you a
question. On some issues I was always going to
the mat, even if I walked away with zero based on
principle. But in this particular case when we
don't know the exact labor of it and everything,
but based on the fact that we do have a judgment
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
15
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
for this amount of money, we do have a risk if we
go to appeal and additional costs and could walk
out with zero if it goes back to the trial with a
different jury and judge. In your opinion, based
on your past experience, what do you recommend to
this board as far as going forth, going to the mat
with them or making some sort of settlement to at
least recover some our costs?
MR. SMITH: Let me make a couple of
observations. One of my first experiences was in
a private law firm when I sat in on a client
conference and the client was writing out her
retainer check, said "I don't mind writing this
check because it's not just the money it's the
principal." Whereupon the woman I was observing
who was the attorney reached across the table and
ripped the pen out of her hand and said "Sorry, I
misunderstood. If you are fighting on principle
my retainer doubles." And later had a
conversation with me about how the legal system is
not good for vindicating anything other than
economics and we ought to look at cases that way.
That was, gees, that was 20 years ago. And I have
never found that not to be so.
So I would -- I still recommend staying away
1�IUNXUE CUUNI'Y COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
16
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
i
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
from looking to vindicate most principles in a
court of law. And we look at it economically.
That's point number 1.
Point number 2, I will tell you I never
thought a lot of their defenses. This will
ultimately become a public record so I'm not going
to name names, but after the case was over I was
somewhat perplexed that the jury apparently found
their defenses, which by the way were that we
issued the bonds too soon, never mind I blew up in
big letters that Post, Buckley said hurry, hurry
the price is going up, and that we defeased too
soon when we could have just waited until the
first call date. I never thought those were very
good defenses.
I was frankly surprised that the jury gave
us half of what we wanted in the face of those
defenses. Someone at the courthouse who happened
to overhear the deliberations volunteered to me in
a parking lot that the jurors said this case is so
old that the parties should have settled it and we
are going to essentially force them into a
settlement agreement. Now jurors aren't supposed
to do that. They are not allowed to do that.
It's against the written instructions and it's
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
17
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
14
15
16
17
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
against the verdict form. But they are going to
be people whether they serve on the jury or not
and whether they sat on a court of appeals. With
that said my recommendation is you look at
economics. We certainly have been well reminded
of the reality. You can go into court and ask for
$470,000 and get half of that. And that's why
when Mr. Roberts today reminds us all that our out
of pocket originally when the controversy erupted
was 475,000 that we need to temper that a little
bit because the jury thought we should - and
that's worth paying attention to. They spent a
long time wrestling with this case and looking at
all of the evidence.
So I usually tell my client I don't have to
live with your decision at the end of the day.
It's a little bit different here because as a
resident of Monroe County and a participant in all
of our community processes, I suppose that's
really not true for me here in that same sense.
But as the stewards of Monroe County you have to
live with your decision. And the reality is, as
you pointed out commissioner, it could be zero at
the end of the day. I've never thought that was a
significant possibility or I would have told you
MUNRUE C,'UUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
110
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
to take the $50,000 five years ago. I can't
honestly bring myself to tell you to take
$470,000. And it would certainly be
understandable if you were going to say 700,000.
And it would certainly be understandable to me if
you elected to go with 585 or 550. And it would
be understandable if you said 470 is better than
nothing and we are tired of paying the fees and
going through the fight because I would never have
predicted when we filed this lawsuit in 1995 that
I would be up here talking to you as commissioners
and making a decision seven years later that if we
don't settle it today, the court of appeals
probably won't make a decision until probably this
time next year.
COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: Can we continue the
negotiations and give you a bottom line number
right now, and hopefully, of 575, 600,000, and
just continue the negotiations and if you feel
like you did something that would be acceptable to
us, it sounds somewhere around 550 and 600,000.
COMMISSIONER NELSON: I was thinking that,
being a devil's advocate for them if I was on that
side and I had a judgment of $470,000, is that
correct?
MUNROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
19
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
IV
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
MR. SMITH: The judgment now is about 520
because the attorneys fees hasn't been reduced to
judgment yet although we have been awarded. A
piece of information, I as a courtesy to them
extended until next week the requirement that they
post what is called a supersedeas bond. When
someone appeals a judgment they have to put their
money where their mouth is so to speak. They have
to put up a bond of the full amount of the
judgment plus two years interest.
That means they have to write a check and
deliver it to the clerk of court to be held until
the court of appeals decides or they have to get a
suitable bonding company licensed to do business
of sufficient financial wherewithal who promises
to pay that amount of money. So they need to go
on the hook directly, cash or through an
underwriter, underwriters require collateral
that's worth at least as much as the amount of
risk for a little over $600,000 and they have to
do that next week if we don't revolve this.
COMMISSIONER NELSON: It goes back to the
question they want to go to the mat with us or
walk away with a settlement. That's why I was
coming up with a settlement and that's why I was
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
20
11
K
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
coming up with a number of 550 or 580 rather than
going through an appeal, paying their attorneys
fees, risking losing, but at the same token
knowing they can cut their loss and run with 550
or 580. If I were them that would be my choice.
COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: Madam chair why don't
we put that number at 550 as a bottom line but
continue negotiating for, you know, hard ball
negotiations at 700 and see where they back up to.
MAYOR SPEHAR: 550 is only 30 more than the
award.
COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: Well pick a number.
MR. HENDRICK: Might I suggest you authorize
Wayne to go back with $610,000, with authority to
settle at 575.
COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: So be it.
MAYOR NELSON: I was going to go for 585 but
575.
COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: Well it's your day
mayor. So you pick the number.
MR. HENDRICK: Pick a lucky number.
MAYOR SPEHAR: Pick a lucky number. Something
I feel you know a little bit more than I do on
that. So I'll go 575, I'll bend. 585 I like.
COMMISSIONER NELSON: Sometimes it's better
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
21
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
to get it over with and get on with life.
MR. ROBERTS: We have been living with this
for seven years. As much as I have problems with
what transpired I think it's time.
COMMISSIONER RICE: What I can't believe is I
remember all this happening years ago and wasn't
involved.
COMMISSIONER NELSON: Post, Buckley is the
one that came up with a price for Islamorada's --
MAYOR SPEHAR: Wasn't also, in part of the
negotiations, they wanted to their services in
lieu --
MR. SMITH: Yes.
MAYOR SPEHAR: So you are going in for and
our bottom line is 575 --
MR. SMITH: As I understand it I am going to
tell them that you have authorized me to pick a
counter proposal to their 470 of 610 and that if
they reject that but are willing to continue to
negotiate that I am authorized to bind the county
of a settlement of not less than $575,000 and that
otherwise we'll proceed with the appeal.
The biggest parts are their responsibility.
They have to file the initial briefs which will
define the scope of issues on appeal and they have
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
22
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
to post the bond. So if my understanding is
correct I'll certainly proceed on that basis.
MAYOR SPEHAR: Are you comfortable with that?
MR. SMITH: Certainly.
COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: So be it. I move to
adjourn.
MAYOR SPEHAR: Adjourned.
(Proceedings concluded at 7:15 p.m.)
MONROE COUNTY COURT REPORTERS
(305) 852-7344
23
CERTIFICATE
I, KATHLEEN A. FEGERS, Registered
Professional Reporter, do hereby certify that I was
authorized to and did stenographically report the foregoing
proceedings and that the transcript is a true record.
Dated this 30th day of November, 2002.
L
KATHLEEN A. FEGERS, RPR
Court Reporter
ilvivrcvr, l VUIVl Y c.UUxl' xEYUXTERS
(305) 852-7344 24