Item H1
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY
* TIM:E CERTAIN 2:00 P.M. *
Meeting Date: 3/19/08 - MAR
Division: County Attorney
~
Bulk Item: Yes
No~
Department County Attorney
Staff Contact Person: Bob Shillinger
AGENDA ITEM WORDING:
An Attorney-Client Closed Session of the Board of County Commissioners in the matter of Salvatore
Zappulla v. Monroe County.
ITEM BACKGROUND:
Sal Zappulla has filed a Petition with the Monroe County Career Service Council challenging his
dismissal from his position from county service. Legal staff desires direction from the Board. Per F. S.
286.011(8), the subject matter of the meeting shall be confined to settlement negotiations or strategy
sessions related to litigation expenditures.
Present at the meeting will be the Commissioners, Acting County Administrator, County Attorney
Suzanne Hutton, Chief Assistant County Attorney Bob Shillinger and a certified Court Reporter._
BOCC approved the scheduling of this Closed Session at their regularly scheduled meeting held
2/20/08.
PREVIOUS RELEVANT BOCC ACTION:
2/20/08 ROCC approved Closed Session for 3/19/08 in Marathon at 2:00 p.m.",
CONTRACT/AGREEMENT CHANGES:
N/A
STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS:
N/A
TOTAL COST: $200 Estimate
BUDGETED: Yes
No
COST TO COUNTY: $200 Estimate
SOURCE OF FUNDS:
REVENUE PRODUCING: Yes
No X
AMOUNTPERMONTH_ Year
APPROVED BY: County Atty ~ OMB/Purchasing _ Risk Management _
DOCUMENTATION:
Included
Not Required _
DISPOSITION:
Revised 2/05
AGENDA ITEM #
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
County of Monroe Mayor Michelle Coldiron,District 2
�o� Mayor Pro Teen David Rice,District
TheFlorida Keys ay 4
Craig Cates,District 1
l Eddie Martinez,District 3
Vacant,District 5
Robert B.Shillinger,County Attorney—
Pedro J.Mercado,Assistant County Attorney** Office of the County Attorney
Cynthia L.Hall,Assistant County Attorney** 1111 12th Street,Suite 408
Christine Limbert-Barrows,Assistant County Attorney** Key west,FL 33040
Derek V.Howard,Assistant County Attorney** (305)292-3470—Phone
Peter H.Morris,Assistant County Attorney** (305)292-3516—Fax
Patricia Gables,Assistant County Attorney
Paunece Scull,Assistant County Attorney
Joseph X.DiNovo,Assistant County Attorney**
James Molenaar,Assistant County Attorney
**Board Certified in City,County&Local Govt.Law
January 17, 2024
Kevin Madok, CPA
Clerk of Court, 16'Judicial Circuit
Monroe County Courthouse
500 Whitehead Street
Key West, FL 33040
In Re: Zapulla v. Monroe County—Career Service Appeal
Dear Mr.Madok:
Please find in this email attachment scans of transcripts of two closed attorney/client sessions before the Monroe
County Board of County Commissioners,regarding the above-referenced matter. The closed session transcripts
are dated 12-19-2007 and 03-19-2008,respectively, and the litigation regarding this matter is concluded. Under
F.S. 286.011(8), the transcripts may be made part of the public record once the litigation has ended.
Thank you for your assistance with this matter.Please contact me should you have any questions.
Sincerely
Digitally signed by Cynthia L.Nall
` DN:cn-Cynthia Lliall,o-Monroe
p County UOCC,ou,email-hall-
� cynthia[monmecounry-tl.gov,
c-t1S
D11e:IN-1.1615:41:57 0500'
Cynthia L. Hall
Senior Assistant Monroe County Attorney
Attachments: Scans of 12-19-2007 and 03-19-2008 Closed Session Transcripts
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1
2 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF MONROE COUNTY
3 ATTORNEY-CLIENT CLOSED SESSION
4 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2008
5 2 : 03 - 2 : 11 PM
6
7 Re : Salvatore Zappulla v. Monroe County
JlM 44 V to Z,100,
9
10 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS :
11 Charles "Sonny" McCoy, Mayor
12 Dixie M. Spehar, County Commissioner
13 Mario DiGennaro, County Commissioner
14 George Neugent, County Commissioner
15 Sylvia J. Murphy, County Commissioner
16
17 STAFF:
18 Suzanne Hutton, County Attorney
19 Robert B . Shillinger, Chief Assistant County Attorney
20 Debbie Frederick, Acting County Administrator
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S ,
MAYOR McCOY: A closed attorney-client session
pursuant to Section 286, Florida Statutes, will now
be held. It is estimated this meeting will take
place for about 30 minutes . The persons attending
6 the meeting will be the County Commission, County
7 Attorney Suzanne Hutton, Chief Assistant County
8 Attorney Bob Shillinger, and a certified court
reporter .
10 Since the law prohibits any other person from
11 being present at the closed session, the
12 Commissioners, the attorneys for the County, and the
13 court reporter will now remain in this meeting room,
14 and all other persons are required to leave the
15 room. When the closed session is over, we will
16 reconvene and reopen the public meeting. The public
17 meeting is now closed.
18 (Pause in the record. )
19 MAYOR MCCOY. I now call this closed session to
20 order . For the record, this meeting is being held
1 upon the request of the County Attorney, Suzanne A.
22 Hutton, who announced at a prior public meeting held
23 on 2/20/08 that she needed advice concerning a
24 pending matter, Salvatore Zappulla v. Monroe County.
5 At that meeting the Board approved holding today' s
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1 closed session . Public notice was given at the
2 2/20/08 BOCC meeting and through publication of the
3 agenda for the 3/19/08 BOCC regular meeting .
4 For the record and the benefit of the court
5 reporter, each of us will state our name and
6 position, starting with the Commission .
7 COMMISSIONER SPEHAR: Dixie Spehar, District 1 .
8 COMMISSIONER DiGENNARO: Mario DiGennaro,
9 District 4 .
10 COMMISSIONER NEUGENT : County Commissioner
11 George Neugent, District 2 .
12 COMMISSIONER MURPHY : Sylvia Murphy, District
13 5 .
14 MAYOR McCOY : County Mayor Charles McCoy,
15 District 3 .
16 MS . HUTTON : County Attorney, Suzanne Hutton .
17 MS . FREDERICK : Debbie Frederick, Acting County
18 Administrator .
19 MR . SHILLINGER : Bob Shillinger, Assistant
20 County Attorney .
21 MAYOR McCOY : I thank you . I think that ' s
22 everybody .
23 Just as a reminder, we will only be discussing
24 settlement negotiations and strategy relating to
25 litigation expenditures . We cannot take any
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1 decisive action at this meeting . We can only
2 provide information and direction to the attorneys .
3 Any direction this Board makes concerning this case
4 must be done in a meeting open to the public .
5 Let ' s start the discussion with the County
6 Attorney .
7 MS . HUTTON : Mr . Zappulla through his counsel
8 has proffered a settlement, and I ' m going to turn
9 this over to Mr . Shillinger to di3CUSS it with you .
10 M . SHILLINGER: Good afternoon . As you
11 recall , Sal Zappulla was our Budget Director . He
12 was terminated by the prior County Administrator .
13 He has appealed that termination to the Monroe
14 County Career Service Council , which is a body made
15 up of five citizens who are, four of whom are
16 appointed by entities like the County, the Aqueduct,
17 Mosquito Control , and Keys Energy. One is appointed
18 at large by the other four . We have a hearing set
19 for Mr . Zappulla ' s Career Service hearing in April ,
20 April 10th and 11th, and we ' ve previously been
21 before you and you had given me an indication that
22 you would be comfortable up to a level of about
23 $70 , 000 in settling this matter and walking away. I
24 conveyed that to Mr . Zappulla . His response through
25 his lawyers was to file a counteroffer .
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1 His counteroffer would be to, one of two
2 options . Option 1 would be to be reinstated with
3 full pay and benefits and payment of his reasonable
4 attorney ' s fees or costs, and that includes back
5 pay, so basically making him as if held never left
6 County service and paying for his fees , which
7 ballpark estimate off the top of my head would be
8 about a $75 , 000 check the County would end up
9 writing, which is more than we had wanted to do in
10 the first place . Or B, he would walk away and
11 release us from any claims and any liability if we
12 paid him the sum of $125 , 000 plus 18 months of COBRA
13 payments so he can maintain his health benefits .
14 The COBRA payment ' s about $800 a month . So in rough
15 numbers we ' d be writing checks for about $140, 000
16 plus his attorney ' s fees, which at this point would
17 probably be in the 20 to 30 range . So my only
18 recommendation is we might as well roll the bones
19 and go to hearing and see where we come out .
20 COMMISSIONER DiGENNARO : My opinion is to rock
21 and roll . Let ' s go for it .
22 COMMISSIONER SPEHAR : It ' s too much that we
23 have not to go for it .
24 MR . SHILLINGER : Yeah . The downside is you
25 never know what the Career Service Council is going
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1 to do . We have good arguments, he has some
2 arguments . It ' s a five-person layperson panel , and
3 they ' ve been unpredictable in the past . It ' s a
4 different composition of people this time, so you
5 don ' t know how these people are going to react . We
6 know who they are; we just don ' t know how they ' re
7 going to react . So the worst case scenario, you
8 know, he ' s going to be back with us with back pay .
9 So it ' s really settling for nothing .
10 COMMISSIONER SPEHAR : Are you allowing the
11 witnesses to speak?
12 M . SHILLINGER: Oh, yeah . We will have
13 witnesses and, you know, we ' ll have a full
14 evidentiary hearing .
is COMMISSIONER SPEHAR: Go for it .
16 COMMISSIONER DiGENNARO: Okay.
17 MR. SHILLINGER : All right . I just wanted to
18 convey that . We set this up in advance in the event
19 that we got a meaningful offer, and unfortunately we
20 didn ' t get a meaningful counteroffer . So I ' ve got
21 the direction . I don ' t need any formal action at
22 the Board meeting because as it stands now with no
23 direction from the Board we ' d go to hearing . So
24 that ' s all I have to say on this matter .
25 MS . HUTTON : We need to close the session and
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1 go back into open session .
2 COMMISSIONER DiGENNARO : I ' ll mare a motion to
3 close the session .
4 COMMISSIONER SPEHAR : Second .
5 ( Pause in the record . )
6 MAYOR McCOY : The closed session is now
7 terminated and we will now reconvene in the public
8 meeting .
9 ( Proceedings concluded at 2 : 11 . )
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C E R T I F I C A T E
2 STATE OF FLORIDA
3 COUNTY OF MONROE
4 1 , Susan L. McTaggart, Court Reporter and Notary
5 Public, State of Florida at Large, do hereby certify that I
6 was authorized to and did report by stenotype the
7 proceedings in the above-entitled matter, and that the
8 transcript is a true record of said proceedings .
9 Dated this 4th day of April 2008 ,
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Susan L ., McTaggart, Court Reporter
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