Item K2Meeting Date: 1/16/08 - KW
Bulb Item: Yes No X
AGE NDA ITEM SUMMARY
I TIME CERTAIN 2:30 P.M.
Division: 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 Tropex Construction Service, .Inc. vs. Monroe County, CA P 06-44.
ITEM BACKGROUND: This suit was filed by the former general contractor for the Tavernier Fire
Station which walked off the job prior to the commencement of construction. The County has filed a
counterclaim alleging breach of contract and included the GC's surety as an additional defendant. The
case is ripe for mediation and legal staff is seeking the Board's input prior to scheduling mediation.
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 Debbie Frederick,
County Attorney Suzanne Hutton, Chief Assistant Bob Shillinger, special litigation counsel Ira Libanoff,
Esq. and a certified Court Reporter.
PREVIOUS RELEVANT BOCC ACTION: 12/19/07 BOCC approved Closed Session for 1/16/08
in Key West at 2.30 p.m.
CONTRACT/AGREEMENT CHANGES: N/A
STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS: NIA
TOTAL COST: BUD,
COST TO COUNTY:SOURCE OF FUND:2
No
REVENUE PRODUCING: Yes No X AMOUNT PER MONTH Year
APPROVED BY: County Atty X OMB/Purchasing Risk Management
DOCUMENTATION: Included Not Required
DISPOSITION: AGENDA ITEM #.
Revised 2/05
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
County of Monroe Mayor Holly Merrill Raschein,District 5
Mayor Pro Tem James K.Scholl,District 3
The Florida Keys Craig Cates,District 1
., Jl Michelle Lincoln,District 2
Robert B.Shillinger,County Attorney** David Rice,District 4
Pedro J.Mercado,Sr.Assistant County Attorney**
Cynthia L.Hall,Sr.Assistant County Attorney**
Derek V.Howard,Sr.Assistant County Attorney** Office of the County Attorney
Christine Limbert-Barrows,Assistant County Attorney** I I11 12'Street,Suite 408
Peter H.Morris,Assistant County Attorney ** Key West,FL 33040
Patricia Fables,Assistant County Attorney (305)292-3470 Office
Joseph X.DiNovo,Assistant County Attorney** (305)292-3516 Fax
Kelly Dugan,Assistant County Attorney
Christina Cory,Assistant County Attorney
Nathalia Archer,Assistant County Attorney
**Board Certified in City,County&Local Govt.Law
January 17, 2024
Kevin Madok, CPA
Clerk of the Court, 16'Judicial Circuit
Monroe County Courthouse
500 Whitehead Street
Key West, FL 33040
In Re: Tropex Construction Service v. Monroe County, Case No.: 06-CA-44-P
Dear Mr.Madok:
Please find attached scans of the transcripts of two attorney-client closed sessions held before the Monroe County
Board of County Commissioners, on January 16, 2008, and August 19, 2009, in connection with the above-
referenced litigation. The litigation has concluded;under Fla.Stat.286.011(8),the transcripts may be made part
of the public record once litigation has ended.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Dg,Ufy,nedbyCY IhiaLHa0
,Ih,,L H,11 o-Mo�e
Cynthia L. Hall
Senior Assistant Monroe County Attorney
Attachment: Scans of Closed Session Transcripts dated 01/16/2008 and 08/19/2009
1
1 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF MONROE COUNTY
ATTORNEY-CLIENT CLOSED SESSION
2 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2008
3
4 Re : Tropex Construction Service Inc . , v. Monroe County
5 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS :
6 Charles "Sonny" McCoy, Mayor
Dixie M. Spehar, County Commissioner
7 Mario DiGennaro, County Commissioner
George Neugent, County Commissioner
8 Sylvia J. Murphy, County Commissioner
9 STAFF:
10 Debbie Frederick, Acting County Administrator
Suzanne Hutton, County Attorney
11 Robert B. Shillinger, Assistant County Attorney
011 12 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
13 Proceedings of the Board of County Commissioners
14 of Monroe county Attorney-Client Closed Session, at the
15 Harvey Government Center, 1200 Truman Avenue, Key West, Monroe
16 County, Florida on the 16th day of January, 2008 , commencing
17 at approximately 1 : 58 p .m. and concluding at approximately
18 2 : 05 p .m. , as reported by Lisa Roeser, Registered Professional
19 Reporter and Notary Public, State of Florida at Large .
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(305) 289-1201 / Fax (305) 289-1642
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1 MS . HUTTON: We are going to have another
2 closed session pursuant to Section 286 . 011 subsection
3 8 of Florida statutes . It is estimated that the meeting
4 will take approximately 30 minutes . The persons
5 attending the meeting will be the County Commissioners,
6 acting county administrator Debbie Frederick, County
7 Attorney Suzanne Hutton, Assistant County attorney
8 Bob Shillinger and a certified court reporter.
9 Since the law prohibits any other person from
10 being present at the closed session, the commissioners,
11 the acting county administrator, the attorneys for the
12 county and the court reporter will now remain in the
13 meeting room and all other persons are required to leave
057 14 the room. When the closed session is over, we will
15 re-convene and re-open the public meeting. If you will,
16 close the public meeting.
17 MAYOR McCOY: We are now in closed session.
18 MR. SHILLINGER: This will take us about
19 five minutes .
20 COMMISSIONER SPEHAR: This is an unusual day.
21 MS . HUTTON: Very. Okay. You already called
22 the closed session and now everybody is out of the
23 room. For the record this meeting is being held upon the
24 request of County Attorney Suzanne Hutton who announced
25 at a prior public meeting held on December 19th, 2007
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1 that she needed advice concerning the pending matter
2 Tropex Construction Service, Inc . versus Monroe
3 County, CA P 06-44 . At that meeting, the Board approved
4 holding today' s closed session, and public notice was
5 given at the December 19, 2007 BOCC meeting and through
6 publication of the agenda for the January 16, 2008
7 BOCC regular meeting.
8 For the record, and the benefit of the court
9 reporter, each of us will state our name and position
10 starting with the commission. Commissioner Murphy.
11 COMMISSIONER MURPHY: Sylvia Murphy, District
12 5 .
13 COMMISSIONER NEUGENT : George Nuegent, District
14 2 .
15 MAYOR McCOY: Sonny McCoy, District 3 .
16 COMMISSIONER DIGENNARO: Mario DiGennaro,
17 District 4 .
18 COMMISSIONER SPEHAR: Dixie Spehar, District
19 1 .
20 MS . HUTTON: Suzanne Hutton, County Attorney.
21 MS . FREDERICK: Debbie Frederick, Acting County
22 Administrator .
23 MR. SHILLINGER: Bob Shillinger, Assistant
24 County Attorney.
�,,;,,,,,, 25 MS . HUTTON: Again, as a reminder we will only
D
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1 be discussing settlement negotiations and strategy
2 relating to litigation expenditures . We can' t take any
Aiii/`
3 decisive action at this meeting. We can only provide
4 information and direction to the attorneys . Any
5 decisions this Board makes concerning this case must
6 be done in a meeting open to the public.
7 I am going to turn this over . Basically the same
8 type of scenario that we just discussed at the last
9 closed session.
10 MR. SHILLINGER: This case is Tropex versus
11 Monroe County and it involves the Tavernier Fire
12 Station. I am going to be asking the same basic
13 questions as in the previous closed session. You
14 indicated to treat the case as it was and not
15 give into budget concerns, you know, litigate
16 it the way it should be litigated and not let our
17 budget concerns interfere with how we are going to
18 litigate the case .
19 I will give you a little background but I am
20 assuming there --
21 COMMISSIONER DIGENNERO: Do you have a counter
22 suit in this case?
23 MR. SHILLINGER: Yes, there is a counter suit .
24 We actually got sued in this one first and we counter
25 sued. They beat us to the courthouse . The Tavernier
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1 Fire Station, the general contractor walked off the job
EP 2 without even starting. They walked off
3 the job without even starting. They say that the plans
4 were unbuildable and so they walked off the
5 job. Funny, the replacement contractor used the exact
6 same plans and was able to build the fire station so I
7 don ' t think their defense claim is going to get very
8 far .
9 COMMISSIONER DIGENNARO: What kind of money
10 are we talking about?
11 MR. SHILLINGER: We are claiming the owe us four
12 hundred thousand and change . With attorneys fees we are
13 looking at probably our best day 550 so --
14 COMMISSIONER DIGENNARO: And how much
15 have we spent?
16 MR. SHILLINGER: We probably spent about
17 sixty thousand.
18 COMMISSIONER DIGENNARO: How much more we got to
19 spend.
20 MR. SHILLINGER: I think we probably got to
21 spend about 65 to 75 to get ready to go to trial . It ' s
22 not as complex a case and you ' re not dealing with as
23 many people as the other one we talked about .
24 COMMISSIONER DIGENNARO: Do we get repaid
25 attorneys fees?
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1 MR. SHILLINGER: Attorneys fees provision
0� i% 2 in the case so when we prevail I am
� ii
3 pretty confident in saying that, but if we prevail
4 we will get attorneys fees . Now it ' s an upper Keys
5 case . Again, it ' s a jury trial in front of a local
6 Judge .
7 COMMISSIONER DIGENNARO : How long will it
8 take?
9 MR. SHILLINGER: This one will probably be
10 tried in another 2 to 18 months . We were in front
11 of Judge Garcia on Monday. We are trying to get the
12 case going . The other side as long as they can delay
13 it they will be glad to delay it because this is
14 money they don ' t have to pay. Judge Garcia would not
15 issue a schedule order yet . He says the case needs to
16 get rolling in a couple of months and he will issue
17 a scheduling order .
18 COMMISSIONER DIGENNARO : Was there a motion for
19 summary judgement on that?
20 MR. SHILLINGER: We just finished closing out
21 the pleadings because we have been attacking each
22 others pleadings . We will work on a summary judgement .
23 COMMISSIONER DIGENNARO: Do your normal
24 lawyering .
25 MAYOR McCOY : Any other comments . You have
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1 your work on all that .
01P
2 MR. SHILLINGER: Thank you .
3 MS . HUTTON : Terminate the closed session .
4 MAYOR McCOY : Terminate the closed session .
5 (Closed session is concluded) .
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1 CERTIFICATE
2
OFFIFFM
3 STATE OF FLORIDA
4 COUNTY OF MONROE
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6 I, Lisa Roeser, certify that I was authorized to and did
7 stenographically report the foregoing proceedings and that the
8 transcript is a true and complete record of my stenographic
9 notes .
10 DATED this 23rd day of January, 2008 .
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14 Lisa Roeser
15 Registered Professional Reporter
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