BRADENTON BEACH – On Thursday, Feb. 19, the Bradenton Beach City Commission will discuss billing invoices submitted by former city attorney Ricinda Perry.
An internal audit of Perry’s invoices alleges “false or incorrect billing entries” for the period from January 2025 through September 2025.
Included in the Feb. 19 meeting packet is a Jan. 9 memo City Attorney Erica Augello sent to Mayor John Chappie, the city commissioners and City Clerk Terri Sanclemente.
“Upon receipt of the invoices, it was noted by staff that some of the entries could not possibly be correct, so an internal audit of the invoices was conducted,” Augello wrote. “The audit revealed that entries were made for services that could not have possibly occurred on the dates as indicated, that time entries for several days exceeded the number of hours in a day, that entries were not billed at the appropriate rate as agreed upon or that time entries were for unapproved non-legal services.”
Augello will request authorization from the commission on Feb. 19 to send correspondence to Perry regarding the invoices.
In a proposed draft letter to Perry that’s included the meeting packet, Augello wrote, “I have been asked to handle the matter of your invoices for city attorney services that were submitted in bulk to the city on October 23, 2025, for services spanning from January 2025 through September 2025.
“The billing, as presented, has been audited and has been found to include false or incorrect billing entries. By way of example, there are a multitude of entries for discussions with staff members on weekends or other days when the staff member was not working, entries that exceed the number of hours in a day, entries that were billed for unapproved non-legal work related to permit reviews, plans reviews, etc., entries for storm-related work that were billed at higher than the negotiated $150/hour rate, entries for conversations with outside counsel that were not captured on outside counsel’s invoices, entries for completing assignments where no work product was received or otherwise not completed as billed, as well as other similar type entries,” Augello stated in the draft letter to be reviewed by the city commission.
According to Augello’s draft letter, Perry’s unaudited invoices total $167,674 and the audited invoices total $139,685, resulting in a difference of $27,989.
Augello also wrote that according to Perry’s Jan. 25, 2023, engagement agreement, she was required to bill the city monthly.
“As you are in default of the terms of the agreement, the city has no legal obligation to pay invoices that do not conform to the terms of the agreement,” Augello stated in the draft letter. “Pursuant to the engagement agreement, the city is responsible only for the monthly billing that conforms to its terms, or for September’s invoice in the unaudited amount of $24,204.”
Augello added that while the city has concerns regarding the veracity of that September invoice, the city is outside of its 15-day window to challenge those entries.
The Thursday, Feb. 19, meeting will begin at noon in the commission chambers at 107 Gulf Drive N.
