BRADENTON BEACH – The city commission voted to pay former city attorney Ricinda Perry’s 2025 invoices for $167,674.
The payment amount includes nearly $31,000 in disputed invoiced charges to be paid to avoid the possibility of protracted and expensive legal action.
Perry retired as city attorney on Sept. 18, 2025, and later submitted her invoices for the billing period from January through September.
In February, City Attorney Erica Augello was authorized to send a letter to Perry regarding the invoices in question. The letter stated that the audit of Perry’s invoices conducted by City Treasurer Shayne Thompson revealed “false or incorrect billing entries.”
In January, Augello sent Mayor John Chappie and the city commissioners a memo that said, “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; and that some entries were for unapproved non-legal services.
“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 per 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’s memo said.
During the June 16 city commission meeting, Augello reported the receipt of correspondence from Perry’s attorney, Chuck Johnson, from the Blalock Walters Law Firm.
“I received a formal letter from his office in response to our letter to her and his letter basically says under the Prompt Payment Act, they are demanding a speedy resolution in regard to her fees,” Augello told the commission.
In his letter, Johnson gave the city 15 days to make the payment. The letter stated that if the payment wasn’t made in a timely manner, he would demand that the dispute resolution process be followed pursuant to the Prompt Payment Act.
“The city is supposed to have a dispute resolution policy,” Augello said. “I don’t see one. If the city doesn’t have one, we’re going to need one. We’re potentially in violation of the statute and there’s no way to get Mr. Johnson what he needs.”
Augello said Johnson did not address her letter’s statements about improper billing practices.
“I have no problems with Miss Perry getting paid for the work that she did,” Augello said. “I do think the dispute resolution process is the right way to go.”
Commissioner Ralph Cole said, “If you take the chance to fight it and end up spending $100,000 of taxpayer money, why wouldn’t you just settle it and get it over with?”
Commissioner Robert Talham said, “Pay her and erase it. We’re not only paying her, but we’re paying our lawyer too.”
Commissioner Scott Bear said, “I have a problem with telling her we agree that she worked 25 hours in a 24-hour period, but the bigger issue is we’re setting a precedent that anyone else could come in and say you’ve done this before. We’re saying we’re always going to fold and make it go away, and that’s a bad position to be in.”
Commissioner Debbie Scaccianoce suggested making an offer for the audited amount of $136,904.
“I think it’s a little unreasonable to demand that we go into this dispute resolution process in four days, considering the fact it was months and months before we got invoices,” Mayor Chappie said.
During the meeting, Thompson confirmed the city does not have a dispute resolution policy in place. During Perry’s 21-year tenure as city attorney, a statutorily required dispute resolution process was never put in place.
“We need to get that done,” Chappie said.
After further discussion, commissioners voted unanimously to pay Perry the full $167,674 included in her invoices, to be paid out of the city’s general fund.
