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Tag: Bradenton Beach City Attorney

City seeks public records from former city attorney 

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Featured.

BRADENTON BEACH – Five months after former City Attorney Ricinda Perry retired, the city seeks the return of all public records still in her possession. 

When Perry retired on Sept. 18, she turned over three binders of city documents, but the city does not believe that represents the full production of all public records in her possession. 

“There was the demand to the former city attorney for public records,” City Attorney Erica Augello said during the Feb. 5 city commission meeting. “Under statute, she was required to do it upon resignation. After the demand, she was required to do it within 10 business days.” 

City Attorney Erica Augello discussed the demand for the return of public records from former city attorney Ricinda Perry. – Leslie Lake | Sun

Augello said she believes Perry is amenable to returning the public records to the city, but she is apparently working to determine what constitutes a public record. 

“She was doing a lot of business from her personal accounts, which does not make them not public record,” Augello said. “I have a phone call scheduled with her tomorrow (Feb. 6). Hopefully, we can come up with a reasonable time. If not, then I will be back before you to see what we need to do next. It might just be we need to file an action in court, which has an attorney’s fees provision in it, to compel the return of those records from a public official because those are rightfully belonging to the city.”

DEMAND LETTER

On Jan. 12, Augello sent Perry a formal demand letter which stated, in part, “This letter serves as a formal demand for the immediate return and production of all records in your possession, custody or control that constitute public records of the city of Bradenton Beach. As you are aware, Florida’s Public Records Act defines ‘public records’ broadly, including, but not limited to, all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, data processing software or other material regardless of physical form, characteristics or means of transmission made or received in connection with the transaction of official business.”

Augello’s letter further stated the demand includes all public records, whether maintained on personal or professional devices, accounts or platforms, including, but not limited to, emails (including attachments), text messages, messaging applications, voicemails, electronic documents, drafts, memoranda, notes and correspondence, hard copy documents and files, cloud-based storage records, records maintained on personal computers, mobile phones, tablets or external storage devices and communications with city consultants, vendors or members of the public relating to city business.

“Please return all such public records within 15 calendar days, from the date of this letter to the city clerk. Please be advised that failure or refusal to comply with the Public Records Act may subject you to statutory consequences, including but not limited to civil and criminal penalties and potential referral to the Florida Bar and the Florida Commission on Ethics,” Augello’s letter stated.

PERRY’S RESPONSE

“I intend to cooperate in good faith to ensure that any city public records not already in the city’s possession, custody or control are appropriately returned,” Perry stated in her Jan. 21 letter to Augello.

She noted that prior to resigning, she presented three binders of relevant work, communications and draft documents to the city.

“Your demand, as written, presents two threshold issues that must be addressed before any meaningful production can occur: (1) the letter’s arbitrary 15-day deadline and (2) the scope of the request,” Perry wrote.

Perry stated any good faith retrieval and return process requires a reasonable amount of time to identify records, segregate city records from non-city records and ensure records are returned without disclosure of non-responsive or personal materials.

“Accordingly, to the extent the city expects my office to perform extensive search, retrieval, compilation and production efforts responsive to this demand, the city will be assessed a special service charge as authorized by section 119.07(4)(d), Florida Statutes,” Perry wrote. “Before undertaking any unusually time-intensive collection and production work, I will provide a written estimate of the anticipated special service charge and will require written confirmation that the city agrees to pay that charge.”

Perry said she has retained paralegal Michael Barfield, of Denovo Law Services, to assist in the production of materials. She directed future communications be sent to Barfield.

AUGELLO’S RESPONSE

Augello said she reviewed the three binders Perry referenced in her letter and sent the following response to Perry on Jan. 30: “The contents of these binders is not consistent with the breadth of this definition (by statute),” Augello wrote, noting that the binder contents do not include emails, text messages or notes.

Augello’s letter also stated Perry has a statutory obligation to return all public records to the city.

“Under the law, you were required to deliver them to the city within the 10 days allotted in the statute. At this point, you unlawfully possess public records, as you have admitted in your response that you have such public records in your care, custody and control,” Augello wrote. “I would suggest you either seek the advice of counsel on this matter or return the public records in your possession immediately.” 

Augello stated Perry is responsible for returning all public records regardless of the scope or burden. She also stated the city will not be paying any records retrieval fees and Perry does not have the authority to charge such fees. 

“I think you have misconstrued the demand for the return of public records to the agency to which they belong with a request for public records to an agency which maintains such records,” Augello wrote. “The city is demanding you, as former city attorney, return the records in your possession that belong in its possession as public records, as is required by Florida law.” 

Augello closed her letter by stating, “The city demands that you return the public records immediately. Absent such production, the city is prepared to avail itself of all available legal remedies. Please govern yourself accordingly.”

Following her Feb. 6 phone call to Perry, Augello sent The Sun an email that said, “She was very accommodating and reasonable. She indicated she has many records but needs to review them to determine if they are public records.”

City approves Augello as interim city attorney

City approves Augello as interim city attorney

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News, Featured.

BRADENTON BEACH – The city commission unanimously approved Mayor John Chappie’s recommendation that Erica Augello as lead attorney and the Trask Daigneault LLP law firm be appointed as interim city attorney for up to six months.

Augello, also the city attorney for Holmes Beach, did not attend the Oct. 23 commission meeting.

City officials sought an interim city attorney to serve before they choose a permanent replacement for retired City Attorney Ricinda Perry.

Following an interview by commissioners at an Oct. 7 emergency special work meeting, Chappie made the recommendation to contract with the Clearwater-based Trask Daigneault LLP law firm with Augello as lead city attorney.

“In going through the proposal material, you have the whole gamut of areas of law that we need help on,” Chappie said. “I think it will be very beneficial not to have just one attorney but to have a team.”

Augello said at that interview that she would be the first point of contact and the person who attends city meetings.

Commissioners questioned Augello and attorney Robert Eschenfelder at the Oct. 7 meeting about topics that included potential conflicts between Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach, Commu­nity Redevelopment Agency (CRA) experience, fees and the role of city attorney.

“I’m not entirely comfort­able with Erica because of her role in Holmes Beach,” Vice-Mayor Deborah Scac­cianoce said at the Oct. 23 meeting. “I do like the law firm, but we do have six months to work through this and make sure everything goes smoothly, so I’m open minded.”

Chappie said he thought there could possibly be some issues at times.

“If any issue arises and you have that concern, I would identify it as soon as you can and bring it up to Miss Augello and I’m sure she will respond appropri­ately to the concern,” said attorney Robert Lincoln, who has been representing Bradenton Beach since Perry’s retirement.

Bradenton Beach nominates Augello as interim city attorney

Bradenton Beach nominates Augello as interim city attorney

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News.

BRADENTON BEACH – Holmes Beach City Attorney Erica Augello will serve as the Bradenton Beach city attorney on an interim basis for up to six months or until a permanent replacement for retired City Attorney Ricinda Perry is selected.

Following an interview process by commissioners at an Oct. 7 emergency special work meeting, Mayor John Chappie made the recommendation to contract with the Clearwater-based Trask Daignault LLP law firm with Augello as primary city attorney.

“In going through the proposal material, you have the whole gamut of areas of law that we need help on,” Mayor John Chappie said. “I think it will be very beneficial not to have just one attorney but to have a team.”

“The way that our firm works, the city attorney is a charter position, so you would have a named city attorney. In this case the proposal names me as the city attorney,” Augello said. “I’ll be the first point of contact. I will be the person that shows up at all your meetings.”

Commissioners questioned Augello and attorney Robert Eschenfelder about topics that included potential conflicts between Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach, Community Rede­velopment Agency (CRA) experience, fees and the role of city attorney.

“In my capacity as city attorney for Holmes Beach, I have worked with the former city attorney, Ricinda (Perry), as well as some of the staff when there are issues that come up to craft interlocal agreements through the hurricanes,” Augello said. “While I do serve as city attorney of Holmes Beach, I’m very much aware that every city is unique.”

Eschenfelder said the law firm serves 14 municipalities, including four beach cities in Pinellas County, and he serves as village attorney for village of Estero and town attorney for the towns of Redington Beach and Redington Shores. He was with the Manatee County Attorney’s office for 16 years.

Bradenton Beach nominates Augello as interim city attorney
Commissioners questioned attorneys Erica Augello and Robert Eschenfelder, right. – Leslie Lake | Sun

Commissioner Scott Bear asked how any potential disputes between Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach would be handled.

“If there comes to pass a time when Bradenton Beach needs to sue one of its neighbors for some reason, there obviously will be a conflict so conflict counsel would need to be picked for that one thing,” Eschenfelder said. “We were the city attorney to Tarpon Springs, they have a CRA. We handle conflict for the city of Bradenton CRA board, so we do have in-house experience.”

Augello said that happens very infrequently.

Bear asked about the attorneys’ familiarity with grant applications.

“If I do get involved with the grant applications, it’s very rare,” Augello said. “Our position is we’re not drafting the grant applications for you, but we can certainly help as much as is neces­sary until you get to the point where you’re able to do that on your own.”

Commissioner Ralph Cole stated that Bradenton Beach uses depart­ment heads to lead projects, which has included Perry.

“Our positions are to advise; we will never be the final decision makers on things. If it’s from a legal point of view, 100%, but if it’s a purely staff issue, I have no problem saying this is not my position, let me point you in the direction of where you may get assistance on that,” Augello said. “Our role as attorneys and charter officials is fairly narrow. If I’m doing more than giving you legal advice, in my opinion, I’m not doing my job prop­erly and I’m doing you a disservice.”

Cole asked about the firm’s fees.

“We have specialized skills that other municipal firms don’t have. We find that our $285 rate is cost effective for the quality of what you’re getting,” Augello said.

“One of the things you had with your previous attorney, very likely she had to do a lot more work to come up with whatever work product she came up with, whereas we share our work product,” Eschenfelder said.

“I do want to say as diplomati­cally as I can, when you look at the spend that this city has had for a city attorney over the prior years as I understand it, your city attorney became the city manager in many ways, and billed you attorney time for that,” Eschenfelder said. “We are not going to be your city manager. I think it’s a dangerous role for your lawyer to be so involved. Because if a lawsuit happens, that lawyer is going to be potentially named as a defendant, and won’t be able to represent you, so we intend, if you retain us, to draw a real distinction.”

“I bet you next year at this time you will have spent less on lawyer fees because we confine ourselves to what we’re supposed to be doing,” he said.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) for a permanent city attorney will be issued toward the end of the six-month interim period. Augello said her firm will submit a proposal for the perma­nent city position.

“I think we heard a lot of great things that we needed to hear today, particularly not getting out of your lanes and that’s key because it’s so easy to slip and that’s what’s happened over the decades,” Chappie said.

Augello said one of the first things she would do is schedule meetings with staff and commissioners to learn what issues are facing the city.

“I am all for a firm, I have been asking for this for quite some time, especially over the last couple of years,” Police Chief John Cosby said.

City Clerk Terri Sanclemente said, “We need more input with different specialties and different attorneys. I think it would be beneficial for our city.”

The city charter states that the mayor nominates the city attorney.

“The mayor can make that nomination infor­mally, if it is the consensus of the commission to move forward with that,” said Robert Lincoln, who is temporarily serving as city attorney. “I can prepare a resolution for the meeting on the 16th that will recite the mayor has made the nomination and the resolution is to implement it by the commission’s approval of appointment of the firm as the interim attorneys until such time as the city commission makes an appoint­ment for a permanent city attorney.”

Commissioners reached a consensus for approval.

City defends attorney, invoices

City defends attorney, invoices

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Bradenton Beach.

BRADENTON BEACH – Mayor John Chappie, city commissioners and Police Chief John Cosby responded to criticism of post-hurricane invoices submitted by City Attorney Ricinda Perry at an Aug. 21 commission meeting, defending both the expenditures and Perry herself.

Cosby, serving as director of public works after Hurricane Helene hit the city in September 2024, asked Perry to assist with emergency operations at a FEMA-reimbursable rate of $150 per hour in addition to Perry’s FEMA-reimbursable hurricane-related legal rate of $220 per hour.

The city was flooded with up to 4 feet o f water after Helene swept past Anna Maria Island in the Gulf of Mexico. Damage included Gulf Drive being left covered in sand and impassable, with many ground-floor buildings filled with several feet of sand, no electricity and debris preventing access to many structures.

“I’m sure you’re aware of the recent media concerns and issues that had been brought forward,” Mayor John Chappie said, referring to an editorial in the Aug. 20 issue of The Islander newspaper criticizing Perry’s invoices for November and December 2024 totaling $91,050 for post-hurricane work.

Perry said her obligation is to the city.

“You (the city) are my client. I answer to you. I don’t answer to anybody else,” she said. “You hold me accountable. I have nothing to hide and I’m proud of the work that we did and I stand behind everything I’ve billed to the city.”

Perry said she did what Cosby asked her to do and fully documented her invoices.

“I worked with our contractor that submits these costs to FEMA,” Perry said. “Hopefully FEMA will approve all but 12.5% of these charges that are in front of you for my hurricane work, so the taxpayers are not exposed to this bill.”

Perry said there are many layers of oversight to the FEMA-related billing.

“It goes through the FEMA review process, and I think even the county or state has some review and oversight for our expenditures that go in for FEMA reimburse­ment,” Perry said. “Then on top of that it goes on a public agenda to be vetted by the public and vetted by you, the client, the elected officials. Staff looks at all of this.

“You were operating under a state of emer­gency and in a lot of respects the media has come out and said they have a vote of no con­fidence in the services that were rendered on behalf of the city by me,” she said.

“You can see the detail I put in my invoices. I don’t simply say ‘showed up at work.’ ” Perry said. “There were days I slept in my car at the police department to keep things going. Chief was charged in this instance with assembling a team to respond and get the community back in working order. And the question that largely needs to be answered is, did we succeed? Did Chief succeed in getting the city back open and running? You got the results that were needed.”

Perry’s invoice runs from Nov. 1 through Dec. 19 2024 and covers such items as attending daily brief­ings; meetings with staff, neighborhood and business owners and fire district personnel; conducting site visits to affected infrastructure; meeting with building owners regarding rebuilding requirements and FEMA compliance; drafting contracts for debris removal; build­ing department reorga­nization and managing public outreach, to name a few.

Chappie said all contract invoices over $2,000 must be submit­ted to the commission for review and are public record.

“As you are aware, I lost my right-hand man,” Cosby said. “With him being gone and not having another public works director to assist in this I reached out to Ricinda. I needed somebody that quick on their feet, educated, able to read contracts, RFPs, everything else that I knew was going to have to be put together to move this forward.”

Cosby said he was left with two choices – to ask Perry to help or hire a consulting firm at the cost of roughly $350 per hour per person for up to five people.

“The average consul­tant fee for what I was going to have her do for FEMA guidelines is $150,” Cosby said. “That’s why I came to the commission and said whatever she’s doing that’s not attorney-related I need you to approve the cost of $150 an hour. We ran that through FEMA, and they were comfortable with that and that is still moving forward.”

Cosby noted that Bradenton Beach was the hardest-hit govern­ment entity in Manatee County after Hurricane Helene.

“We had not just damage to our buildings, we have infrastructure damage that’s being repaired, there was no other way to do it, there was no one else to do it,” Cosby said. “There’s two of us, myself and Terri (City Clerk Terri Sancle­mente.) She was han­dling all the insurance issues, and you have to remember we still had to do our regular jobs. I still had to do payroll; scheduling and I had to guide the public works department.”

Cosby said he was working 16-18 hour days after the hurricane, sometimes being called back in the middle of the night for emergencies such as a diesel fuel spill.

“It’s individuals mouthing off that are not residents of Bradenton Beach that are not here and did not go through this,” Cosby said. “They have no clue what they’re talking about.”

“Things were hap­pening so fast, and our team was on top of it and I think you’re going to see the result of the expertise that our team has had when our FEMA reimbursement checks start coming back in and how well we have done our job,” Chappie said, adding the editorial was uncalled for.

Commissioner Ralph Cole said, “When we were under emer­gency management, they needed their space to do what they needed to do, and we got it done a lot cheaper and a lot faster than the other communities.”

“I just marvel at Ricinda’s ability and we’re so lucky to have her,” Commissioner Jan Vosburgh said.

Vice-Mayor Deborah Scaccianoce addressed criticism of city oversight and Perry’s invoices.

“We pass our audits with flying colors. There is so much oversight in our spending,” she said. “The lawyers for the other cities weren’t slinging mud, wearing boots, carrying cases of water and going out in the public. Not one of those attorneys took the time that Ms. Perry did to shlep around in mud and muck in that disaster that we lived through. But this attorney did do that. She is a member of this community, and she is not replaceable as a result of that.”

Scaccianoce said the city suffered 95% damage, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“Anna Maria was marginal, Holmes Beach by comparison was marginal,” Scaccianoce said. “She (Perry) was here every day during recovery. The Chief was wearing a lot of hats, he had other stuff to do. Ricinda took responsibilities away from him so he could concentrate on getting done what he needed to do. What Ricinda contributed went above and beyond.”

“Bridge Street brought a sense of normalcy and hope back to this city and it was Ricinda who made sure that hap­pened,” Scaccianoce said. “The idea that any of this is inappropriate or not accept­able is outrageous. I challenge anyone to have put as much time and effort that Ms. Perry did as our city attorney during this catastrophe. And questioning her billing or our auditing processes or any of that is absolute nonsense. And I challenge any of those people – the writer of the editorial – where were you? I know where Ricinda was because I was on this Island and I watched her do it. She was bringing boots for people so they could navigate through the muck and mud. It’s really easy to sling mud at people when you’re sitting behind your computer. If you’re not boots on the ground, you have no right to open your mouth to discredit anyone. I am furious this is even put in question.”

Commissioner Scott Bear said he was disappointed that the Islander editorial made it personal about Perry.

“They didn’t come in and ask us why she was doing the work,” Bear said. “We were short-staffed, that’s why. To say the attorneys in those two cities (Anna Maria and Holmes Beach) didn’t charge anything, well, I can guarantee you, if they had been asked to do it, it wouldn’t have been done under their flat rate. To make a statement in a paper that they didn’t have additional cost, well no kidding, they also didn’t have 95% damage.”

“This malfeasance and fraud that are supposedly going on in the city, not just us, but the other two cities, were stripped naked by OPPAGA,” Cosby said, referring to a recent study by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Account­ability. “They went through everything. If there were issues, we would have known about it and we came out of this well. It’s people that don’t know running their mouth. After what we went through it’s disheartening to have to deal with this.”