HomeMy Public PortalAboutPRR 16-2329Renee Basel
From:
Chris O'Hare <chrisoharegulfstream@gmail.com>
Sent:
Friday, September 30, 2016 9:34 AM
To:
Bill Thrasher, Rita Taylor, Renee Basel
Subject: Public Record Request - morgan/sweetapple communication about legal representation
Dear Custodian of Records,
I request to inspect certain public records in the custody of the Town of Gulf Stream Florida or its agents or associated entities.
While I am not statutorily obligated to explain why I want to inspect these records, I tell you it is for the
purpose of informing myself of the historic and current workings of the Town of Gulf Stream and its
associated entities, vendors, consultants, advisers, contractors and agents. The records I wish to
inspect may also be material to current, anticipated or presently unforeseen legal action. In addition,
inspection of these records may be essential to my ability to make informed comments in an
upcoming public hearing. The production of any and all responsive records is therefore urgent and
must be acted upon in compliance with Florida Statutes and established case law as soon as
possible.
Before making this public record request, I first searched online and in the public records portion of
your agency's website hoping I could locate the public records I seek without having to write you
directly. Unfortunately I cannot find the records I wish to inspect. Therefore I am writing you now and
requesting you make every effort as required by law to produce these public records without delay.
I make this request pursuant to Article 1, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution and Chapter 119 of
the Florida Statutes. I hereby reserve all rights granted to me under the Florida
Constitution and Florida Statutes.
I ask that you take the following action:
• Read this entire request carefully and respond accordingly.
• If you are not the custodian of the public records described herein please determine who that person is and
notify me immediately in order that I may make this request to the appropriate person without delay.
• Reference Florida Statutes and appropriate case law when responding to this record request.
• Do NOT produce any records other than records responsive to this request.
• Identify by name the person or persons responding to this request if that person is not the Custodian of
Records for your agency as required by 119.07(1)(b).
Respond to this public record request in a singular manner and do not combine this
request with any other public record requests when responding to this request
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l i t i g a t i o n .
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e l e c t r o n i c f o r m a t p l e a s e p r o d u c e t h e r e c o r d s i n t h e o r i g i n a l e l e c t r o n i c f o r m a t i n w h i c h t h e y w e r e
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2
of §119.07(4)(a)3.(d) Florida Statues and if you anticipate that any records exist, the production for
inspection of which will require extensive use of information technologies or extensive staff time or
both in excess of 15 minutes, then please provide those records that can be produced within the first
15 minutes and advise me of the cost you anticipate to be incurred by your agency for the remaining
records prior to incurring this cost. Please do not incur any costs on my behalf without first obtaining
my written authorization to proceed. If you produce only a portion of all existing responsive records,
please tell me that your response includes only a portion of all existing records responsive to this
request.
If you anticipate the need to incur any costs that I would be statutorily required to pay in order to
inspect these public records which would exceed $1.00 please notify me in advance of your incurring
that cost with a written estimate of the total cost. Please be sure to itemize any estimates so as to
indicate the total number of pages and/or records, as well as to distinguish the cost of labor and
materials. Again, please do not incur any costs on my behalf without first obtaining my written
authorization to proceed.
A record that does not exist because of its disposition requires the creation of a disposition record. In
all instances where you determine a record does not exist please determine if the record once existed
and in its replacement provide the disposition record for my inspection.
The term public records, as used herein, has the same meaning and scope as the definition of Public
records adopted by the Florida Legislature as Statutes Chapter 119.
The phrase Town of Gulf Stream when used herein refers to the Town in its entirety and all entities of
the Town including all employees, appointees, officials, assignees, counsel and consultants including
Town Manager, Town Clerk, Town Police Chief, Town Commissioners, Town Mayor, Town
Departments, Town Police Officers, Town Employees, Town Engineer, the law firm (Jones Foster
Johnston & Stubbs P.A.) that claims to be the Town Attorney including all attorney, partner and
employee members of that firm; the Town Counsel of Sweetapple, Broeker & Varkus including all
attorney, partner and employee members of that firm, the Town Counsel of Richman Greer, P.A.
including all attorney, partner and employee members of that firm and any other entity associated
with the Town and subject to public records law.
If you do not understand any part of this request or if you need clarification about this request, notify me as
soon as possible so I may further describe or clarify this request.
All responses to this public records request should be made in writing to the following email address:
chrisoharegulfstream@gmail.com
TOWN OF GULF STREAM
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA
Delivered via e-mail
September 30, 2016
Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstream n email.coml
Re: GS #2329 (morgau/sweetapple communication about legal representation)
1 request to inspect the public record of any communications between Mayor Scott Morgan and
Robert Sweetapple created on or around March 28, 2014, the subject matter of which is
substantially about the Town's agreement for legal representation between Mr. Sweetapple and
the Town. Said decision to hire Mr. Sweetapple which is recorded in the adopted minutes of the
Special Meeting of the Town Commission held on March 28, 2014, agenda item IV. Hiring
Additional Counsel.
Dear Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstrearnaa.grnail.coml,
The Town of Gulf Stream has received your public records request dated September 30, 2016. The
original public record request can be found at the following link:
hqp://www2.gulf-strearn.org/weblink/O/doc/102193/Paizel.ast)x
Please be advised that the Town of Gulf Stream is currently working on a large number of
incoming public records requests. The Town will use its very best efforts to respond to you in a
reasonable amount of time with the appropriate response or an estimated cost to respond.
Sincerely,
JZ4-d RUWla. "
As requested by Rita Taylor
Town Clerk, Custodian of the Records
TOWN OF GULF STREAM
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA
Delivered via e-mail
December 6, 2016
Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstream(iilgmail.coml
Re: GS #2329 (morgan/sweetapple communication about legal representation)
1 request to inspect the public record of any communications between Mayor Scott Morgan and
Robert Sweetapple created on or around March 28, 2014, the subject matter of which is
substantially about the Town's agreement for legal representation between Mr. Sweetapple and
the Town. Said decision to hire Mr. Sweetapple which is recorded in the adopted minutes of the
Special Meeting of the Town Commission held on March 28, 2014, agenda item IV. Hiring
Additional Counsel.
Dear Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstream(i�gmail.coml:
The Town of Gulf Stream has received your public records request dated September 30, 2016.
The original public records requests can be found at the following links:
htto://www2.gulf-stream.org/weblink/0/doc/102193/Page l.aspxx
We understand your request to be for "any communications between Mayor Scott Morgan and
Robert Sweetapple created on or around March 28, 2014, the subject matter of which is
substantially about the Town's agreement for legal representation between Mr. Sweetapple and
the Town. " The Town does not believe the attached records are responsive to your request because
they are not "substantially about the Town's agreement for legal representation between Mr.
Sweetapple and the Town". However, in an abundance of caution, the Town is providing you with
a communication between Scott Morgan and Mr. Sweetapple dated March 28, 2014, that relates
to general legal strategy.
We consider this request closed.
Sincerely,
R"Id R444" D�
As requested by Rita Taylor
Town Clerk, Custodian of the Records
SCOTT W. MORGAN
1140 N. Ocean Blvd.
Gulf Stream, FL 33483
Ph (561) 243-1432
Cell (561) 573-6006
Email. smorranahumidifirst.com
March 28, 2014
Robert Sweetapple, Esq.
1199 E Boca Raton Rd.
Boca Raton, FL 33432
Re: O'Boyle v. Town of Gulf Stream
2014 CA 001572
Dear Bob:
Please accept this letter as my acknowledgment of your representation of
the Town of Gulf Stream in connection with lawsuits filed against it by Martin
O'Boyle. These matters include the above -referenced action in which you have also
represented me as a witness.
I waive any conflict of interest concerns, and hereby agree to your
representation of the Town in these actions and of the joint representation of us
both in the matter docketed as 2014 CA 001572.
Very truly yours,
Scott W. Morgan
Renee Basel
From:
scottmorgan75@gmail.com
Sent:
Friday, March 28, 2014 5:24 PM
To:
rsweetapple@sweetapplelaw.com
Cc:
jrandolph@jonesfoster.com;joconnor@jonesfoster.com
Subject:
Special Counsel- Town of Gulf Stream
Attachments:
Morgan Sweetapple.JPG
The Town Commission voted unanimously today to engage you as special counsel to assist Jones Foster in the
defense of the Public Records lawsuits. That firm's contact information is:
Jones, Foster, Johnston & Stubbs, P.A.
Flagler Center Tower, 505 South Flagler Drive, Suite 1100, West Palm Beach, Florida 33401
561-659-3000 1 www.jonesfoster.corn
The Town Manager is William Thrasher ( 276-5116; bthrasherCO)sulf-stream.ore ; 100 Sea Rd., Gulf Stream, FL
33483 ). You can send your engagement letter to him. As we discussed, you have kindly agreed to reduce your
hourly rate to $350.00.
I spoke with John "Skip" Randolph and Joanne O'Connor, the Town attorneys with Jones Foster, who will be
sending you a copy of the files on each of the lawsuits. I have not read them myself, but my understanding is
that they are all essentially the same --allegations of delay or failure to produce public records or of
unreasonable production cost. In order to keep your fees down, I suggest you do not undertake an in-depth
study of each case, but just familiarize yourself generally with them. I believe each case is pretty much the
same anyway.
In case you didn't know, there are two independent Plaintiffs bringing these actions. Marty O'Boyle is one and
Christopher O'Hare is the other. Both men are (were?) represented by The O'Boyle Law Firm so they work
together on most of these matters, although in several of the cases, I believe one or the other Plaintiff is
already acting pro se. O'Boyle is the leader of the pair, however, so we want to focus our attention on him
first.
If you have time next week, and even before you receive the files from Jones Foster, I believe we should have
a strategy session involving Jones Foster, you and myself. Skip and Joanne have done quite a bit of work on
these cases so they are already working on a strategy involving sanctions and consolidation. You may or may
not agree, or may have input on how we can fast-track the best case into court. Your first suggestion, as I
recall, was to pick the weakest case and conduct an extensive deposition of O'Boyle, which would set the
groundwork for possible sanctions in any other matter. Afterward, you would advance the case to trial. I
suspect O'Boyle will try to use discovery efforts to delay the case but we'll just have to deal with that as it
occurs. The goal is to obtain a dismissal or verdict in one of his cases, and thereby set up an abuse of process
or malicious prosecution case. In addition, there may be opportunities for sanctions even prior to a verdict.
I am attaching a letter waiving any conflict of interest I may have in connection with your representation of
the Town.
Best regards,
Scott W. Morgan
w-561-752-1936
c-561-573-6006