HomeMy Public PortalAbout2017-09-26 AttorneyClient In The Matter Of Lynne Bloch Mullen CASE 17236AP_PetitionForCertiorari1
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BAL HAR BOUR VI L LAGE
ATT ORNEY/CLIENT SESSION
O~JGINAL
IN THE MATTER OF LYNNE BLOCH MULLEN , ET AL v .
BA L HARBOUR VILLAGE , ET AL
CASE NUMBER : 1 7 -236 -AP (Petition for Certio r ari )
BAL HARBOUR VILLA GE HAL L
655 96 t h S TRE E T
BAL HARBOU R, FLOR I DA 33154
TUESDAY , SEPTEMBE R 26 , 2017
6 :20 p .m . -6 :25 p .m .
Taken before Mary G . Stephenson , F PR, No t a r y
Publ i c for t he State of Floricta
V e ritex t Leg al So lution s
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800-726-7 007 305-376-8800
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APPEARANCES:
COUNCILMEMBERS :
GA BRIEL GROISMAN, MAYOR
(Appearance via te l ephone)
SETH E . SALVER , ASS I STANT MAYOR
DAVID ALBAUM , COUNCILMAN
PATR ICIA COHEN , COUNCILWOMAN
JEFFREY FREIMARK, COUNCILMAN
VILLAG E MANAGER :
JORGE M. GONZALEZ
11 VI LLAGE ATTORNEY :
12 WEISS SEROTA HELFMAN
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COLE & BIERMAN , P .L .
BY : JOS E PH SEROTA , ESQ .
SUSAN TREVARTHEN , ESQ.
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Thereupon , the follow i ng proceed i ngs were had :
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ASSISTANT MAYOR SALVER : We are n ow
d i scussing Lynne Bloch Mullen , et al versus Bal
Harbour Village , Florida, et al , 1 7-236-AP ,
petition for certiorari .
MS . TREVART HEN : Thank you , Mr . Assistant
Mayor .
Joe .
MR . SEROTA : So this is in the same court .
It 's a petition for cert also i n the appellate
d i vision of the circuit court .
Here there has been what is ca l led , well,
their amended petition for ce r tiorar i. It 's a
much shorter brief , petition . It 's essentially
c l aiming a similar position th at Mr . Robbins did
and that is that they were denied intervenor
status .
He goes into some detail in his petition
that he didn 't have the --that she didn 't have
the ability for legal counse l to proceed and to
assis t her , and t hat they should be an intervenor .
He does make some general comments about
the petition.
COUNCILWOMAN COHEN : Who is h e?
MR . SEROTA : Well , this is Lynne Bloch
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Mullen and Neil Alter .
MS . TREVARTHEN: Represented by J .C .
Planas.
MR . SEROTA: Represented --I 'm sorry , to
make it c l earer .
So the petitioners are Lynne Bloch Mullen
and Neil Alter .
The h e t ha t I am talking about is t he
attorney , J.C . Pl anas, who you have seen.
I say he because the way th is thing is
written, it 's really written like , I never had a
chance to speak on behalf of my client, and that
is essential l y what he i s claiming.
I t is an issue of whether the counc il was
correct in not granting t hem intervenor status.
MS . TREVARTHEN: So that is one way in
which this petit i on is a li tt le bit different ,
because, as you r ecall , Mr. Robbi ns acted on his
own behalf and he has filed his petition as an
attorney acting i n his own behalf .
COUNCILWOMAN COHEN : And these folks are --
MS . TREVART HEN: Th ey are usin g J .C.
P l anas , yes .
COUNCILWO MAN COHEN : Yes , but they also
have t h e same position . They were denied
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intervenor status.
MS. TREVARTHEN: Yes. The village council
voted to deny them t hat status.
MR. SEROTA : The facts are different, of
course, because intervenor status is something
that is very fact specific. So the facts are
di ffe r e nt, but ultimately the decision was the
same t hat neither of these parties were granted
intervenor status by the counci l . That is it.
ASSISTANT MAYOR SALVER: Is the re a
separate panel that reviews th is petition for cert
versus the other one? How does the cour t deal
wi t h that?
MR. SEROTA: That is a good question. We
are right now in the process of really deciding
how we handle it. I t 's our working position t hat
we would move to consolidate so that there is one
court. I mean, Seth, jus t because you asked. So
there is one pane l because this is an appellate
cour t . There's three judges.
We think it's in the village 's best
interest to have a single panel decide each of
them . Even though the facts are slightly
different, the arguments are essen tia l ly the same.
I mean, what intervenor status is , what the code
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provides for, what the law provides , whether the
council ac te d, again , with in its own discretion,
whether there is a legal basis to support what you
did, which, of course, we believe there is .
So that is what we are thin kin g about
doing . Because these things are still a little
bit in limbo , we haven 't done that.
COUNCILWOMAN COHEN : Bu t, Joe , I was never
really given an outline what constitutes
intervenor status. So what makes a person
eligible for intervenor status?
MS . TREVART HE N : On that quest i on , we do
have a code that establishes a procedure for the
council to vo t e on qual i fied i ntervenor status .
You are correct that the code itself
doesn 't set it f orth, but in the process of
considering the request from Saks , you will recall
that I wrote a letter that gave you the background
law and explaine d my recommenda t i on on Saks , and
that case was to grant the status and you chose to
do so with Saks . Saks has not filed a petition,
but they did have the qualified intervenor status .
So that letter said that the background
case law that applies to these kind of proceedings
and specifically talking about the case of Renard.
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T hat is the case that talks about whether
indiv iduals have a right to have special
participation righ ts in a local quasi-judicia l
hear i ng or not on a zoning matter and they have to
have an interest that is not j u st greater in
degree but also different in kind from that shared
by everyone else within the vi l lage and t he la rger
community is affected by the project .
So you are correct , Councilwoman Cohen,
that our code doesn 't spell all of that out , but
that letter is where I gave you the background of
the law on how you should inte rpret it.
ASSISTANT MAYOR SALVER : Any othe r
discussion?
I am now closing the a t torney/c l ient
session for Lynne Bloch Mullen , et al versus Bal
Harbour Village , et al .
(Thereupon , the proceedings were concluded
at 6 :25 p .m .)
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C E R T I F I C A T E
I, Mary G. Stephenson, FPR, State of Florida at
Large , certify that I was authorized to and did
s tenographica lly report the foregoing proceedings and
t hat the trans cript is a true and complete record of my
stenographic notes.
Da ted this 29th day of September, 2017.
Mary G. Stephenson, FPR
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