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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2009-05-19 AttorneyClient Session CASE 07-12570CA081 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 VILLAGt OF BAL HARBOUR ATTORNEY/CLIENT SESSION BAL HARBOUR VILLAGE HALL 655 96th STREET BAL HARBOUR, FLORIDA 33154 TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2009 8:00 a.m. -9:05 a.m. 21 Taken before Mary G. Stephenson, FPR, Notary 22 Public for the State of Florida 23 24 25 TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 1 APPEARANCES: 2 COUNCILMEMBERS: 3 JEAN ROSENFitLD, MAYOR JONI D. BLACHAR, ASSISTANT MAYOR 4 PATRICJA COHEN MARTIN PACKER 5 JAIME M. SANZ 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 VILLAGE MANAGER: ALFRED J. TREPPEDA VILLAGE ATTORNEY: WEISS SEROTA HELFMAN PASTORIZA COLE & BONISKE, P.A. BY: RICHARD WEISS, ESQ. MICHAEL POPOK, ESQ. 15 VILLAGE CLERK: 16 ELLISA HORVATH, CMC (PRESENT ONLY DURING PUBLIC PORTION) 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 2 3 1 Thereupon, the following proceedings were had: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Ladies and gentlemen, I'm calling this meeting to order. May I have the roll, please. MS. HORVATH: Mayor Rosenfield. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Present. MS. P.ORVATH: Assistant Mayor Blachar. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Present. MS. HORVATH: Councilwoman Cohen. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Present. MS. HORVATH: Councilman Packer. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Here. MS. HORVATH: Councilman Sanz. COUNCILMAN SANZ: Here. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: The time is now 8:00 a.m., and we are about to have an attorney/client session in accordance with Florida Statute 286.011 regarding the litigatioL styled Lynne Bloch-Mullen versus Joel Jacobi, Bal Harbour Village, and the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board, Dade County Circuit Court case number 07-12570 CA 08. The session is estimated to last one hour and the following pecple will be in attendance at the meeting: The following vllloge councilmembers and me, Assistant Mayor Joni D. Blachar, TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 :. 4 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 Councilwoman Patricia Cohen, Councilman Martin Packer and Councilman Jaime Sanz, Village Attorney Richard J. Weiss, Michael Popok, and Village Manager Alfred J. Treppeda. The proceedings will be recorded by a certified court reporter, and at the conclusion of all litigation discussed, the transcript will be made part of the public record. All those individu~ls who I have not named should leave the room at this time. (Thereupon, Ellisa Horvath left the room.) MR. WEISS: We hoped not to have another executive session on this matter, but as attorneys we are obligated when we get a counter-proposal to present it to you. As you remember, the lost time we discussed the appeal issue on the Lynne Bloch-Mullen lawsuit, council instructed us to do this. We told you that we had the opportunity to file a motion, what is called a ffiotion to tax costs, which we can recover certain court reporter fees and other things. It ended up being about $4,000. They, of course, have the right to appeal the decisions of the court. What the council instructed us to do was to contact them and say, TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 B 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 listen, we don't really want tc fight about this any more. We are done. We want to be finished. If you agree --and this is very, very common. you agree not to flle your appeal, we will agree If not to file our motion to tax costs, and that was sort of where we were. So we made that offer orally and in writing to Mr. Hearon, who is the attorney for Ms. Lynne Bloch-Mullen, and then we got that long letter back, which each of you have a copy of, basically raising a bunch of other issues, and basically making us the counter-proposal, which included releases, which, you know, further complicated the matter. I don't want to go through the letter because you have been through it. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Excuse me. MR. WEISS: Yes. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: I read the letter, and I don't know if there is something I need to understand in it, but what I understood is they were implying that we were not releasing them from perhaps taking action in the future. to clarify what we are talking about. I mean, just MR. WEISS: We are not in any way releasing them and theoretically under what had been TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 proposed, had the village wanted to turn around ttere had been some talk in the village about going after these people for slander, whicc are oral statements that have been made. There was 6 some talk about going against Ms. Bloch-Mullen for the article in the newspaper dealing with the fact that the council was corrupt and all of that. settling the case the way that --not settling By by agreeing basically for each party to just sort of walk away from the thing. Those issues were, to be fair, still sort of outstanding. I believe from speaking with individual councilmembers that nobody has any interest on the council in pursuing any of those matters and are happy just to have this done. The issue that was raised in Mr. Hearon's letter --by settling it the way that we had proposed, she was not precluded from doing anything and we were not. Now, we know because we are in these meetings that we don 1 t really intend to do anything. So that was the one issue. Yes. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Why then was it not specifically expressed in an agreement because TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7 there is no formal or informal request that we go after I mean, there is no hidden agendas. Then why wasn't there an agreement right then and there? MR. WEISS: The way that these cases are generally settled at the time that we were at -- in other words, this is not really a formal -- when you sort of settle a lawsuit if this had been settled snme long time ago, there is a mutual exchange of releases where people are suing each other for damages and so forth, but many times in these kind of cases when we are basically agreeing not to go after her for costs and they are agreelng not to do the appeal, releases, which is what you are talking about, are not involved. These c~ses are often settled on that basis. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN; So it's strictly what we are talking about. MR. WEISS: It's strictly what you are talking about. What they have done is they are concerned about these sort of other issues being around. There is nothing wrong with putting those kind of releases in a settlement. Nothing at all wrong with it. People do it. We can certainly do it if that is what ycu tell us to do, but at this TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 CJ 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 point in the litigation the reaso~ that it wasn't raised is, number one, we knew that it wasn't an issue for us. There was no intention of this council on making this litigation go on and protracting it and spending more money. So the 8 idea that we might go after her for something was not in anybody's rni~d, but it's obviously in their minds. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Can we now just agree to the release and be done with it? COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: No, I don't agree. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: No. COUNCILMAN PACKER: If they would drop the appeal and give them this thing and say, look, it's all done -- MR. WEISS: There is another issue. COUNCILMAN PACKER: What is the other issue? MR. WEISS: The other issue is that there is the issue of the statements made against Chief Hunker, and there are statements made in court filings by the pla~ntiffs that, objectively speaking, impugn Tom Hunker's reputation for honesty. One thing that we did and under the court TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 rules, we wrote them at the council's direction, and we said these statements are inaccurate, please withdraw them. There is a procedure and they could have just filed something with the ccurt withdrawing that pleading, and that would have been the end of the Tom Hunker. I have spoken with Tom Hunker, and that would have been the end. They have refused to do that. COUNCILMAN PACKER: They have? MR. WEISS: They have refused to do that. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Did you ask them to do that now? ·COUNCILMAN PACKER: In writing? MR. WEISS: Under the procedure that is 9 required by the court --Michael, correct me if I'm wrong, but under the procedure that is required by the court, before you can file a motion for sanctions under Rule 57.105, there is a procedure where we have to give them 30 days? MR. POPOK: 21. MR. WEISS: 21 days to withdraw, and we gave them a formal letter from the council at the direction of the cou~cil saying we intend to file this motion, please withdraw those pleadings, they are not true. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. '.305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. POPOK: I raised it again with them. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Before the council? MAYOR ROSENFIELD: We did that in a legal meeting. Not the last one, the one before. MR. WEISS: There was an issuA. I raised 10 the issue with you, and I believe you were there, w~ich is that Tom Hunker was very, very offended by the statements that were made regarding his reputation, and just to put it in a little perspective for you, police offlcers --for JS, for somebody to say Richard Weiss i~ a louse, believe me, it bothers me or it's dishonest. I mean, I would do something about it, but police officers are frequently called to testify on matters in court, and when a defense attorney or a plaintiff's attorney or a state attorney deals with police officers, one of the things they try to do is they try to undercut t~e testimony that the police officer is giving by showing that the police officer is not a credible witness, and statements like this are particularly sensitive to police officers because if Tom Hunker would get called to the stand on a big case, if somebody did a careful job investigating, and I know that Joni was a state attorney, they would bring this up and TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 B 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 11 say, well, weren't there pleadings filed in this case ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Absolutely. MR. WEISS: --that said you lied about this and lied about that. So it's particularly sensitive. Anyway, Tom asked us to pursue this, and the council in a limited way, didn't authorize us to file suit, but authorized us to take the first steps to basically put them on ~otice and try to get Lynne Bloch-Mullen to withdraw those statements. COUNCILMAN PACKER: And they refused? MR. WEISS: And they refused. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: How long ago was it that they refused that? MAYOR ROSENFIELD: This was two meetings ago, r.ot the last meeting when you all were here. It was the meeting before. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: I wasn't present. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: If we ask them for a release now on both sides, can we ask for it now? MR. POPOK: Let me address it. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Will you address TAYLOR REESE ANC ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 12 it? MR. POPOK: The 21 days is long past. It's three weeks ago, but I had another conversation with Mr. Hearon before he wrote his letter in which he tried to bargain to get these additional items released. At that time, I informed him, because he raised the Chief Hunker issue by saying, we want the 57.105, the motion for sanctions withdrawn. I said, look, I can't speak for the council, but my gut feeling is that if you just withdraw that document, which is what we asked you to do earlier, that issue will be easily resolved. His response to me was, quote, if we were going to do that, we were going to do that 21 days ago, and we are not doing it if we felt that had merit. That was the end of that conversation. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: So it's not a conciliatory attitude? MR. POPOK: No. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: This letter, I was so willing to go with the other and say let's be done with it, but this letter has really blown me apart. The two ladies were not on the council, but when they say in this letter, "We all know TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 13 that the village 1 s failure to investigate Mr. Jacobi's true residency," we were never asked, we never knew about it. All I knew was there was an election, and they immediately filed the suit. They never once came to thP. council. said to the council, maybe there is an They never irregularity in one of the councilmember 1 s residency, would you investigate. We were never asked to investigate, and yet they accuse us. This is a very accusatory statement, very accusatory statement. 11 We all know that the village's failure to investigate Mr. Jacobi." We didn't have a chance to inve~tigate. They filed the lawsuit. They did. It was in an envelope. It was in an envelope in your packet, in a separate envelope. The other thing that I am concerned about is they still say, they still feel strongly about abrogating the charter. In this statement here, "As you know, we feel strongly the village's right to fill a vacancy only applies," and then they have a caveat of what they think we have a right to do. So they are not finished. This is how they want to be perceived by the public, and to be very TAYLOR REESE ANC ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 14 honest about it, I heard so many things out in the public. I mean, what you were talking about before. Somebody in the audience may have come up here and said, let's sue her. There is nothing in the minutes that says that this council said we were going to go after the 200,000. MR. WEISS: The only thing that you will find in the minutes was a discussion by Councilman Berlin asking us to l~ok into it. I haven't reviewed the minutes, but I think to be accurate, I think that there was a discussion, do we have rights, you know, and he raised a whole bunch of questions about it, can we go after her, was it a frivolous case, all of those things. I think to be fair, we were asked to look into it. I spoke with everybody afterwards, and nobody wanted to pursue it. So I didn't spend a lot of time and effort but it was put out there. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: But it never came up in any future council meeting. There was never a discussion. There was never a vote on it. There was never anything, but until they retract this statement, I mean, that the village failed. We never had an opportunity. We were never asked to TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 1] 1 fi 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 15 investigate. We were never told. I didn't know anything. They even knew it before the election and never said anything. At least, that is what I heard. That may be hearsay. COUNCILMAN SANZ: The thing that bothers me is they continue to uttack us. tr,inq. It is a constant MAYOH HCSENFIELD: T~teqrity. COJ~CILMAN SANZ: T~tegri~y thaL t~e co 'J n c i l , 2 v e ::-: t he :-J c w c o u :: c i ::.. a : r e a. d y t :---1 e y startec.. It is wo,d o: mo~1th 2.t1.d everybody 'J e r c e i v e d u s n ow , yo L k ::-1 ow , we l L , w h y th e y a .r e corL..:.p::. We have le clarify t~is because it is really ~ar7ishing evc~yb8dy's reputatio~. ~t•s very difficult for me to show here, guys. talk about 1-t. I am not allowed to MR. WEISS: You can talk about anything you want as long as it has to do with the lawsuit. COUNCILMAN PACKER: The thing is this: 1 think as far as this council goes, we would like to get this thing over and done with. I believe that is the fair statement. Is there any way that Mr. Popok can go back to these people? I realize the letter, the mayor doesn't like the words, TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 whatever it is. They are not that great, but whatever they wrote, can we go back to them and say, look, we want this closed? In plain English, withdraw your statements, withdraw your appeal, and let's finish it, done, once more. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: We did de that. COUNCILMAN PACKER: We did it once. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: We did it twice. COUNCILMAN PACKER: I think we should do it agair.. In plain English, speak to them and say, look, there is no hidden agenda here. We are not looking for blood. Drop your case. There has been a summary judgment that we were right in appointing Councilman Sanz. with. It's over and done Maybe they think there is a hidden agenda. I don't know because last time Rudolph gets up and he starts flailing around and saying, you know, he wants his $190,000. We should go after her. This may be hanging over. People may think about it. I don't know, but I think as far as ladies and gentlemen on this council, we have no hidden agendas. We are not out for blood. Tell them just to drop the case, drop the thing against -- if it was done in error, if it was just sometimes TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 people say something, and they don't really mean it, whatever it was done --I don't know if it was an actual was it an actual court file? MR. WEISS: MR. POPOK: MR. WEISS: was by intention. It was an actual court filing. It was not in error. This was not in error. This COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Intentional. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Then they should be told they ~ust withdraw it. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: They were told. MR. WEISS: Councilman Packer is suggesting a comprehensive settlement proposal that deals with these different elements that we should present to them. That is what he said. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Correct. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: If he wants that, I want this statement that we failed -- MR. WEISS: Well, not to add fuel to the fire, because, certainly, I don't want to do that, but I will tell you that I think the nature of that letter has cranked this --we were trying to put this thing to be conciliatory and to be done with this. COUNCILMAN PACK8R: Give them one more TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 chance. MR. WEISS: The problem is this letter, if you feel strongly about it, has added another element to it. COUNCILMAN PACKER: That is 18 ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: I have a question for you. Who is paying this gentleman? MR. WEISS: We really don't know, but I'll tell you that they started out with a very good law firm, Kendall Coffey's firm, and this guy, William Hearon came in sort of at the tail end of the case, and they filed a notice of appeal. Jerry Richman signed tr.e notice of appeal. Actually, he represented the village many, many years ago dealing with one of the developments or something like that. MR. TREPPEDA: Amphitheater. MR. WEISS: Oh, with the amphitheater maybe. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Oh, yes. MR. WEISS: Jerry Richman, he's a very fine appellate attorney. He can't be cheap. I don't know whether he collects a certain fee to just file a notice of appeal to see if he can or whether they intend to pursue it. I don't know. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 ::J 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 19 ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: I think it's a great idea to propose it to them like that one last time, but we have to have a backup already in place. MR. WEISS: Then we are done. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: We are done. MR. WEISS: We filed our notice of appeal. We had to. Excuse me. We filed our motion to tax costs. They filed their notice of appeal because the days were running. record. We wanted to preserve our I think the way I hear the elements are, number one, they don't pursue their appeal, number one. Number two, they retract the statements against Tom Hunker. You guys have to decide what to do about the letter, and on our side, we agree not to file a ~otion to tax costs, and we agree that we are not going to pursue the plaintiff. COUNCILMAN PACKER: There is no hidden agenda here. MR. WEISS: I can't say tha~. We are going to give her a release for any actions that she took in conjunction with this lawsuit. MR. POPOK: They want it for their TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 attorney, Dina, as well. MR. WEISS: Oh, they want a release for Dina as well? MR. POPOK: Right. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: They want a release for Dina? What does that mean? MR. POPOK: To be clear, they want a release for liability for anything that happened in litigation for both the plaintiff and, quote, her counsel. COUNCILMAN PACKER: What does that mean? MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Dina acted as her counsel. 20 COUNCILMAN PACKER: What does that mean? I don't understand. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Did she do something that we should be upset about? MR. POPOK: This is their exposure. MR. WEISS: Under 57.105, if the attorney, right? MR. POPOK: Well, there is two thir.gs. I'm reeding to you. There 1 s two things, I think, they are concerned about. One is the 57.105 motion for sar.ct i ons related to Chief Hunker. However, she is not really on the record for that. It would be TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Kendall Coffey's firm, Bill Hearon and Lynne Bloch-Muller. MR. WEISS: Attorneys have personal 21 liability. court If an attorney files a document in the MR. POPOK: Without merit. MR. WEISS: without merit, the attorneys are liable for what, Michael? MR. POPOK: MR. WEISS: Part of the attorney's fees. Part of the attorney's fees. So they don't want us pursuing that motion against the lawyer. MR. POPOK: In addition, I think they are concerned about any other private lawsuit that could be brought against Lynne and/or Dina and/or anybody else. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: This issue with the chief of police, I wasn't familiar with it, so I don't know anything about the current issue. They filed a motion against him and this is on his record. What is his next step? Can he appeal? now MR. WEISS: There is no appeal. MR. POPOK: Sue for defamation. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. {305) 444-7331 He can 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. WEISS: He can file a suit for defamation because they said that he was, you know 22 ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Can you tell them as part of that --you have to ask the chief if that is okay defamation? MR. POPOK: MR. WEISS: that he will not sue for Is he okay with that? I think that the chief is --I have heard that the chief would be okay if they withdraw it. If they withdraw it from the court file, I think the chief would be okay. MR. TREPPEDA: I agree with that. MR. WEISS: I don't think he 1 s looking for a big fight. I think he is doinq what any person would do. He is protecting his reputation. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Because if they don't, I think that motion needs to be filed for the chief, a suit for defamation. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: CLln I just get --I don 1 t get the technicality because I don't have any background in law. How would they withdraw? They can just go to the court and say withdraw, they withdraw what they said? What they said was false. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. WEISS: They would file a motion with the court to withdraw a particular pleading and tr.e judge would grant it. 23 COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: So it gets erased like from the record? And he is clear? Like it was never mentioned? MR. WEISS: Exactly. COUNCILMAN PACKER: I think that is what we should do is have a --I think if you would approach their attorney, tell them the way we fee 1. We want it settled. We want them to back off, and there are no hidden agendas that we are going after them after the thing is all settled. We want to have them withdraw the complaint against the chief. Was there anything else? MAYOR ROSENFIELD: No. Because I am still adamant about this. MR. WEISS: The elements are, just to review, one, that they would withdraw their appeal, two, that they would file a motion in court withdrawing their statements about the chief. Then on our side, we would withdraw our motion ~o tax costs. We would, based upon tr.at withdrawal, not file the 57.105 motion, and we TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 would release them and basically say we are not suing anybody for anything about this. The issue that Jean is bringing up is what we do about these continuous statements in the letter if you want to do anything about those statements. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I don't know if anybody wants to. COUNCILMAN SANZ: And the public. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: How about just not t~lk about it anymore? COUNCILMAN PACKER: This is a private letter. MR. WEISS: It's not a private letter. It's public. COUNCILMAN PACKER: It's public? MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Nothing they do is private. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: As soon as they can get people from the Miami Herald, they talk. 24 MAYOR ROSENFIELD: They would put it in the Herald. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Of ccurse. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I was in a meeting of mayors on Friday. None of the mayors in TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 25 Miami-Dade understand that this was a two part system. They believe, as does most of the public, that we were defending Joel Jacobi. We did not defend Joel Jacobi. The only part of the suit that we were involved in was the abrogation of the city charter. Lynne Bloch-Mullen wanted to abrogate the city charter. One judge said in a summary decision, am I correct, that no way. That is it. Absolutely no way. Yet they continue to accuse us, and this is public all the time. I really, I almost feel at this point that they admit that the only part that the city played in this was defense of the charter. We didn't play any other part in it. We couldn't investigate Joel because they already had the lawsuit. It was already before the courts, which it would have gone anyway if we had done an investigation. It would have gone to the courts anyway. It's part of the charter. The point is COUNCILMAN PACKER: Mayor, I don't understand what you are try~nq to do. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I think you do understand. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 -9 10 L1 12 13 14 LS L6 l7 LS l9 :0 COUNCILMAN PACKER: No, I don't. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I want a statement. want this statement withdrawn. I want a statement COUNCILMAN PACKER: Then add that. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Clarified. I MAYOR ROSENFIELD: that they understand 26 that the only role that the council played in this was defense of the charter. COUNCILMAN PACKER: If that is what you want, can you add that to this negotiation thing? This is another stick that is thrown in on the road to recovery. Let's put it that way. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Then we sound like we are throwing sticks here. COUNCILMAN PACKER: No, no, no. I say this letter is ar.other stick that was thrown in on the road to recovery. I would like to see the thing closed, finished, and done with. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: We said this at the last, the last legal meeting, we said, every single one of us said, let's make this offer, let's get it over with, we don't want any more part of it. We all sald that. COUNCILMAN PACKER: I understand that. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 27 However, where they said that they were afraid of something that was going to come out, we will make it absolutely clear that there are no you don't want to use the word hidden agendas, but this is the way it is. I think that is the way it should be done. If you want to bring this letter in and have a retraction of it, whatever. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: How about like when you have a regular lawsuit with regular people, you can't discuss anything, any more issues? How about putting that in there, that there is no more discussion on this? COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Opening up again. MR. WEISS: We can do that. COUNCILMAN SANZ: They keep accusing us. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: There is no more discussion on the issue. MR. WEISS: The problem is that both parties are going to be prohibited from talking. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Right. MR. WEISS: So when the mayor qoes to a meeting and they say, why did you defend Joel Jacobi, she is not going to be able to talk about it. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: That is fine. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Let's be done it and get it over. going to snowball. It is just 28 COUNCILMAN PACKER: We are trying to finish it out, smooth it uver, and let's get cooperation and finished and done with, rather than endless over und over again. Each time, something else peps up. MR. WEISS: The problem with a statement like that I think it's a bad idea. I think the problem with a statement like that is that all you are doing is binding on their side the people that are involved in the lawsuit. MR. POPOK: Right. MR. WEISS: The coalition is not a part of your lawsuit. So that all the other members of the coalition that come here can talk badly about the council and say they caused a lawsuit, and you, council, can't talk about it. is not such a good idea. I think that MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Rigtt, it's not a good idea. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Sorry. I was trying to sweep it under the rug. It's so silly. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: It's so silly, but our attitude here I seem to sense is conciliatory. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC, (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 29 Unfortunately, there are many people who are not. So even though we are trying everything desperately to get this over with, they are not. They just want the new chapter of how they can attack the -- MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I was so sure after we walked out last time that it was done and over with. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Let me ask this. I have another question. Is there any way, maybe totally out of order, we are discussing this amongst ourselves here now, are we allowed to have these people here at a meeting? COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: It's a very good idea. COUNCILMAN PACKER: And have Lynne with her attorney here? MR. WEISS: You have to have --but it's a public meeting. The public is here and the press is here and everybody else. COUNCILMAN PACKER: In other words, okay, it would be a public meeting, but if it would be a public --how about could it be called a workshop? MR. WEISS: You can call it a birthday party, but it's still a public meeting and the TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (385) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 30 public is allowed. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Why can't we have their attorneys over ttere? ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Why do we need them here? We have attorneys to represent us and they have attorneys to represent them. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Correct. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: We don't need to look at her in the face. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: I know what he's trying to say. If we give him that respect, if we say to them, okay, let's deal on a human level, come on, what do you want? I think he is right. I think that it might just listen, we are in a landlock. Let's try something new. Let 1 s give them that respect that they want that --you know. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: What does the city attorney say about that? COUNC[LMAN SANZ: Think a minute. It could be also show time with the TV cameras, the newspaper --wait, wait. Can I finish? It could be a show time. It has happened many times. If I wanted to be in show business, I would have been in show business. You can't control TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 2C 22 73 24 25 31 them. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Just them and their attorneys. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: He says it has to be a public meeting. this. COUNCILMAN SANZ: It's a public meeting. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Public meeting. MR. WEISS: It can't be something like COUNCILWOMAN COHEN; MAYOR ROSENFIELD: There is no way. Let's just make the offers that we talked about and see what happens. MR. WEISS: What we are going to do to be clear about this is to I think, Michael, we should put this in writing to them. Put it in writing. What Michael tried to do, which is the way if you are moving in a conciliatory way, call them up and say, let's be done with this, and this i s w r: a. t t he c o ·.1 r. c -i 1 d ~ d , iJ. r_ d r~ i c h a c l g 2. v e -c h cm c1 deacil~ne bcca.Lse we were: try.i.nq to avoid sper:d~ng the mo n e y to file th e oot~or. to tax costs. M l C I"'. a e ~ p L:. s ~ e ci : t: C :n . We got 7h~s leLLer back, '1ever expect ed 0:1 ~his ::::'linq. I really didn't. MR. POPOK: I called first, then a letter. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 1B 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 32 MR. WEISS: Called first, sent a letter. I think you should write them a letter back and say these are the terms, because I think it's very important that you as the council be fully aware of what we are communicating to them. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Yes, that is very important. MR. WEISS: So that when we write this letter, it's going to say exactly what you have discussed here. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Will we see it first? MR. WEISS: Yes, you can see it first. MR. POPOK: A draft. MR. WEISS: We will send you COUNCILMAN PACKER: A draft? MR. POPOK: I'm not comfortable in having a draft circulating. MR. WEISS: Listen, we are pretty good at this. We will write a good letter. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: I hope. COUNCILMAN PACKER: To make sure that what the council wants to do, we would like to see it over and done with to at least allow to tell ttern we have no hidden agendas, please. We want to close this case. Withdraw your charges against TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 33 the chief. This particular letter totally was out of order, and let's put a final close to it and that is it, and if they persist, then that is another story. MR. WEISS: The other thing we could do is you wanted to appoint a member of the council to work on the tone of the letter as Michael dr~fts the letter, you could oo that. draft the letter. Otherwise, we just MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I ttink you can draft a letter yourself. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: I think you can draft it. MR. WEISS: I agree with Michael. MR. POPOK: I would like to go over the points. I have been taking notes, but I want to go over the points. Let me just mention one thing going to the Chief Hur.ker point, which is, I think, something that we can do as a council that doesn't necessarily involve Chief Hunker. On the Bloch-Muller. side, ttey would drop their appeal. They would file a motion to withdraw, and do whatever is necessary to have that document that was filed against Chief Hunker, which was a motion TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 34 to disqualify the judge, that is where it came up, have that removed from the record. On our side, we would withdraw or not pursue our motion to tax costs, which we filed. We would agree not to pursue the ffiOtion for sanctions related to the Chief Hunker issue. We would, I guess, release all those parties in the other side and their related entities. So Bloch-Mullen and the attorneys. would agree to release them. I guess we would want a release back, would we not? MR. WEISS: Sure. We MR. POPOK: We want a release back, and on Chief Hunker, what they want, what I understand they want is an agreement from the council not to prosecute any type of claim like for defamation on behalf of Chief Hunker. They don't think we represent Chief Hunker and we can give a release on his behalf. What they are looking for is that we don't support and pay for him if he wants to prosecute something against them. MR. WEISS: T~ere is o~e more element, which is that the statements in the letter, that we want a statement from them acknowledging the fact --this is qoing to be very tough to get, by TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 the way, very tough, but acknowledging the fact that the council's role in the litigation was limited to the issue of the charter. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Okay. MR. WEISS: And that once the issue of the 35 charter was determined by the judge, the village stepped away from the litigation, and didn't have anything to do with it. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Did not take an active role. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: I think you need to put in the letter, actually quote some of the letter that they sent you saying these statements are the ones that we are referring to, statements of these kind. MR. WEISS: Right. COUNCILMAN PACKER: From what we understand, from what you said about the chief, he will not pursue anything. MR. WEISS~ I c~n•t bind him. COUNCILMAN PACKER: You can't speak for him. MR. WEISS: All they are asking for -- let's not put into play more than they are asking. All they are asking for is that the council is not TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4_ 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 going to support or fund any litigation by the chief against them as a result of these statements. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: What about in the future? MR. WEISS: On those statements, based on those statemer.ts, we are not going to. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Richard, from what I 36 understand, what you said a few minutes ago, that the chief would be very well satisfied if this is withdrawn and there will not be any MR. WEISS: I think the chief is being very reasonable. I don't think he's dissatisfied about any of this. I know him well enough to know that if it was up to him, and, honestly, if it was up to some people in our firm that, you know, are really offended, they will go and tear somebody's throat over this. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: I don't know what happened. Can you tell me what she said? MR. WEISS: What happened was there was a --Mictael, why don 1 t you go through it in some detail. MR. POPOK: We were on our third judge. Some judges left on maternity leave, and then a TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 37 judge recused herself. We were on our third judge, Judge Reyes. Judge Reyes disclosed at the start, this is before trial, that he didn't see it as a conflict, but he wanted to be fair and disclose, as the judge should do, that he had some sort of connection with the village. He had a nephew that had worked or a godson that had worked in the police department at some point, and that he knew Chief Hunker from his days when the judge was a state attorney and Chief Hunker was on the task force, and that kind of thing, but also made it clear that he felt he could make an impartial decision. This wusn't part of it. They immediately filed a motion to disqualify the judge. In those papers, they not only attacked the judge, and they really did attack the judge, claiming that he misrepresented his true connection with the village, that this godsoL issue was even greater than he had disclosed, te couldn't possibly be impartial. On the second hand, they attacked the chief by saying his credibility, based on testimony that he gave about his connection with Joel Jacobi, and somethi~g to do with an exotic dancing club, indicated that the chief is uncredible. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 He cannot 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ;5 38 be trusted as a witness, and they connected it to the judge by saying, since you are partial, judge, to tr.e village, and you are going to have this uncredible witness in front of you, the chief, you are going to over -- ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: They have r.utzpah these people. MR. POPOK: You are going to give too much credence to his testimony. MR. WEISS: MR. POPOK: You see why they want releases. By the way, they could have gotten rid of the judge with a one page comment about the judge's relationship. They did not have to go to the Chief Hunker issue. They chose to do that. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: of the judge? MR. POPOK: Yes. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR; Did they get rid Oh, okay. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: I'm sure the judge didn't resist that, either. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: The judge probably isn't very happy either. MR. POPOK: No, but he recused himself, which judges are to do to avoid the appearance of TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 39 impropriety. MR. WEISS: The good news is that attorneys go back before those judges again. small world. It's a very MR. POPOK: We defend the judge. MR. WEISS: That is where it came. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: That is horrible. I didn't know all tr.at. It's horrible. COUNCILMAN SANZ: It concerns me because they have tarnished his reputation -- ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: They should kiss us for giving them this offer, really. COUNCILMAN SANZ: --in the village with some of the residents. MR. WEISS: They won't. COUNCILMAN SANZ: They will tarnish it because it's being talked by many people around, and the word got out. He has been tarnished. We have been tarnished because I have people that come in and say, you ~now, it 1 s not -- ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: I think we are being very generous in offering this to them. We feel we are generous and if they don't want it, then that is it. MR. WEISS: The question is this --first TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 40 of all, understand that we are from the village's point of view -- COUNCILMAN PACKER: It's going to cost us money. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: I know. MR. WEISS: From the village's point of view in terms of the litigution, we won. We won. It 1 s not like we have lost, and we are trying to minimize our damages here. We won our case, and they nailed us about $4,000 in costs, which we will win. Maybe we will get 3,000 or 3500 or something like that. All this is about from the village's side in terms of monetary stuff is if they file an appeal, then there, you know, we will have a bill for an appellate proceedi~g, but have to come up with the money to write a brief. It's not cheap. it. COUNCILMAN PACKER: And we have to defend MR. WEISS: MR. POPOK: And we have to defend it. With one brief. COUNCILMAN PACKER: The thing is that letter that you are going to write, I think it should be presented to them, and in the sense that both sides, I believe, want to close it, I believe TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 41 so. They may, you know, took an aggressive stand with this. I don't knnw what the attorney is -- but that is what I would do. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Her letter says, I hope that we can reach a settlement on the issues remaining fro~ my election contest against Joel Jacobi, but, unfortunately, this has not happened. So I think that Lynne Bl~ch-Mullen is not going to be happy with the offer. I don't know. MR. WEISS: I will tell you just as --I mean, I don't really know how involved Lynne Bloch-Mullen is in all this. I honestly don't know. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I understand what you are saying. MR. WEISS: I don't know whether this thing has so taken a life of its own and whether she is really --the other thing just for somebody to do is I don't know if anybody has a relationship with her. We c~n•t talk to her directly, but she is pursuing COUNCILMAN PACKER: Can anybody on the council speak to her? MR. WEISS: Yes. You have to be careful what you say to her, but if somebody has a real TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 relationship with her, I honestly really do believe that that letter has escalated this as opposed to trying to move together. The letter 42 was not helpful. We really were trying to settle this case and be done with it, ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Why would she send a letter if she had counsel? This makes no sense to me why we would get a letter. COUNCILMAN PACKER: the attorney. This could be pushed by MR. WEISS: The letter is signed by Bill Hearon, isn't it? MR. POPOK: I think they are talking about the Bloch-Mullen letter. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: The letter she sent. Why would she send a letter? MAYOR ROSENFIELD: This was just a cover letter. MR. POPOK: MR. WEISS: MR. POPOK: I didn't see the cover letter. We didn't see the cover letter. If someone is going to reach out to Lynne, though, I would like it to be after we get the letter out. MR. WEISS: Let's get our letter out. MR. POPOK: We will qet the letter out by TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 B 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 43 tomorrow and then we will let the people know and then they can -- MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Do you tr.ink maybe she is getting bad advice? MR. WEISS: No. I think that, honestly, ir: my opinion, I think that this thing has taken a life of its own, and that whatever, however it's being done, I don't think Lynne Bloch-Mullen is saying, you ~now, I'm really concerned about that 57.105 motion. I think that it 1 s all sort of -- do ycu agree? It has taken a life of its own. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I think when the attorney says if we wanted to appeal the 57 whatever, we would have done it withi~ 21 days. MR. WEISS: talking. That is not Lynne Bloch-Mullen COUNCILMAN PACKER: She is getting advise. The thing is, you brought up so~ething before about the attorney. What is her name? MR. WEISS: Dina. COUNCILMAN PACKER: How is she entering into this thing all of a sudden? MR. WEISS: She is their lawyer. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: She is co-counsel. MR. WEISS: No, no. She goes to court on TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 behalf of Lynne Bloch-Mullen. lawyer. She is their COUNCILMAN PACKER: Can we speak to her if someone here after your letter -- MR. WEISS: No, you should not speak to her. 44 COUNCILMAN PACKER: We cannot speak to her? MR. WEISS: No. She is counsel of record in their case. MR. POPOK: That would be a bar violation. MR. WEISS: Under the bar rules, she is not allowed to speak to you about this case. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Okay. In other words, if someone here on the council --it 1 s up to the council to appoint somebody. MR. WEISS: I take it back. I think that we should write the letter. What is said is so easy. This is all attorney/client privilege until the litigation is settled. I don 1 t think you need to speak to her. Let Michael do it. We have the ability. We are not I think that you see by the way that we are --we are certainly not trying to escalate this thing. COUNCILMAN PACKER: No, definitely not. MR. WEISS: We want this case --I'm TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 talking about not only the council, but also our firm. We are trying to get this done and we thought it was done. Michael is not going in there and stirring up the waters. He is trying to calm it down. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: said we wanted to do. COUNCILMAN PACKER: speaking to anybody. I think that is what we Do that, and no ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: No. MR. WEISS: Unfortunately, this is not going to be the end of this. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: You don't think so? ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: No. 45 MR. WEISS: No, this is not going to be the end of this. My prediction is that they are going to refuse to withdraw the statements. They are going to refuse to withdraw the statements in the letter. MR. POPOK: And the statement we want them to make. MR. WEISS: They are net going to make the statement we want them to make regarding the fact that the council was involved in this only beccuse of the charter. They are not going to do that. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Let's play a little what if and maybe we can avoid another 8:00 o'clock meeting. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Having said that, you don't think this is the end of this episode. MR. WEISS: I think we are going to write them a beautiful letter in a very conciliatory way. I think they are going to say no. Now what? Okay. Are all these elements critical to tr.is settlement? COUNCILMAN SANZ: Yes. MR. WEISS: In other words, if they write 46 back and they say, we are not signing this stuff, do you want us to have another executive session or are we done? ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: I think we are done. What else are we going to do? COUNCILMAN PACKER: Let me ask, it may be a very foolish question to ask. MR. WEISS: There are no foolish questions. This is very complicated. COUNCILMAN PACKER: The appeal is against the summary judqment, the ability of the council to appoir:t? MR. WEISS: Remember, the only issue left in this lawsuit -- TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 47 COUNCILMAN PACKER: Is the appointment. MR. WEISS: The issue of Joel Jacobi is no longer in this lawsuit. COUNCILMAN PACKER: That is out. MR. WEISS: So there is no nuance here of saying, oh, it was about Joel Jacobi. This appeal is taken directly against the village. In other words, the only issue on appeal is the issue of the village charter. There is no other Joel Jacobi residency, exotic dancer. That is all gone. Seriously, this is a direct appeal, this way, against the village. That is what this is. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Okay. So if they appeal, it is based on just that issue, and they lose. At that point, can we then go after them for attorney 1 s fees? MR. WEISS: No, no. Only on the Tom Hunker. Only if it's privileged. MR. POPOK: the appeal. We can file a 57.105 against MR. WEISS: Unless something is frivolous, frivolous, and that is a very high standard. can only get attorney's fees by statute or You contract in Florida. That was question 6A in the TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1 2 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 48 bar exam. That is a big question in Florida. rt•~ always on the bar exam. Anyway, it's very difficult. The only thing we could get is we can get costs on appeal, not attorney's fees on appeal, but we can get costs on appeal, which are what, Michael? ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Let me ask you. What is your opinion? What do you think we should do? MR. FOPOK: Minor. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: We are going to write a letter and then what if they said no, what would you do? You are the legal minds. MR. WEISS: From a legal point of view, there is a whole other issue here, which I missed until this morning when Jean spoke with ~e, which is this whole --because I'm not in the village. I do read the Neighbors section, but this whole issue, which I can't really give you advice on, is this whole issue that Jaime and all of you have been talking this morning, which is the perception of the village and the village council and all of that. I will tell you that I don't think Tom Hunker is wrong, and I would do the same thing. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 49 think that was very, very --it was not necessary, and I think it was intentionally --well, I don't know. I think it was not necessary in order to get rid of the judge. On the issue of the statements and all of those kind of things, the truth is the village is not going to be in any better or worse shape. It 1 s a pure political issue. So that really depends upon how strongly you feel about was has been said, and the dialo~ue that is going on both in the press, and around the swimming pools about this. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: So speaking to that, and you will stop me when I am not allowed to. MR. WEISS: all privileged. You are fine. This is COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Speaking to that, I think we are at a landlock here. This is going to resolve, get settled, however it does. Right now it seems to be a little bit in the dark as to what will ensue. I think it's important that we put into place --how do you say --a tactic or MR. WEISS: Strategy. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Yes, strategy. Thank you. That will expose, that will invite people to TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 50 our meetings because what is happening is mostly we are at Mr. --that young reporter's mercy, whatever he 1 s putting out there, and, you know, we need to get more citizens here to see for themselves what is going on. I suggest that we bring up in the meeting ttat is coming up now that we do have the meetings at night because many people have told me they want to attend, so they can see for themselves what is going on. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: That is a separate issue. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: No, I know. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Our next two meetings are at night after today and we will decide. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Or.ly certain pecple are attending this at 9:00 o'clock. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Let me make something very clear to you. Excuse me. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Go ahead. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I thought we were different until I met with the mayors the other day. The City of Aventura, which is what, four times, I know, much bigger, no one attends the TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 51 meetings. Susan Gottlieb said to me at the end of the meeting when she says is there discussion from the floor, it is zero. COUNCILMAN PACKER: That is their problem. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Years ago it was here also when I used to come years and years ago. MR. WEISS: In the last 20 years 1 it has been very few people. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I have to say we have more people for the size of our village, we have tremendous. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: We have very interesting people. MR. WEISS: I yo to the City of Aventura from time to time. The size of their room, it's a concert h~ll. It really looks worse. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I appreciate what you are saying. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: I'm only thinking ahead. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I was pretty strong when I first started speaking. It is a political issue. There is no question, and I don't think it's going to die. I think that people are preparing for an election in a year, and when is TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 your term up, a year and 11 months, a year and 11 months. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Right. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: They are gearing up for that election now, and they are not going to let this issue die. COUNC~LMAN PACKER~ I'm not gearing up for anything. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Not you, sir. I'm talking about out there. There are those. 52 That is why I don't think they are going to let this issue die. I just want to clarify. I need the public to understand that we only defended the charter, and if we can't defend --it's the same as if we were the Florida legislature. The Florida legislators have an obligation to defend the state constitution. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: I was going to say, can you please write a letter to the village and letting them know wtat has transpired? Why don 1 t we do that? MAYOR ROSENFIELD: He were talking about having a newsletter. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: You can't call TAYLOR REESE ANC ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 53 the Herald. The guy is iust one sided. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Not only from the Neighbors section. We can call the regular Herald and have a real story wrltten. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: stould be a letter -- I think that it COUNCILMAN PACKER: Excuse me. Excuse me. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Yes. COUNCILMAN PACKER: From I understand, over the past five years, ttere was a quarterly report put out by our village. It tasn 1 t been done for the past two years except for the last one that came out. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: That is not true. COUNCILMAN PACKER: This is true. COUNCILMAN SANZ: No. COUNCILMAN PACKER: It is true. MR. TREPPEDA: It was to be done quarterly. COUNCILMAN PACKER: It wasn't quarterly. There was not put out basically for a full year. Let's put it that way, and I think I'm right when I say that. MR. TREPPEDA: I don 1 t think we ever missed a hurricane edition yet. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Whatever it was. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 54 believe now we have the village of Surfside right next to us, once a week, I believe once a week we get the gazette. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: No, no. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Or once a month. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Who wants to hear from us once a month? People will throw it out. COUNCILMAN PACKER: The thing is if something like that needs to have some public knowledge cf what goes on at the council, we can have a monthly newsletter. It doesn't have to be political. It should not be political, just COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Reporting it. COUNCILMAN PACKER: --a report from the council. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I think that is an excellent suggestion, but I think it needs to come up in a regular meeting. MR. WEISS: You guys are beyond MAYOR ROSENFIELD: We are way beyond what we are here for. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: We are trying to avoid the situation in the future. MR. WEISS: You guys are beyond the executive session, and because it's early in the TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (385) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 morning, I drifted a little bit, but you can't talk about that. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: I just suggested a letter because I think in regards to this issue MR. WEISS: In regards to the settlement. 55 ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: The settlement, a letter should go out on letterhead that is professional sayinq that we have not spent your money frivolously. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: MAYOR ROSENFIELD: to conclude this meeting. time of the next meeting. Correct. Can I, please? We need We are right upon the Unless someone wants to speak --miss, you cannot come in. COUNCILMAN PACKER: I would like to say one thing, Ms. Mayor, Madam Mayor. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Yes. Okay. COUNCILMAN PACKER: I don't know. That is up to you, Richard, this is an executive session. MR. WEISS: It is. COUNCILMAN PACKER: I don't think it's possible or it should be t~at the news comes out from this executive session to the public. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 414-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 56 COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: No. MR. WEISS: No. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Of course not. He said we are not allowed to talk. MR. WEISS: In other words, once the letter is written by Michael, you know, but I thitk that the purpose, the idea of the letter has nothing to do with the executive session. It would just be this is what the village did and so forth. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Can we bring that up now at the council meeting? MR. WEISS: No. At the council meeting, you can have a discussion at the end of the meeting as to whether you want to do that. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Is there any other discussion related to the issue a~ hand? MR. WEISS: I think because this so important, Michael, you have this down carefully, right? MR. POPOK: Yes. MR. WEISS: Is everybody clear on what is going to happen? MR. POPOK: I am going to draft it. for Richard to review and then we are going to send it out. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 57 COUNCILMAN PACKER: I just want to go over the points. MR. WEISS: Right, and then, mayor, I think, you should have a little. vote on this. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I'm going to. MR. WEISS: These are the points. COUNCILMAN PACKER: A, B, C, D. MR. POPOK: Okay. From the Bloch-Mullen side, they agree to drop their appeal. They will file whatever appropriate motions there are to withdraw, seal or whatever the right way to do it is with the filing against Chief Hunker. They will issue a statement, some sort of statement in which they acknowledge that the village's only role in the lawsuit -- MR. WEISS~ MR. POPOK: Written statement. Written statement, was defending the charter and not defendlng the residency of Mr. Jacobi. side. That is the Bloch-Mullen Anything else on the Bloch-Mullen side? Okay. On the village side, we will drop our motion to tax costs, which has already been filed. We will agree not to prosecute and TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 13 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 58 continue to go after them on the 57.105 motion for sanctions related to the Chief Hunker filing. We will give a release -- MR. WEISS: They should give us a release, too. MR. POPOK: I think we should share releases. It should be general releases. I would like this council to authorize Alfred to sign it. MR. WEISS: The mayor will sign it. MR. POPOK: You want tr.e mayor to sign it? Okay. Wil::_ :::·el ease B ' oc..::1-Xuller:. and her attor~eys, w~ich is what they have as~ed for. 'i'hey wi ::_J release t:t.c ccunc ~ l :Co.:::.-all :'._ssces that arose out o~ the Jl~lgat~on MR. WEISS: Right. MR. POPOK: --on that challenge. And we also aqree that we won't support, fund or otherwise encourage, T guess, a lawsuit on behalf of the chief for defumation. If he wants to do his own thing he has his right to do his OWL thing as a private citizen. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Excuse me. I have a question. You said that she would admit that we just TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. :305) 414-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 59 defended the charter. I guess the statement, though, was that we failed to investigate Joel Jacobi. We didn't fail to investigate. We never had an opportunity. Am I right? MR. POPOK: The charter gives you the power. MR. WEISS: When this first, the first time that this came to tte council, and I think Ellisa actually took the minutes on this to make sure that my recollection is correct. The first time this came to the council, the lawsuit had already been filed. Your charter says that you have the right to judge the qualification of its members subject to judicial review. That is basically what your charter .says. At that time, the council looked at this thing, and the court was already reviewing it. So at that point, the council said what is the purpose of us reviewing this. They had already taken iurisdiction away from us by filing this directly with the court. sequence of events. That was the So at that point the council said, you know, had this come to us before they filed a lawsuit, just like we did with Patricia, we would TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 have dealt with this like we did with Patricia. We would have had a little hearing. have been the extent of it. That would In this particular case, rather than come 60 to the council first, they filed a lawsuit first. Once the lawsuit was filed, we sort of felt like jurisdiction ~ad been taken not legally taken away from the council, but they picked their forum and they decided where they wanted this matter to be decided and the judge was going to decide anyway, so what was the point of the council deciding. I don't think it's quite fair to say that the council couldn't have --what did they say? MAYOR ROSENFIELD: They said, we all know, we all know --I like that statement --that the village's failure to investigate Mr. Jacobi's true residence and Mr. Jacobi's refusal --the statement is that we refused. MR. WEISS: I think that the statement --I think the council could have, if they wanted ~o, even after the lawsuit was filed, I think the council could have done it, but the point is that it would have been a futile act because the court was already looking into it. MR. POPOK: I want to make one comment TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 61 because I talked to the mayor about this earlier. There is also another observation that I made back to the council that was a little disingenuous because they were, we know, seeking not only the removal of Joel Jacobi, out they were seeking to have Lynne Bloch-Mullen seated. So even if you had investigated the residency, you were not, because of the charter, going to seat Lynne Bloch-Mullen. So for them to say this whole lawsuit would be resolved had you just done your charter investigation, really is not right. MR. WEISS: Ycu could have investigated Joel Jacobi, decided he didn't live here, appointed somebody to fill the seat, and save the issue about the charter, which still would have existed and the litigation would still be. MR. POPOK: Of course. MR. WEISS: That is a good point, Michael. COUNCILMAN PACKER: I was just taking some notes here. The only thing, number one and two, drop the appeal. You didn't say anything about the letter. You want to put anything about it? MR. POPOK: I was going to put some tex~ to our letter. MR. WEISS: Withdrawing some of the TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 62 statements. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Withdrawing some of the statements that the mayor doesn't like. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Arn I the only like that doesn't like it? COUNCILMAN PACKER: You are trying to -- MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Do you like the statemeLt that we failed? You were on the council. COUNCILMAN PACKER: I was on the council. I said nothing because I understood it was in the court's hands and we couldn't do anything. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: Okay. COUNCILMAN PACKER: The way Mr. Popok said it is a little bit disingenuous is very possible, but the thing is that you didn't mention that was going to be in the -- MR. POPOK: I thought that covered with the other public statement. I'll make sure those particular issues are addressed. MR. WEISS: Remember that this settlement, 7ust like the Raheb settlement, will have to be approvP-d at a public meeting. So whatever they say as part of this settlement is going to be a public record. So the settlement agreement itself TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. {305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 63 will contain a lot of the statements that you want it to contain. MR. POPOK: MR. WEISS: We are going to have a recital. We are going to have a recital in the settlement agreement. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: We didn't come up with the what if, though, yet. MR. WEISS: My question is this: What if they --there is a huge matrix of thi~gs. I think that, likely, they will agree to withdraw their appeal. They will agree to --let 1 s assume that all they do is agree to withdraw their appeal, because that is really all they have put on the table right now, and in exchange for that they want us to, A, withdraw our motion for sanctions. They want us to withdraw our motion for costs. They want us to withdraw our motion for sanctions, right? MR. POPOK: At least that. MR. WEISS: And they want to give us releases. MR. POPOK: They want us to release them. MR. WEISS: Yes. Do you want us to bring that back to you or is that just a no? COUNCILMAN PACKER: This is tte second TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 64 chance that we are doing to try and stop it. I mean, if it's just thrown back and say, no, So, sorry MR. WEISS: I'm trying to anticipate the likely response. I think the likely response is we will agree to withdraw our appeal if you withdraw your motion for sanctions and you give us full releases. MR. POPOK: Or they say -- MR. WEISS: Let's say he sticks with his letter. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: the police chief? They do nothing about MR. WEISS: They do nothing about the police chief. MR. POPOK: But they give us a statement. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I think we have to come back to session. MR. WEISS: Al2. right. MR. POPOK: We have time because the notice of appeal has already been filed. MR. WEISS: What we are going to do, though, when we open up this meeting again, I will make a request for another executive session, so we don't have to have the two meetings. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 4.4.4-7331 I am 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 65 going to request an executive at the send of this meeting, so that whenever we want to have it, we can have it. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Okay. That is good. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I need a motion to -- COUNCILMAN PACKER: Motion to adjourr.. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: No, no, no. MR. WEISS: To direct us to do this. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Yes. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: All in favor. COUNCILMAN PACKER: Yes. ASSISTANT MAYOR BLACHAR: Yes. COUNCILWOMAN COHEN: Yes. COUNCILMAN SANZ: Yes. MAYOR ROSENFIELD: I will now reopen the public meeting. The attorney/client session has now been terminated, and members of the general public are now invited to return for any further proceedings or other matters. MR. WEISS: Now, during the public portion of this meeting, I would like to request another executive session in this case at a time to be determined by the clerk. (Thereupon, the proceedings were concluded at 9:05 a.m.) TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 l 2 3 4 C E R T I F I C A T E 5 I, Mary G. Stephenson, FPR, State of Florida at 6 Large, certify that I was authorized to and did 7 stenographically report the foregoing proceedings and 8 that the transcript is a true and complete record of my 9 stenographic notes. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Dated this 19th day of June, 2009. TAYLOR REESE AND ASSOCIATES, INC. (305) 444-7331 66