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Home My Public Portal AboutSeptember 17, 2015SCOTT W. MORGAN, Mayor ROBERT W. GANGER, Vice -Mayor JOAN K. ORTHWEIN THOMAS M. STANLEY DONNA S. WHITE September 17, 2015 Dear Gulf Stream Residents, TOWN OF GULF STREAM PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA Telephone (561)276-5116 Fax (561)737-0188 Town Manager WILLIAM H. THRASHER Town Clerk RITA L. TAYLOR Last Friday, the Gulf Stream Commission unanimously approved on First Reading a fiscally sound Town operating budget for the year commencing October 1, 2015, and ending September 30, 2016. It calls for a millage rate of $5.00 per $1,000 of assessed property value --an increase versus this year's $3.90 millage, but well below taxation rates of most neighboring cities and towns. (For example, Delray Beach's millage rate exceeds $7.00) While no one likes the prospect of paying higher property taxes, it is clear that the Town can no longer defer necessary investments in infrastructure or public safety, nor can we continue to raid our rainy -day reserve funds to pay for legal expenses forced upon us by two litigious residents. Infrastructure and Public Safety Investments In Fiscal 2016, we will start installing attractive new street lighting, once existing poles are removed as a result of burying overhead power and communication wires. We will also begin planning for expansion of Town Hall, and replacement of our aging public works "barn" behind the Town Hall. We will add one full-time police officer, and participate in a multi jurisdictional study on how best to provide future fire and emergency response services to barrier island residents, should current contracted arrangements with City and County facilities no longer meet our needs. Some of these investments or projects have been on the books for several years, but were deferred to assure adequate funding for unplanned legal expenses. In May of this year, at the Long Term Planning meeting, residents spoke almost unanimously in support of raising the millage rate to fund these improvements and increase reserve levels. The $1.000.000 Lesal Budeet The Fiscal 2016 Tentative Budget calls for $1,000,000 in legal expenses, up from $509,000 in Fiscal 2014, and $841,000 expected when Fiscal 2015 closes the books in a few days. Historically, Town annual legal expenses were under $25,000. To put these numbers in perspective, a $1 million expense is equivalent to $1.04 in millage rate. In other words, two residents are consuming more than 20% of your property tax dollars, just in legal fees. 100 SEA ROAD, GULF STREAM, FLORIDA 33483 Public Records Lawsuits Messrs. O'Boyle and O'Hare have filed several thousand requests for public records, totally overwhelming the Town's ability to respond in a timely manner. That delay then sets up their lawsuits for fees. But in addition to burdening staff, these public records requests are expensive because they often raise issues requiring an attorney's advice on how legally to respond. The reason is obvious. O'Hare and O'Boyle, usually with no advance warning, have filed 43 Public Records lawsuits against the Town for alleged failures to comply. Only 3 cases have been voluntarily dismissed (after the Town sought sanctions!). The rest must be defended. The Town has acted lawfully in all of the cases; however, under current Florida public records law, we cannot collect reasonable legal fees from the plaintiffs, even when we win. Thus, we must win the cases-- just to put an end to them! Paying money to these litigants only validates their outrageous behavior and encourages them and others to pursue similar methods of public records abuse. Keep in mind that we settled with O'Boyle once before. We paid him a lot of money-- only to be subjected to another slew of O'Boyle public record requests and lawsuits. Plus, it was after that settlement that the Town experienced an additional wave of public records requests and lawsuits from the copy -cat public records litigant, O'Hare. The Commission is convinced that the best way to end the public records abuse of Gulf Stream, and to ultimately save the Town's money, is to defend these cases and win them. Other Lawsuits In addition to Public Records cases, Messrs. O'Boyle and O'Hare have filed 9 more lawsuits against the Town, the Mayor, the Commission, the Manager, certain employees and consultants, and even our legal representatives. These cases require legal research, time consuming depositions, and eventual court appearances. The Town has obtained favorable judgments in five of the nine cases and a voluntary dismissal in a sixth. (The litigants have appealed four of those judgments). Fortunately, some of these cases are in federal court, where our lawyers can -and have!- received an award of legal fees for successfully defending the Town. In addition, some of these cases are covered by our liability insurance policy, which pays for the legal defense. RICO Class Action Lawsuit During 2014, the Town recognized that 43 Public Records lawsuit filings in one -plus year was not simply an action of overzealous citizens, but rather was related to a state-wide scheme to extort public records settlement payments from municipalities, or any entity doing business with any taxpayer -funded public institution, including schools, libraries, water districts, and the like. Research indicated that large sums of taxpayer dollars were quietly being paid by other municipal targets throughout the state to "make the problem go away", and avoid costly public records litigation. In concert with the Wantman Group Inc, a highly respected civil engineering firm, the Town filed a RICO lawsuit alleging a conspiracy by Messrs. O'Boyle, O'Hare and others to create an enterprise "with the sole purpose of unlawfully and illegally extracting settlement payments from Class members". The case was dismissed on technical grounds. The Town has filed an appeal. Meanwhile, evidence in the RICO filing has been reviewed by elected officials and municipal attorneys throughout the state. There is broad support at every level of state government for the efforts of Gulf Stream and the Wantman Group to reveal flaws in the Public Records Act, and to take steps to reduce or eliminate schemes that take advantage of a constitutional right of citizens to have full access to all public records. Reform of the Public Records Act will be proposed in the 2016 Legislative Session. The outcome is uncertain but the Town is hopeful its efforts will result in improving the law to prevent continued public records abuse and expenses to our residents. Budget for Legal Fees There is nothing magic in a $1 M estimate for FY 2016 legal costs. Under State Statute, municipalities are required to produce a balanced budget. The Town must provide its best estimate for all line items before the year commences. Because of the high legal fees this year, we are obligated to budget an equal or higher amount for 2016 but that does not mean we will spend that much. The Town will not spend one dime more in legal fees than is needed to deal with 50+ cases now in line for trial. Any reduction in planned legal costs will be added to Rainy Day Reserves, as a down payment on future capital investments that are sorely needed. The ball is in the litigants' court. I have stated numerous times that if the litigants will discontinue their lawsuits, I will recommend discontinuing our RICO action. That is a fair and reasonable solution to this problem, although in no way does it make up for the financial and emotional pain these men have caused Gulf Stream, its staff and residents. Next Stens The 2nd Reading of the Fiscal Budget will be held at 5:01 PM on Tuesday, September 22 in Town Hall Chambers. If approved, a Resolution approving the budget will be delivered to the County for inclusion in the Property Tax Assessment that will be finalized on October 1, 2015. Your thoughts on the budget are still welcome. Very truly yours, ya�ti c W. Mo .an