Thursday, July 26, 2018

St. Augustine City Attorney says she's a "lean, mean law machine." Here's her report, in haec verba







Read annual report of St. Augustine City Attorney ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ, who in her standup report to Commissioners July 23rd described herself and her office as a "lean, mean, law machine."

This devious developer puppet's office wastes one half million dollars a year on bad advice, or no advice at all.  

LOPEZ has no moral compass.

LOPEZ failed to recover attorney fees from the Whetstones or Wendlers for their frivolous "property rights" lawsuits against the City.

In 2018, LOPEZ browbeat PZB member Carl Blow about being too "aggressive" in his meeting with representatives of D.R. Horton, Inc on Fish Island, resulting in Mr. Blow's public recusal and Lopez refusing to give any facts about her actions.

In 2014, LOPEZ openly and notorious hugged LEN WEEKS after he was fined only $3700 for demolishing Don Pedro Fornells House, 62A Spanish Street, on September 25, 2014, working without permits, ignoring directions from his own engineer and architect and the City archaeologist and building officials not to dig a ditch all the way around the 211-year old Spanish colonial home at once, but to do it in four foot segments.  In a hurry, LEN WEEKS destroyed one of only 31 Spanish colonial structures.  Former Mayor LEN WEEKS was at the time chair of the Historic Architectural Review Board, chair of the Parking and Traffic Committee, and head of the St. Augustine Sister Cities club.  LOPEZ was his thrall and showed it in hugging him after his astonishingly lenient fine (it could have been $10,500 under Florida law).. 

LOPEZ attacked me at a city board meeting in retaliation for criticizing her hugging, saying it was sexist, and that she had a right to greet people in any manner she chose, falsely claiming that she just happened by at the end of the Code Enforcement meeting, when she had been sitting in the back of the room for the entire hearing.

In her ethical "Twilight Zone," ensconced in her fourth floor office, refusing to return my telephone calls for months in retaliation for candid criticism, who is ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ?  

Maladroit City Attorney, untethered to truth and an untrustworthy lapdog for developers.  

Here's her annual report:





CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE
page1image1162497696
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and City Commissioners 
DATE: July 13, 2017
RE: 
ANNUAL STATUS UPDATE REPORT
Please find enclosed the following documents reflecting 2016 year-in-review:
  1. City Ordinance Violation Disposition chart
  2. In-House Counsel Civil Litigation and Appeals chart
  3. Cases Aided by Outside Counsel chart
  4. Public Meetings Attendance chart
  5. Work Log – Drafting & Review chart
  6. Legislative Bill Tracking chart
  7. Ordinance & Resolution Chart
  8. Proposed Budget Changes chart – FY 2017-18
Administrative:
The City Attorney’s office currently consists of one City Attorney with twenty years of experience and one Assistant City Attorney with approximately four years of experience. The office is supported by an administrative assistant new to our office who also provides reciprocal lunch and vacation coverage to the City Manager’s administrative assistant.
The offices physically consist of three separate offices, with overflow filing capacity at the City Manager’s office, and printing capacity at a communal printer in a separate room. The preliminary budget submitted to Administration for fiscal 2017-18 is $403,695.00. This includes salaries and benefits, professional membership dues,
page1image1162600640page1image1162600912page1image1162601248page1image1162601520page1image1162601792
1
continuing education and training, office supplies and copying, and specialty supporting services such as real estate appraiser costs, title company searches, court reporting costs and legal research software and books.
Overview:
The City Attorney’s office provides general counsel services to the City Commission and all of the City’s boards and committees; the CRA, HARB, PZB, Code Enforcement, as well as, issue specific committees as appointed. The range of services includes attending public meetings, drafting resolutions and ordinances, reviewing upcoming agenda items, training staff and boards on Government in the Sunshine, Public Records and Ethics, assisting staff in answering board member or citizen questions, and advising staff on issues ranging from land use to life safety codes. In addition, the City Attorney by Charter advises officials on issues relating to their official duties, which can include requesting formal and informal opinions from the Commission on Ethics or the Attorney General’s office.
Legislative Review:
The City Attorney keeps abreast of changes in the law or proposed legislation that may impact the City. This past legislative session was especially active in terms of sponsored bills that could have impacted the City. Our office tracked fifty-one (51) bills from initial filing through enactment or setting aside. In addition, we were very active in proposing specific bill language to protect the City’s interest and coordinating with the City’s legislative consultants on both text and strategy, most especially regarding the telecommunications bill and its impact on our historic streetscapes.
Special Projects:
As part of our staff support to City departments, in the past year we have actively reviewed and provided comment and proposed language to a number of special projects including the Historic Preservation Master Plan, the ‘perils of flood’ comprehensive plan amendments, the floodplain management and building code amendments, and the Anastasia Boulevard Entry Corridor amendments.
In the past year our office met with and negotiated extensively with the Guana Tolomato Mantanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve at both the state and federal levels to successfully negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding incorporating the City into the reserve. Additionally, we reviewed revenue sources from tax levies and presented potentials as part of the annual budget review.
page2image1162685408page2image1162685680page2image1162685952
2
Hurricane Recovery:
Hurricane Matthew and its aftermath created its own workload including local emergency orders, compliance with federal and state emergency management regulations and the CEMP (St. Johns County’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, adopted by the City by resolution), as well as post-hurricane rebuilding and FEMA grants. In addition, the City took on the role of post-hurricane clean up within privately owned roads that required its own separate set of documentation produced by our office in order to obtain federal approval.
Contracts, Bonds, Leases:
Contract and procurement review is provided by our office, as are traditional and submerged land leases. Most standard contracts, including letter agreements, leases, license agreements, bailments and object loan agreements utilize standardized templates created and revised episodically by the City Attorney’s office. Additional contract and bid review is required when the City piggybacks on other agency contracts, and occasionally vendors insist on their specific contract forms which requires more revisions and legal review. All bonds, contracts and instruments, per Charter, must be reviewed and endorsed by the City Attorney.
In-House Litigation:
The City Attorney’s office also provides the defense to Petitions for Writ of Certiorari (appeals of zoning or permit denials) from the local circuit court through to the Florida Supreme Court. Historically, this office did not defend appeals of permit denials in court. Since 2011, we have kept this type of work in-house because I have continued representing the City on these matters even while I took on the new responsibilities of City Attorney. For example, the 7-Eleven litigation was kept in-house through two different appeals. Currently, we have the self-storage petition similarly pending in circuit court. We have also kept other types of litigation in-house, including mandamus actions, a riparian rights lawsuit, as well as, the defense of all code enforcement orders through the statutory dispute resolution hearing process before a special magistrate, known as §70.51 hearings.
We prosecute both criminal and civil code violations, which includes discovery, motion practice, hearings and ultimately trial. Included with this report is a chart of 2016 dispositions. Typical criminal code enforcement cases involve drinking in public, camping in public, urinating in public or panhandling in violation of City ordinances. In addition to criminal code enforcement, this office also enforces through the court system, civil citations. These range from bicycle, skateboard and leash law violations that are not administratively paid within the first 30 days, to more complex mooring field and noise violations that raise constitutional and procedural claims. This office also prosecutes small claims cases on occasion, and defends the City’s interests as a creditor in foreclosures.
page3image1203851808page3image1203852080page3image1203852352
3
In the past year, due to a statutory change regarding criminal asset seizure in forfeiture proceedings, we assisted our police department in formulating standard operation procedures and updating training requirements for forfeitures. Our office prosecutes civil forfeiture cases in circuit court.
In addition to purely litigation matters, the City Attorney’s office also responds to inquiries by the Justice Department, Labor Department, and local citizens on issues ranging from handicap accessibility to wage and hour issues involving our contractors, as well as complaints pursuant to the City’s Human Rights Ordinance.
Outside Counsel:
The City Attorney by resolution of the City Commission is authorized to retain outside counsel to assist in the legal representation of the City. Some recurring outside counsel costs include labor law counsel, but others are individualized case-by-case assistance on specialty issues such as bonds, eminent domain and environmental law. In addition, the City must hire a special magistrate when a property owner makes a claim to the statutory alternative dispute resolution process (§70.51), such as when appealing an order of the Code Enforcement Board. The City must also pay for a special criminal defense attorney for indigent defendants in criminal citation prosecutions.
Our office represents the Code Enforcement Board and defends its orders, but statutorily we are prohibited from also representing the prosecution of Code Enforcement cases before that Board. Most cases are presented and prosecuted by the Building Official and code enforcement officers directly, but occasionally an attorney must be hired to advise staff in its prosecution of a particularly involved or difficult case.
Litigation that is not covered by our insurer, such as the Wendlers’ Bert Harris Act case, as well as, contract disputes, is billed to outside firms. These cases are document intensive, with tens of thousands of pages of supporting documents being filed by the plaintiffs in one case alone. This type of intensive litigation requires dedicated paralegal and associate support staff, as well as, litigation software to track discovery, that our office does not possess. Although the assistance of outside counsel relieves the work load of the two attorneys in the City Attorney’s office, nonetheless, outside counsel rely on our institutional knowledge and we are intrinsically involved in assisting their work, especially when reviewing discovery requests and coordinating the sometimes very extensive responses necessary from our dozen City departments. In addition, our office coordinates with the outside attorneys on all pre-litigation claims, most of which consist of slip and fall personal injury, including research and analysis regarding the City’s historic ownership, maintenance and control of right-of-way.
page4image1204900720
4
Conclusion:
I hope that this brief report gave you a meaningful review of our duties and operations. As always, should you wish to meet with me individually to discuss any of this information, or the specifics of a particular case, please let me know.
As in previous years, I have asked the City Manager to place this annual status update report on the City Commission’s consent agenda for the July 24, 2017 City Commission meeting.
page5image1164627520
Thank you,
____________________________ Isabelle C. Lopez
City Attorney
page5image1164634080
Attachments
5
page6image1165846160
CITY ORDINANCE VIOLATIONS: JUNE 2016 - JUNE 2017
page6image1165852128page6image1165852416page6image1165852752page6image1165853024page6image1165853648page6image1165854064
4 8
3
BNUMBER OF CASESTOTAL NUMBER: 190 CASES
page6image1165861120page6image1165861392page6image1165861680page6image1165862816page6image1165863152page6image1165863360page6image1165863712page6image1165864000page6image1165864288page6image1165864576page6image1165864864
15
page6image1165866304page6image1165866640page6image1165866912
Adjudicated Guilty Nolle Prosequi Adjudication Withheld Dismissed
Fine Paid
page6image1165875168page6image1165875456page6image1165875744page6image1165876352page6image1165876640
page6image1165876928
160
page6image1165878896
page7image1205195552page7image1205209840page7image1205210048page7image1205210256page7image1205193136
BNUMBER OF CASES
TOTAL NUMBER: 9 CASES
page7image1205200512page7image1205200848
3Land Use/
Environmental Dispute Resolution (§70.51)
page7image1205222528page7image1205222816page7image1205223104page7image1205223392
2Foreclosures
1Civil Litigation/ Appeals
page7image1205228688page7image1205229040page7image1205229584page7image1205229808
11
Riperian Rights
Forfeitures
page7image1205234128page7image1205234352page7image1205234640
1Writ of Mandamus
page8image1205445888
CASES AIDED BY OUTSIDE COUNSEL: JUNE 2016 – JULY 2017
page8image1205423856page8image1205424128page8image1205403440page8image1205403728page8image1204345168
BNUMBER OF CASES
TOTAL NUMBER: 49 CASES
page8image1204291040page8image1205404064page8image1205438144page8image1205448336page8image1205448608page8image1205451392page8image1205451600page8image1205451872page8image1205433296page8image1205433520page8image1205433808page8image1205434096page8image1205434384page8image1205436352page8image1205436880page8image1205431472page8image1205471168page8image1204292496page8image1204297984page8image1204301376page8image1204306096page8image1204308144page8image1204315248page8image1204315360page8image1204318256page8image1204318432page8image1204318720page8image1204319008page8image1204319296page8image1204319888page8image1204323376
(*Wendler v. City of St. Augustine)
page9image1205557776
PUBLIC MEETING ATTENDANCE: JULY 2016 - JULY 2017
page9image1205580672
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
(*THROUGH JULY 13, 2017)
page9image1205591328
106
page9image1205592768page9image1205592976
64
51
page9image1205594720page9image1205594992page9image1205595264page9image1205595536
23
10
7
page9image1205597904page9image1205598112page9image1205598640page9image1205598848page9image1205599056page9image1205599328page9image1205599680page9image1205599968
TOTAL
HOURS
ATTENDED
TOTAL NUMBER: 261 HOURS
page9image1205606160page9image1205606432page9image1205606704
Code Enforcement (CEAAB)
HARB City Commission Mobility Advisory Task Force CRA PZB
page9image1205614976page9image1205615264page9image1205615552page9image1205615840page9image1205616576page9image1205616800
page10image1206085648page10image1206085872page10image1206058960page10image1206087328page10image1206092368page10image1206092592page10image1206092800page10image1206093008page10image1206093216
BNUMBER OF ITEMS
17 8
9 12
48
24 5
TOTAL NUMBER: 403 ITEMS
140
page10image1206102416page10image1206103040page10image1207293808page10image1225798176page10image1206106880page10image1206107104
3 2
8
page10image1205996864page10image1205997488page10image1204784704page10image1225797840page10image1204786592page10image1205998912page10image1205999184page10image1206000128
3
page10image1206001200page10image1206001472page10image1206002096page10image1206002720page10image1206105216page10image1206004016page10image1206004640page10image1206004928
3
page10image1206006144page10image1206006432
Agreement
Contract
Deed
Easement for Utilities Interlocal Agreement License Agreement Order

Performance Bond
Release and Waiver
Report
Misc. (Application, Loan, Notice, Policy, Submerged Land Lease)
Bill of Sale
Correspondence Development Order Extension Form
Lease Agreement Maintenance Bond
Ordinance
Personal Guaranty
Release of Utility Mortgage Resolution
25
page10image1207269344page10image1207269568page10image1207269904
2
page10image1207271072
7
page10image1207272256page10image1207272544page10image1207272816
4
10
page10image1224839264page10image1204786976
14
55
page10image1225812704page10image1225812992
4
page10image1225814048page10image1225814640page10image1225814928page10image1225815264page10image1225815552page10image1225815840page10image1225816128page10image1225816416page10image1225816704page10image1225816992page10image1225817280page10image1225817568page10image1225817856page10image1225818144page10image1225818432page10image1225818720page10image1225819008page10image1225819296page10image1225819584page10image1225819872page10image1225820160page10image1225820448
page11image1227054176
House Bill 13 │Senate Bill 1770House Bill 1309 │Senate Bill 940House Bill 997 │Senate Bill 996•House Bill 0017
•Senate Bill 1158
•Senate Bills 614 and 406
House Bills 6003 & 425 │Senate Bills 1516 &188
House Bill 235 │Senate Bill 170
House Bill 221 │Senate Bill 340
House Bill 1027 │Senate Bill 832
House Bill 7043 │Senate Bill 1338•House Bill 7107 │ House Jt Res 7105 │ Senate Jt Res 1774
House Bill 687 │Senate Bill 596House Bill 479 │Senate Bill 880House Bill 487 │Senate Bill 330House Bills 843, 919 & 163 │Senate Bills 1004, 914, 80 & 246House Bill 7021 │Senate Bill 306
•House Bill 3127
•House Bill 3243
•House Bill 3451
House Bill 679 │Senate Bill 554House Bill 6019 │Senate Bill 214House Bill 93 │Senate Bill 162•House Bill 11 │ Senate Bill 1292
TOTAL NUMBER: 51 BILLS
page12image1205760160page12image1224798112page12image1205670416page12image1224773552page12image1205834032page12image1224929008
BNUMBER OF ITEMS
TOTAL NUMBER: 77 ITEMS
page12image1205788240page12image1205798960page12image1205799232page12image1205799568page12image1205803632page12image1205804048
Ordinances
Resolutions
page12image1224809072page12image1225027216page12image1225027696page12image1225027920
FISCAL YEAR 2017-18:
FISCAL YEAR 2016-17:
INCREASE:
$ 403,695.00 (proposed)
$ 368,587.00 (actual)+ $ 35,108.00
page13image1226301840
FISCAL YEAR 2017-18 PROPOSED CHANGES
page13image1226305648
CATEGORY
CODE
DIFFERENCE
page13image1228115600
REASON
page13image1228095680
Executive Salaries
53110
page13image1228036848
+ $ 8,853.00
page13image1226319168
Determined by Financial Services
page13image1226321248
Regular Salaries
53120
+ $ 1,065.00
Determined by Financial Services
Overtime
53140
$ 0.00
page13image1225142272 page13image1225143088
Determined by Financial Services
page13image1225128672 page13image1225146752
Holiday Supplement
53160
+ $ 75.00
Determined by Financial Services
Accrued Leave
53161
page13image1225130144
- $ 1,298.00
page13image1224819632
Determined by Financial Services
page13image1226338384
FICA Taxes
53210
+ $ 576.00
Determined by Financial Services
Retirement Contributions
53220
+ $10,914.00
page13image1228019680 page13image1227910128
Determined by Financial Services
page13image1227986720 page13image1227987600
Life & Health Insurance
53230
- $ 275.00
Determined by Financial Services
Workers Compensation
53240
page13image1226345232
+ $ 44.00
page13image1206506688
Determined by Financial Services
page13image1206516768
Unemployment Compensation
53250
+ $ 20.00
Determined by Financial Services
Telecommunication Services
53410
+ $ 570.00
page13image1226350304
Determined by IT Department
page13image1206537344
Office Equip. Repair & Maint.
53464
+ $ 152.00
page13image1227917184 page13image1227918224
Determined by IT Department
page13image1227996224 page13image1227993424
page13image1227994016
CATEGORY
CODE
DIFFERENCE
page13image1227926912 page13image1227925872
REASON
page13image1226349648 page13image1226329408
Professional Services
53310
page13image1224821120
+ $13,000.00
Increases in §70.51 Cases & Title Work
Court Reporter Services
53330
+ $ 700.00
Increases in §70.51 Cases & Shade Mtgs.
Other Contract Services
53340
- $ 360.00
page13image1227884544
Based on Lower Totals in Previous Years
page13image1224823408
Travel Expenses
53400
- $ 600.00
page13image1206565184
Based on Lower Totals in Previous Years
page13image1206577456
Postage
53420
page13image1206583072 page13image1206585136
+ $ 108.00
Increase in Prices & Past Overage
Reproduction
53471
+ $ 540.00
Increase in Work Load and Past Overage
Subscriptions
53540
+ $ 148.00
page13image1226365120
Based on 3% Increase for Westlaw
page13image1226367904
Professional Dues & Memberships
53541
page13image1226378304
- $ 25.00
page13image1206613104
Based on Lower Totals in Previous Years
page13image1226388048
Education & Training Fees
53542
+ $ 800.00
Past Overage & Added Paralegal Training
Books
53543
+ $ 101.00
page13image1207211456 page13image1227967280
Based on Past Overage
page13image1227968272 page13image1224799856
page13image1225129568
CATEGORY
CODE
page13image1226406752 page13image1226381216
DIFFERENCE
REASON
Car Allowance
53401
$ 0.00
No Change from Previous Year
Miscellaneous
53490
page13image1227972064 page13image1227973744
$ 0.00
No Change from Previous Year
Office Supplies
53510
$ 0.00
No Change from Previous Year
Non-Capital Fixed Assets
53515
page13image1206615120
$ 0.00
No Change from Previous Year
General Operating Supplies
53520
page13image1206626880 page13image1206629024
$ 0.00
No Change from Previous Year
Uniforms
53521
page13image1206480512
$ 0.00
No Change from Previous Year
Machinery & Equipment
53640
page13image1207079488
$ 0.00
No Change from Previous Year
$22,269.00 – INCREASE IN PRE-DETERMINED AMOUNTS
$15,397.00 – INCREASE REQUESTED BY CITY ATTORNEY

No comments: