RE: FIRST AMERICA FOUNDATION --- RETURN OF POSSIBLY MISSPENT PUBLIC FUNDS (AND PROPERTY OBTAINED) TO CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
Dear Mr. Wallis:
1. I wrote you several times requesting documents pursuant to the Open Records law. See below.
2. You did not respond.
3. You have now resigned as Chair and FAF is going out of business.
4. Please request FAF to send me the requested records, or return them today to the City of St. Augustine so that our City may provide citizens with access.
5. With respect to the sum of some $100,000 that FAF misspent, without results, for ten months, I hereby request that you personally return that money, with interest, in a wire transfer to the City of St. Augustine. It appears from the public record that you may have made one or more materially false and misleading statements to the City of St. Augustine conveying your ability to carry out the contract. Our City relied upon those statements to its detriment. See Restatement of Contracts, 2d, Section 90 (Promissory Estoppel).
6. This was more than mere puffing by a salesman – as an attorney, you owed our City government a duty of candor.
7. For ten months, you and FAF breached your fiduciary duty to our City, operating in violation of the Government in the Sunshine Sunshine and Open Records laws and showing contempt for Article 1, Section 24 of our Florida Constitution (enacted by 82% of Florida voters in November 1992 – more than 3.8 million Florida voters supported it.
8. You have shown complete contempt for our Florida constitutional rights to Government in the Sunshine and Open Records. You seemed to accompany this contempt for our rights with a smug, secretive approach to public funds, as if you had a sense of “entitlement” to them. Thus, your failure and refusal to provide even a response to my Open Records requests, below, may be construed by the courts as a “badge of fraud.”
9. It’s our money. You must return the sum of some $100,000 spent by FAF for ten months. You must return it without delay.
10. FAF and you must also return all personal property purchased with the City’s money, including (without limitation) computers, software, books, records, and supplies.
11. I trust that the rest, residue and remainder of the $300,000 will be sent by FAF to the City.
12. If you decline to return the $100,000 that was misspent without results on your watch, please advise me the name and contact information for your legal malpractice insurance carrier. Also, please advise me of the name and contact information for FAF’s D&O insurance carrier(s). This information will allow our City Manager (or citizens acting parens patriae) to file a claim against your law firm’s legal malpractice insurance or FAF’s D&O insurance, or both.
Thank you. Please call me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Ed Slavin
Clean Up City of St. Augustine
P.O. Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
829-3877 (o-direct)
215-554-1187 (cellular)
From: easlavin@aol.com
To: dwallis@ubulaw.com
Sent: Tue, May 31, 2011 12:35 pm
Subject: Fwd: Sunshine and Open Records law request
I wrote you four days ago. May I please have the courtesy of a response?
Sincerely,
Ed Slavin
From: easlavin@aol.com
To: dwallis@ubulaw.com
Sent: Fri, May 27, 2011 4:06 pm
Subject: Sunshine and Open Records law request
Will you please send me a copy of your correspondence to City Commissioners and the Board, along with a listing of every check/disbursement by FAF and a copy of any correspondence regarding 501(c)(3) status?
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
829-3877
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