The city of Anna Maria is requesting a new judge in a lawsuit against the vacation rental ordinance.
City commissioners Feb. 11 unanimously voted to have city attorney Becky Vose draft a request to remove 12th Circuit Judge John Lakin from the case.
The lawsuit from Florida Gulf Coast Vacations and Anna Maria Vacations Inc. was filed Feb. 9. Lakin was assigned the case the same day.
Mayor Dan Murphy told commissioners Lakin and one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, Randolph Smith, worked together at the law firm of Barnes & Walker in Bradenton, then called Barnes Walker and Lakin. They formed the firm Lakin Smith in 2007.
Smith, now employed at the Najmy Thompson law firm in Bradenton, confirms the association in his work history on the firm’s website.
This isn’t the first time the city has asked that Lakin be recused from a VRO lawsuit.
Lakin was assigned to the city’s first VRO lawsuit in July 2015. He announced to the parties that his wife was once a rental agent at a firm on the island, but he would remain impartial if the parties agreed to let him sit on the case.
The city requested Lakin step down and he complied.
— Tal Reeve