You can’t take it with you, but you can fight them all the way there.
Bradenton Beach commissioners approved a May invoice June 2 in the amount of $805 for Sarasota attorney Robert Watrous for April work on the next chapter in a Sunshine Law dispute dating back to 2017, when the city sued members of its planning and zoning board and Scenic WAVES committee over alleged Sunshine Law violations.
The invoice relates to Watrous’ work on behalf of the city to pursue settlement funds from the trust of the late Reed Mapes, one of the former board members sued by the city.
Mapes, who died in April, was a member of the P&Z and also a member of the now-defunct citizen’s group Concerned Neighbors of Bradenton Beach, or CNOBB.
In July 2019, 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Edward Nicholas ruled that Mapes and five other former city board members violated Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Law by discussing city business through CNOBB in 2017.
The Florida law provides a right of access to governmental proceedings at state and local levels. It applies to any gathering of two or more members of the same board to discuss a matter that can foreseeably go before that board for action. There is also a constitutionally guaranteed right of access. Virtually all state and local public bodies are governed by the open meeting requirements.
On July 25, 2017, CNOBB members met outside of the public forum and had conversations about projects being considered by the city, according to court documents.
City attorney Ricinda Perry learned of the gathering and listened to an audio tape of the meeting posted on the group’s website.
According to court records, Perry sent an email July 27, 2017, to city commissioners relating the city’s potential legal risk from the meeting.
She notified city officials of the Sunshine Law implications of city board members meeting as Concerned Neighbors of Bradenton Beach and sending group emails.
In October 2020, Nicholas ordered Mapes, John Metz and Tjet Martin to jointly pay the city $369,498.
Committee members Patty Shay, Bill Vincent and Rose Vincent paid the city $500 each as they had reached settlement agreements with the city before the 2019 trial.
Metz and Martin eventually settled with the city paying $351,500 but Mapes, who had gone on record calling the trial “political assassination,” seemed committed to fight the city.
“I don’t care much about that. They aren’t going to get a nickel from me,” he told The Islander last October.
And he didn’t pay.
The city now will seek $17,998 from his trust to cover attorney and paralegal fees.