|
Where’s Our #@$%ing
Money?
City Goes After
Plaintiffs Who Have Not Yet Returned ‘Settlement’ Money
“We are aggressively collecting on the judgment. We will collect
one way or another.”
By Erik Bojnansky
Plaintiffs who
received money from a city of Miami settlement that the courts ruled
improper still have not paid back $1.6 million.
A year ago the
courts ruled against the city of Miami giving $7 million to settle a
class-action lawsuit against the fire fee. The reason: The money
wasn’t given to 80,000 eligible Miami property owners, only to the
seven individuals who filed the lawsuit.
Now, in the last
week Miami has held “foreclosure depositions” for three of the
plaintiffs who still have not returned taxpayer money they were not
entitled to keep.
 “We
are going to [foreclose on] their property,” said Commissioner Marc
Sarnoff, who requested that a progress report on the collection of
outstanding settlement money be on the March 8 Miami City Commission
agenda.
City Attorney Jorge
Fernandez was reluctant to go into details about the case. “The day
we got the order … when the judge instructed them to put [the money]
in an escrow account, we’ve been taking depositions,” he said.
“Other than that we don’t like to engage in litigating in the
press.”
Asked if the city
was going after the holdouts, Fernandez replied: “We are
aggressively collecting on the judgment. We will collect one way or
another. Does that mean their property or first born or their
kittens? I don’t know.”
The names of the
plaintiffs who had not yet returned the settlement money could not
be obtained by deadline.
Fearing the city
might have to refund more than $24 million from a fire fee deemed
unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court, city officials
negotiated a settlement with attorney Hank Adorno. Under the deal,
agreed on and approved in May 2004, Adorno would get $2 million,
while Eva Nagymihaly would receive $823,685.34; Peter Clancy
$752,713.32; Kenny Merker $760,168.34; Jean and Jocelyne Prosper
$757,189.34; Judy Clark $752,713; Gordon Willitts $753,533; and a
political action committee called Taxpayers United for Fairness,
$400,000.
Checks amounting to
$3.5 million were cut weeks later — with the balance to be paid in
installments.
Ironically, the
court ruled that because Judy Clark and Peter Clancy were not
original plaintiffs, they would not have to pay back the $752,000
they received.
Fernandez said $1.8
million has already been re-collected, including Adorno’s fee,
leaving $1.6 million to be accounted for.
Reports of the
settlement tarnished Mayor Manny Diaz’s reputation.
 In
a memo to Diaz, then-City Manager Joe Arriola and city commissioners
disclosed details about the settlement, including that only seven
people would get the money. The commissioners, Diaz and Arriola
insist they never knew.
No longer Miami’s
city manager, Arriola told the SunPost the deal was a
clandestine negotiation worked out between an independent City
Attorney’s Office and the plaintiffs. The lawyers in that office
told him the fire-fee lawsuit threat was going to go away, he said.
“Everybody is going to get the money, they told me privately. At no
time did they tell the commissioners or me,” he insisted.
Fernandez refused
to comment on Arriola’s assertions.
Sarnoff said the
City Attorney’s Office is negotiating a new class-action fire-fee
settlement. He also said he plans to propose that the current
fire-fee system, designed to be exempt from the Supreme Court
ruling, be eliminated altogether.
Comments? E-mail
erik@miamisunpost.com.
|
