Can you say corruption!!!!!!!!!

September 29, 2009
Troubling circumvention
Daytona Beach has legal staff; city manager should rely on it
Back in February, Daytona Beach city commissioners told City Manager Jim Chisholm to stop cold-shouldering City Attorney Marie Hartman away from information she needs to protect the legal interests of the city.
This month, the commissioners got an unwelcome surprise themselves: They hadn't been apprised of significant legal decisions made by the city manager's office. In a terse letter dated last week, Mayor Glenn Ritchey questioned why the city was paying outside legal firms to do work that hadn't been authorized by the city attorney's office.
"Some issues appear to be circumventing the city attorney's offices," Ritchey wrote, singling out the hiring of an attorney to provide legal counsel on negotiations to acquire control of the Daytona Beach Pier and the discovery that a Tallahassee law firm was communicating on behalf of the city with the state Department of Community Affairs, which is challenging changes to the city's comprehensive plan.
The latter omission seems more egregious. The DCA sent a letter to the city Aug.14, stating the city's water-supply plan didn't properly account for the number of people who will be relying on the city for water, sewer and reclaimed water use in the next 10 years. It's a serious challenge that should have been presented to the city attorney and the commission. Instead, Hartman seems to have learned about the challenge after a message was sent to her by the city's planning director, which followed an e-mail from attorney Segundo Fernandez of the law firm Oertel, Fernandez, Cole, & Bryant to an attorney at Community Affairs.
"I look forward to working with you on this matter," Fernandez wrote to Marlene Stern, a DCA attorney, Sept. 1. After receiving a copy of that e-mail -- time-stamped 3:33 p.m. -- city Planning Director Richard Walton forwarded it to Hartman, who sent it on to one of her staff attorneys with an added note: "What's this?" In a memo dated Sept. 8, Hartman says bluntly, "I was not aware of any administrative case filed against the city by DCA."
Neither were some of the commissioners, including Pam Woods and Shiela McKay-Vaughan, both of whom have complained at meetings that Chisholm withholds information they need to make informed decisions. And, if neither the commissioners nor the attorney were receiving vital information, members of the public were also being deprived of their opportunity to weigh in and question whether taxpayer dollars should be spent to hire outside legal counsel when the city has a competent legal staff.
The commission is slated to discuss the recent decisions in mid-October, when Commissioner Rick Shiver returns from vacation. At that meeting, the commission shouldn't be content with vague promises, such as the one Chisholm offered when he was chided by commissioners in February. They should demand a plan that puts legal decisions where they belong -- the city attorney's office -- while ensuring that Chisholm provides the openness and candor that Ritchey promised from the city when he became mayor.