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Century Hires Attorney For Task Force Members Charged With Sunshine Law Violation
September 1, 2016
The Century Town Council voted during a special meeting Wednesday night to hire an attorney to represent four volunteer task force members charged with noncriminal violations of the Florida Government in the Sunshine Law.
The council voted to hire attorney Kim Skievaski, a former circuit judge, at $300 per hour to represent Alfonzie Cottrell, Helen Mincy, Sylvia Godwin, and Robert Mitchell , who were charged by the State Attorney’s Office with having a public meeting that was not properly advertised. On July 26, a meeting was advertised to begin at 4:00 p.m. The meeting was actually held at 2:00 p.m. preventing the public from attending.
The vote was not unanimous, as council member Ann Brooks vote against the town paying for the attorney.
“I understand that the people that took on the responsibility for this task force are very intimidated and scared, and a I think we owe them some responsibility. However, this was not a mistake of the town,” Brooks said. She made a motion that the two consultants bear the cost of the attorney.
“We have to pay for our mistakes sometimes,” Brooks said. Her motion died for the lack of a second.
Mayor Freddie McCall told his council that he has been told that the four citizens will be offered pre-trial diversion at their September 7 arraignment.
“They (the State Attorney’s Office) weren’t here to try to crucify the poor people that served on the thing. Their recommendation to the judge is going to be PTD (pre-trial diversion)…I said I don’t now what that means,” McCall said. “He said pre-trial diverson would be no charges within a period of time and if nothing else comes up that will be dropped.”
A telephone interview following the meeting, Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille clarified McCall’s statement. He said the four will be offered pre-trial diversion if they take a Sunshine Law course or if they resign from the task force. Otherwise, they will face a judge trial and, if found guilty, a fine of up to $500.
McCall said Skievaski was not necessarily in favor of pre-trail diversion; rather, the attorney wanted to see the charges dropped altogether.
Skievaski met with the four task force members on Monday, even though he had not been official hired by the council.
“I told him don’t worry about his money; I would pay him out of my pocket for the meeting Monday if the council decides not to hire him,” McCall said. He also said Skievaski was recommended by town attorney Matt Dannheisser.
“I am nervous. I never been to jail, and I sure don’t want to go for some mess somebody else made,” Mincy told the council. However, the charge against Mincy are noncriminal and would not include jail time.
The State Attorney’s Office investigation began after a July 27 article on NorthEscambia.com “Century Holds Meeting In Apparent Violation Of State Sunshine Law“. NorthEscambia.com arrived the previous day for the 4 p.m. meeting to find the front doors of the Century Hall locked and the parking lot empty. We later learned that the meeting had been held at 2 p.m. The town provided a public notice on Wednesday, July 27 and re-held the meeting on Thursday, July 28.
A letter from State Attorney Bill Eddins to Century Mayor Freddie McCall essentially placed blame for the law violation on the Town of Century for not providing the adequate Sunshine Law training,
Pictured top: Facing noncriminal charges from the State Attorney’s Office, Helen Mincy (left) addresses the Century Town Council Wednesday. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
14 Responses to “Century Hires Attorney For Task Force Members Charged With Sunshine Law Violation”
Well obviously the attorney is not in favor of Pre-Trial Diversion – that would be too quick. If she fights it for complete dismissal that means she has to interview all 4 for at least an hour each so that’s $1200 then she’s got to go to court for at least 2 hours (anybody every been that it was less?) so that is another $600 and that don’t count the hours of time to type up all the legal documents.
It is a non-criminal violation, nobody is going to jail and if they go to PTD then as long as they know the rules and follow them it will all be expunged and nobody pays nothing to nobody.
Just do the math like most everyone here has already done. Century town counsel and all its officials must really be uneducated backwater morons. If not they sure do not do anything to prove themselves to be anything otherwise. Hee-haw! Saddle up the mules boi, slide me some grits, I gots to get me some education.
4 guilts X $500= $2,000.
Attorney X 4 guilts= PRICELESS
I do not. Here is the Town Charter and all their ordinances, if someone wishes to research:
https://www.municode.com/library/fl/century/codes/code_of_ordinances
William; Do you or any of your readers have any idea what the process would be for a group of citizens to get the Town of Century dissolved as a chartered town?
Let me see if I have this straight…They are fighting a $500 fine by hiring a $300/hr. attorney? If they accepted the state attorney’s offer, they could go to a Sunshine Law course for educating themselves, follow that training for a probation period and ” if nothing else comes up that (the charges) will be dropped”.
The Century Town Council will pay over $1,000, by the time it’s all done, to try to have the charges dropped. Is this how we best spend taxpayers’ money?
This vote proves that this City Council can not add and subtract. $300 an hour for a lawyer against a possible total fine of $2000 total for all four of them. If the members of this task force are not capable of agreeing to the terms of pre-trial diversion on their own, they all need to resign. The City Council members that voted for this should also consider resigning. Better yet, let’s circulate a petition to de-certify Century as a city. No police, no fire, no library, all Century City does is collect and spend revenue from taxes, water, gas, and sewer. Let the county take over the parks, sell the water, sewer and gas to pay off the town debt, and let the Town of Century die in peace, and the taxpayers would save some real money, and nobody would miss them, or see any deterioration of services.
Unbelievable, I suppose I should not be surprised. The council in all of it’s wisdom chooses to hire an attorney for $300 per hour to represent these task force members for a NON-CRIMINAL offense, that EVERYONE is aware that they actually committed, when the prosecutor is recommending pretrial diversion and for them to take a class that they obviously need. This is the biggest waste of money and resources I’ve seen from this incompetent group yet, and that is saying a lot. If someone is unable to process what NONCRIMINAL means I believe that person should not be sitting on a board making recommendations about how to spend tax dollars. DISSOLVE CENTURY TOWN GOVERNMENT NOW!
“She made a motion that the two consultants bear the cost of the attorney.”
Appears that council member Ann Brooks is the only one with any amount of common sense.
Those consultants are not going to walk away from more “consulting” work from the city. And if they do, good riddance as they appear to be incompetent.
Hiring an attorney for $300.00 per hour versus a fine that could be “up to” $500.00 per person. This is Century economics. Just how dumb are the officials in Century? You can bet the farm that the attorney will cost more than the fines if the fines are the maximum the judge can charge. lol
This is pure stupid!!!! Hiring an attorney at $300 an hour when total fines wouldn’t exceed $500 each. Pay the fine and move on. Politicians at their usual stupid moves!!!!!
It’s not Century residents fault that they violated the law. But Century residents are paying taxes so they can pay for a someone else a lawyer. Its their fault they should fork the Bill. And this is the Mayor you all voted for. A mayor that takes and takes
If things like this don’t convince people to dissolve this ‘town’, nothing will.
The. Sunshine law has been on the books for years. In their positions they should have known about it. Im with ann on this one. Dont accept a position if you dont know what youre doing.