Madeira Beach’s private talks to hire attorney didn’t violate law, judge says
On April 22, 2020, four Madeira Beach city commissioners had individual discussions with Clearwater lawyer Tom Trask, each 30 minutes apart, about taking the city attorney job.
Six days later, the commission held a meeting to hire him for interim legal services. Mayor John Hendricks read the agenda item’s title, and 60 seconds later with no discussion, the commission voted 4-1 to approve his retainer.
Resident William Gay sued the city and the four commissioners in 2021, alleging they violated Florida’s Sunshine Law by conducting private interviews and negotiating Trask’s contract outside of public view.
Now, a Pinellas County Circuit Court judge has ruled that, because each private interview did not include two or more elected officials, the commissioners did not violate the state’s Sunshine Law. In a Dec. 30 order, Judge Lauren C. Laughlin wrote that no evidence was presented to show Trask acted as a liaison between each commissioner, a requirement to find that a de facto meeting had taken place.
“The defendants did not violate the letter of the law, but it is questionable whether they violated the purpose of the law: to protect the public’s right to be present and to be heard during all phases of enactments by governmental boards and commissions,” Laughlin wrote.
Laughlin said the commissioners “may have frustrated the purpose of the law” by avoiding two or more members being in the same interview with Trask. But she said the state Legislature has not amended the law to address the procedure for interviewing charter officers.
Attorneys representing Gay filed a motion on Jan. 5 requesting a rehearing, stating courts have ruled a Sunshine violation can occur even when two or more members of a board are not in the same room “because of the evasive nature of secret meetings.” They argued it does not require having to prove Trask acted as a go-between for each commissioner.
Hendricks, the mayor, declined to comment until Gay’s appeal window runs out.
Commissioner Doug Andrews said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times: “Was this handled perfectly on our end? Could we have done it differently to satisfy everyone? I’ll leave that to the experts.”
“All I can say is we are not professional politicians. I don’t have a chief of staff or a speech writer. I’m just a Slurpee-slinging elected official trying to do his best,” added Andrews, who owns a 7-Eleven.
Gay’s lawsuit alleged that, after the March 2020 election, a new majority of pro-development commissioners plotted to rehire Trask to push development. Trask previously served as city attorney until June 2017.
In one of their first meetings after the election, commissioners voted 4-1 on April 14, 2020, to fire then-City Attorney Ralf Brooks. Eight days later, the four commissioners held individual private discussions with Trask before voting to hire him the following week.
Gay has been successful in three other lawsuits against Madeira Beach, including one in 2017 when a judge ruled the city violated the Sunshine Law by using a secret ballot process to appoint a developer to the commission.
