Vita lawyer: West Palm Beach mayor should not have voted on Sunset negotiations with CRA

West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James should not have voted when the board of the city's redevelopment arm deadlocked in deciding whether to continue negotiations with a group hoping to manage the Sunset Lounge, the group's lawyer claims in a letter.

The letter, written to City Attorney Kimberly Rothenberg on Monday, June 18, adds to the uncertainty and acrimony between Vita Lounge, the group hoping to manage the Sunset Lounge, and the Community Redevelopment Agency, which has used $20 million taxpayer money to purchase and rebuild the iconic 1920s-era supper club.

F. Malcolm Cunningham, who represents Vita in what has now been a series of yearslong legal disputes with the CRA that have delayed the re-opening of the Sunset, told Rothenburg in the letter that the city's charter only permits James to vote to break ties of the five-member City Commission, which also doubles as the CRA Board of Directors.

On June 10, the CRA board voted 3-3 on a motion by Commissioner Shalonda Warren to have the agency continue Sunset management negotiations with Vita. The tie vote meant the motion failed, as did a follow-up motion made by James to terminate negotiations between the CRA and Vita.

James participated in both votes, including on the motion to continue negotiations. Three of the five CRA board members had voted in favor of continuing negotiations; James' vote against that motion kept it from succeeding.

But the mayor, Cunningham said, should not have participated in that vote.

"The city ordinance that created the CRA does not authorize the mayor to vote, only city commissioners," Cunningham wrote. "The CRA ordinance specifies the 'members' of the CRA are the 'five' members of the 'West Palm Beach City Commission.' The bylaws designate the mayor as the chair of the CRA, but likewise do not authorize the mayor to vote."

He added: "While operating as the city or as the CRA, the mayor does not vote in any city/CRA matters except in the instances of a tie. The mayor cannot vote to create a tie."

Cunningham wrote that "the failure of the City/CRA to adhere to its own rules in attempting to defeat negotiations and a contract with Vita constitutes bad faith … ." He added that, if the city and CRA did not consummate a deal with Vita within 10 days, the group would seek a contempt order for failing to negotiate in good faith, as a Palm Beach County Circuit Court judge ordered when she ruled against an earlier effort to disqualify Vita's bid to manage the Sunset.

City's response: Malcolm Cunningham's interpretation of the charter is not correct

A city spokesperson disagreed with Cunningham.

"The mayor is a member of the CRA Board and is required to vote on all matters involving the CRA," she said in an email to The Palm Beach Post.

A brief review of recent CRA meetings shows that the mayor has regularly voted on issues brought to the board, including on April 29, when he voted against a motion to give Vita and the CRA additional time to come to an agreement. That motion passed 5-1, with James casting the sole vote in opposition.

The mayor did not support Vita's 2022 bid to manage the Sunset, arguing then and since that the group did not have a strong enough financial foundation to take on overseeing the lounge, which was rebuilt in the hopes that it would revitalize the city's largely Black Northwest community.

James has insisted that his opposition to Vita's bid has not soured negotiations between the group and the CRA. The group's backers have said the mayor does not want negotiations between the CRA and Vita to succeed.

James is occasionally brusque on the dais on other topics, but his tone in addressing members of Vita's team has frequently been frosty and dismissive.

He has, for example, referenced the group as Vita Lounge "or whatever they're calling themselves these days." When a member of Vita's team asked a CRA staff member to bring him a document to clarify a point he was attempting to make in addressing the CRA board, James sharply rebuked that team member, reminding him that the city's staff is not answerable to people addressing the board.

Where do things currently stand with the Sunset Lounge negotiations?

James' words and tone in public meetings often leave Vita backers shaking their heads and even more convinced that the mayor is hostile to the group's efforts.

Some of Vita's backers have grumbled privately about what they see as the inexplicable oppostion of a Black mayor to the aspirations of a Black group trying to manage a lounge that was once the cultural hub of the city's Black community.

James, in turn, has bristled at suggestions that he should back Vita because its team members are Black.

After the failure of motions to continue and discontinue negotiations between the CRA and Vita, it is unclear where things now stand. There is construction work to be done at the Sunset, but it is largely rebuilt. It was initially expected to be reopened in late 2022 or early 2023.

The city said the CRA will hold a special meeting to discuss next steps. It did not provide an answer to questions about whether the two sides were still negotiating or if the CRA has begun the process of finding another group to manage the Sunset.

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Wayne Washington is a journalist covering West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Vita lawyer says West Palm mayor should not have voted on Sunset issue