Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 08-08-2006 ‎(executive)‎ — reading text

Toni L. Craig Attorney at Law Transmittal Memorandum Date: 28- Aug- 06 To: City Clerk From: City Attorney Re: Executive Session Transcript Enclosed is the original Executive Session Transcript for the Class Action Lawsuit re Occupational License Fees/ Attorneys. Thank you! 244 Racetrack Rd NE Fort Walton Beach, FL 32547- 1866 850) 243- 6969 Fax: ( 850) 244- 8929 Emai1: attycrg@aol.com  1 1 CITY OF FORT WALTON BEAaI EXECUTIVE SESSION 2 AUGUST 8, 2006 3 4 5 IN RE: TO DISmSS A CLASS ACTION IAWSUIT ARGUING THE 6 CONSTITUTIONALITY OF IMPOSING OCCUPATIONAL LICENSE FEES ON ATIORNEYS 7 8 9 10 COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: 11 Mayor Mike Anderson 12 Councilmember Mike Holmes Councilmember Bill Patterson 13 Councilmember Bob Carrpbell Councilmember Jim Tucker 14 Councilmember Wayne Pullen Councilmember Jim Hartwell 15 Councilmember Mike Minich 16 17 18 CITY COUNCIL PRESENT: 19 20 Toni Craig, City Atto:mey 21 22 23 AS REroRTED BY: SUSANNA M. DUKE 24 DANIELS, roUGLAS & RACKARD REPORTING SERVICE 8 RACETRACK ROAD, NW 25 FORT WALTON BEACH, FlORIDA 32547 850) 864- DEro O;7/GltllJl  2 1 IVIR. ANDERSON: I' d like to call to order the 2 special executive session on Tuesday, August 8th. And Ms. 3 Shanahan, would you please -- 4 MS. SHANAHAN: Do you want to say the reason for 5 the executive session on tape? 6 MS. CRAIG: No. 7 lVlR. ANDERSON: Please pause the tape. 8 MS. SHANAHAN: I did. 9 lVlR. ANDERSON: Ms. Craig. 10 MS. CRAIG: Thank you. And thank you for giving 11 me the time to do this and hopefully it will be quick. 12 Everyone should have received a package that originated fran 13 the city of Tampa. It' s kind of a big package for a very 14 simple issue. The issue is that there has been a class 15 action filed by two attorneys who remained as the class 16 representatives. And it' s Mike C. Addison, and Richard 17 Petti t . And they represent approximatel y, by class 18 representation, 50, 000 attorneys state- wide. They have 19 filed the lawsuit against the city of Tampa individually, as 20 well as approximately 200 cities and 35 counties saying that 21 the cities and counties are encroaching on -- 22 unconstitutionally encroaching on the judicial powers by 23 making us attorneys pay occupational license tax troney. And 24 I got this info:rmation through the league of Cities, and the 25 Tampa attorney, of course, handling this class action.  3 1 It' s very complicated. You can see by the case 2 number that it was filed in 2003. It has just now been 3 certified, which means that a judge -- that the order that 4 you have is a class certification. A judge looks at the 5 issue, looked at the representatives of the plaintiff class, 6 as well as the defendant class, and made the determination 7 that the issues are similar arrong all of them involved, and 8 that they could proceed as a class action. 9 So the total class action suit may take another 10 five, six, seven years, and obviously a very expensive suit 11 for both plaintiffs and defendants. What I think the city 12 attorney of Tampa wants is basically all of the cities and 13 counties to join in and offer assistance and help in 14 fighting the case, actually. And what that may entail, I 15 don I t know. It may be something as simple as making a 16 notice of appearance in the case, once the appeal that' s on 17 the class certification comes back, and just simply letting 18 the Court know that we are a similarly situated city and 19 that you as a council, likewise, object to any determination 20 by the Court that charging occupational licenses against the 21 attorney is unconstitutional. 22 And I just needed your direction because, you 23 know, there' s two sides of the issue, of course. And either 24 we join in on the suit, or else we make it clear that we 25 won' t join in on the suit. And what that may mean, again,  4 1 down the road, you know, on one hand, I could be reimbursed 2 from Okaloosa County for my occupational license fee. On 3 the other hand, that would mean that the city would have to 4 reimburse all of the attorneys. And I think there' s 5 probably, that I know of, 10 to 12 attorneys in the city 6 limits that I know of. And that would probably be maybe two 7 thousand dollars ($ 2, 000), you know, for the city if they' re 8 charged at the same rate as what we are in the county area. 9 So it' s not a small dollar -- I mean, it' s not a 10 large dollar value for the city, but every city around here 11 and the counties around have been named in this lawsuit. 12 MR. TUCKER: Are we going to have questions? 13 MS. CRAIG: I was just going to say, if council' s 14 direction is that we don' t take part in it, then I' ll just 15 watch it as it slides by and not put our name into the suit. 16 But if your direction is that we need to monitor it just to 17 stay on top and see how it' s working out -- because I do 18 think it will have far reaching implications for other 19 occupational licenses. 20 MR. MINICH: And that' s your recorrmendation as I 21 understand it from the memo, is to monitor it and provide 22 assistance did you say, to the Tampa attorneys? 23 MS. CRAIG: Provide assistance on a very limited 24 basis. Because obviously, you know, he' s going to be having 25 to carry the ball, Tampa is going to be carrying it. I L  6 1 in and tried to prevent her from being taken off the life 2 support system. And what the judicial branch said was that 3 that was an encroachment on the judiciary, and that the I 4 governor couldn t do that. 5 Well, in this suit, they' re relating the governor 6 to the executive branch to every municipality and the 7 occupational licensing framework in the ordinances. So 8 that' s how -- you know, they started with a morally charged 9 case, and now we' re ending up on a taxation issue, 10 basically. But there is no morality in my opinion. 11 rvIR. TUCKER: And one other, just in finality. 12 What do you want us to do tonight, say proceed or not 13 proceed? 14 MS. CRAIG: I recorrmended that we monitor the 15 sui t . And of course, I don' t have expertise in any class 16 action lawsuits. I would just keep track of it just so I 17 will know how it' s proceeding because obviously, one way or 18 the other, it will either affect the city or it will affect 19 me personally. 20 rvIR. TUCKER: Do we vote on this? 21 MS. CRAIG: Yes, I need a motion and a vote as to 22 how to proceed with the litigation dates. 23 rvIR. ANDERSON: Yeah, but let' s get the discussions 24 down first. Mr. Minich. 25 rvIR. MINICH: I just have one. Do we require other  9 1 MS. SHANAHAN: And they may not cover it, b: ecause 2 we have a twenty- five thousand dollars ($ 25, 000) deductible. 3 And if the damages are less than that, it' s going to have to 4 be out of pocket, anyway, if they' re successful. So those 5 are my only two canments. 6 fv1R. ANDERSON: Okay. MY other clarifications? 7 fv1R. PATTERSON: Well, the only carment I' ve got 8 and Toni, correct me if I' m wrong -- but attorneys are 9 officers of the court, correct? 10 MS. CRAIG: Yes. 11 fv1R. PATTERSON: They' re officials of the court. 12 So therefore, they fall under the judicial system and they 13 are -- they have to work by their guidelines? 14 MS. CRAIG: Yes. 15 fv1R. PATTERSON: So as a city, we' re virtually 16 requiring an officer of the court to acquire a license to 17 participate in court duties? 18 MS. CRAIG: Right. 19 f' IIR. MINICH: Within the city of Fort Walton Beach. 20 fv1R. PATTERSON: Within the city of Fort Walton 21 Beach. And in my opinion -- and this is my opinion only -- 22 that' s wrong. 23