Collins: Mayor's way or highway
BY ANN HENSON
Citizen Staff
The Monroe County attorney
says he was fired because he stood in the way of favors and deals
orchestrated by county Mayor Sonny McCoy.
Richard Collins accused
McCoy of changing an ordinance to help a celebrity couple in Ocean Reef,
trying to bend the rules so a former Key West policeman could get a
building permit, stretching an opinion by the Florida Attorney General
so commissioners could have teleconference meetings, and calling a
swimming pool that was built without a permit a water retention area to
avoid substantial fines.
"I could not go along with
McCoy's way of doing the public business," Collins said Friday.
Collins, who has been county
attorney for three years, received a letter from McCoy last week that
said his contract would be terminated in 30 days. McCoy and
commissioners Murray Nelson and Dixie Spehar voted to fire Collins at
Wednesday's County Commission meeting. The public was unaware of their
intention, as McCoy added the issue to the agenda after it had been
published.
Collins, who did not attend
the meeting, said he was at home nursing a cold.
On U.S. 1 Radio's morning
news show Friday morning, McCoy said he remembered the day his
relationship with Collins soured.
Collins remembers it, too.
Changing the laws
The problem started with the
Ocean Reef home of celebrity couple Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford. They
had built a 3,700-square-foot downstairs enclosure with 12 rooms that
included maid's quarters, bedrooms, bathrooms, a gym and other
amenities. The enclosure was listed on the building permit as storage.
In the Florida Keys, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency prohibits living space below a
height at which flooding is likely to occur, and the county adopted that
rule so residents would be eligible for flood insurance through an arm
of FEMA.
Code Enforcement cited the
Giffords for having a "concealed illegal enclosure" and the case was
headed to court. A 2000 ruling by Circuit Judge Richard Payne left only
two methods to catch individuals suspected of having illegal enclosures
— if code enforcement officials find them within four years of being
built, or if they are concealed.
But at a February 2005
meeting, McCoy urged the commission to change the ordinance regulating
the prosecution of building code violations to define "concealed" as
being visible only upon entering a home. Since their enclosure had
exterior windows, the Giffords were off the hook.
The board advised Collins to
take no action in the case.
After the meeting McCoy
called another meeting to discuss the FEMA issue, inviting Collins,
County Administrator Tom Willi, Growth Management Director Tim McGarry
and former county attorney Jim Hendrick, who represented the Giffords.
Collins said he assumed the
meeting was going to be about the Gifford case, so he invited assistant
county attorney Pedro Marcado, who was assigned to that case, as well as
other enclosure issues.
McCoy and Marcado disagreed
about whether the intent of the FEMA agreement was to prosecute
violations.
"I started to speak up when
Sonny was done but he spoke over me," Marcado said. "I asked him not to
interrupt."
Willi said McCoy was
offended by Marcado's dissertation on the subject.
After the meeting, McCoy
told Collins he wanted Marcado to apologize to him, Collins said.
"Sonny said Marcado was rude
and was not supposed to even be at the meeting," he said. "I said I'm
not going to have him apologize and said so again on two other
occasions."
McCoy tells a different
story.
He said he asked Collins why
Marcado was there. "He wouldn't answer me. He finally said, 'If you
don't like it, fire me.' "
McCoy and Collins have not
spoken since.
Reviving expired
permits
Former Key West Police
Officer Frank Madeira, a friend of McCoy's son-in-law, needed to renew
an expired building permit to finish his half-built house, sources said.
McCoy asked Collins, McGarry
and another building official what could be done, but no one could find
a way to legally revive it, sources within the county attorney's office
said.
McCoy has continued to press
the issue for a year and a half.
McCoy admits he asked
Assistant County Attorney Bob Shillinger to look into the matter again
just last week. But he denies any wrongdoing.
"This thing is an eyesore,
it's half finished," McCoy said. "I asked him to look. I didn't ask them
to do anything wrong."
McCoy said he knew Madeira
as a police officer. "My son-in-law was once a captain in the Police
Department, so my guess is they know each other, but he never asked me
to do anything."
Bending the rules
Perry Curry built a swimming
pool on Big Coppitt Key and ran up substantial code enforcement fines,
county sources said.
McCoy said he remembers the
3- to 4-year-old case, but doesn't remember that the lot didn't have
enough open space for water filtration. According to sources, McCoy
called the swimming pool a water retention area and was adamant that it
could be defined as such.
The county reduced Curry's
fine and allowed the pool to stay.
"Citizens look to their
commissioners to solve their problems, sometimes we can help, sometimes
we cannot," McCoy said. "Have we done anything illegal? I hope not.
"And if [Collins] is saying
I'm telling him to do things illegally, I'll sue him"
Stretching the truth
One of the most public
examples of McCoy's legal interpretations happened over the course of
several commission meetings last year.
McCoy wanted to start having
teleconference meetings so commissioners, staff and the public wouldn't
have to drive hundreds of miles to attend.
He wanted to put equipment
in Key West, Marathon and Key Largo so people could drive to the nearest
facility to participate.
He asked the state Attorney
General for an opinion, which he received in December. At a meeting, he
told commissioners the opinion was a good one.
"He has given us latitude to
do an awful lot of things electronically," McCoy said. "The only time
this seems to be of concern is if a vote is taken. From my
interpretation, as long as three people are in one place, we can have a
vote."
That is not what the letter
says. It states:
"For workshops and special
meetings at which no formal action will be taken, it would appear that
such technology may be used. The county must be vigilant, however, in
adhering to the requirements of the Sunshine Law and ensure that the
meetings or workshops using electronic media technology are not forums
for the commission to undertake formal decisionmaking."
The county administrator
says McCoy stretched the opinion's meaning. "Yes, he has taken it
further than what's allowed by statute," Willi said.
McCoy doesn't understand the
fuss. "I thought this was a good thing," he said.
He complained that he
repeatedly asked Collins to request the Attorney General opinion to no
avail, so he had to ask for it.
He has backed off on how
extensively the county would use the equipment. "We have a one-year
[pilot program] and if the opinion says workshops, that is what we will
do," he said.
Failing to communicate
Willi said the problem
between Collins and McCoy is two strong egos.
"They definitely have
communication problems. They haven't spoken since that meeting" in
February.
McCoy said Collins
continuously went behind his back, once telling a Florida Keys Aqueduct
Authority official to write a resolution to be sent to the governor on
wastewater that the board directed Collins to write.
"His job is to be the
attorney to all five commissioners," McCoy said.
While Collins cleans out his
desk, he can count the cash the county will pay him to do nothing.
He said provisions in his
contract call for a salary, car allowance, vacation, sick leave,
continued contributions to his retirement account and health benefits —
even if it is terminated before it expires January 2007. The pay could
come to $100,000 or more.
"It's giving me a nine-month
paid vacation," Collins said. "And that doesn't serve
Monroe County
citizens well."
ahenson@keysnews.com |