ALJ kicks CAN: Conserve Amelia Now has no standing to sue

Submitted by Adam Kaufman
Legal Analyst
July 11, 2019 – 10:35 a.m.

E. Gary Early the Administrative Law Judge assigned to the challenge to construction at Amelia Bluff has ruled that Conserve Amelia Now (CAN) cannot be a party to the law suit and that its spokesperson Robert Weintraub cannot testify at the hearing which begins next week.

Yesterday Early ruled that CAN was not a legal entity at the time the Fernandina Beach City Commission adopted the ordinance with regard to construction at Amelia Bluff and as such is not an “affected person” with standing as defined by Florida statute.

Weintraub was to provide testimony related solely to the standing of CAN and it members. Given the dismissal of CAN Weintraub’s testimony “is not relevant and will not be allowed.”

CAN’s argument “that oral or written comments submitted by individuals (to the City Commission) who became members of Conserve Amelia Now, Inc. after its incorporation provide a basis upon which to confer standing on Conserve Amelia Now, Inc. is unavailing” said Early. “Therefore Conserve Amelia Now, Inc., is not an affected person defined by statute.”

CAN through a “GO FUND ME” effort has raised over $20,000 in support its challenge to the Amelia Bluff Development.

Early, in his ruling on Thursday June 10, 2019, upon motions brought on behalf of the City of Fernandina Beach and Amelia Bluff, LLC, also limited the scope of proposed testimony by Ron Sapp and Frank J. Santry III who are scheduled as witnesses on behalf of the parties challenging the development at Amelia Bluff.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:00 AM Monday at Fernandina Beach City Hall.

Editor’s Note: Adam Kaufman, has been General Counsel, labor negotiator, and lobbyist for the Rochester City School; he was appointed by Governor Mario Cuomo as Counsel, Associate Director and First Deputy Attorney General to a New York State Special Commission; he served as an Administrative Law Judge, mediator and Regional Director of the New York State Public Employment Relations Board; now retired, for the last 13 years he was a labor arbitrator and mediator. A graduate of the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, he is a city resident.