City’s defense of Impact Fee case costs $730,000

Submitted by Susan Hardee Steger
July 29, 2015 8:40 a.m.

DSCN0180 Cropped 2In response to a request by the Fernandina Observer for the amount of  attorneys’ fees paid by the City of Fernandina Beach to defend itself in the Conlon vs City of Fernandina Beach lawsuit, City Attorney Tammi Bach provided the following information:

Rumberger $ 422,181.43

Upchurch Watson $ 3,791.17

Jacobs Scholz $ 28,573.00

Bryant Miller Olive $ 239,188.75

Adams – Reese LLP $ 1,833.57

Trawick Reporting $ 250.95

Certified Court Reporting $ 2,852.90

Bill Hazes Court Reporting $ 31,620.90

Total $ 730,292.67

On July 28, 2015, the City wired $1.8 million to the Administrator for the settlement of the impact fee claim. According to Bach, this payment ends the city’s responsibilities under a settlement agreement reached in November 2014 (click here for previous story).

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Louis Goldman
Louis Goldman(@lgoldmngmail-com)
8 years ago

If the City broke the law why aren’t they paying back 100% of the money collected instead of the 78% that the court imposed? The City previously paid back 100% when they found out that they had made a mistake.

Karen Thompson
Karen Thompson (@guest_41414)
8 years ago

Would like to know if that’s the exact amount paid by administrator to those that filed claims. The reason I’m asking is that city records were so mixed up that I received 15 different letters that I was eligible for a refund. I was not. Wondering how many more errors like this resulted in Administrator paying out less than the $1.8 million. Were the eligible requests reviewed against the numbers on the city list? Just asking because that’s a lot of money to be thrown out the window.

Dave Lott
Dave Lott(@dave-l)
8 years ago

Lou, I think the lower percentage was due to the fact that it was a settlement agreement as opposed to a final verdict.

Louis Goldman
Louis Goldman(@lgoldmngmail-com)
8 years ago
Reply to  Dave Lott

The settled was on the appeal after the court says they broke the law. If the City has to pay anything back the proper thing or the City to do is pay back 100% of the impact fees collected.