No Free Lunch

What is occuring on Longboat Key involving the Key Club litigation, could be a very costly zero-sum-game. Since the commissioners have once again unanimously decided to adhere to their stance on the Key Club expansion proposal, they have created a situation where a developer stands to gain tens of millions of dollars from government sponsored added value, to what is currently golf course acreage. By doing so, the town government has inadvertantly placed a huge financial burden on some residents, as they are now in the position of having to protect the value of their property.


From reading the recent town lawyer's letter to the commission listing nine active legal actions against the town by residents, it would appear that IPOC is not alone in their grievences against the commission and thus the town. All these residents are so dissatisfied with the town that they are willing to spend their time and money to fight against what they feel to be unjust treatment. The more oppressive, rigid, and developer-friendly the commission becomes, the more lawsuits are launched against them and the town.  Monitarily, this appears to be a beneficial situation for the attorneys, quite the opposite for the town and the taxpayers.

On Monday night, the commission unanimously agreed to allow the town lawyer to proceed with a costly and lengthy appeal of a recent court decision which had slammed the commissioners on their high-handed abuse of resident's property rights. The court decision cited seven issues with the commission's passage of ordinances 2009-25 and 2010-16. Since there was no meaningful discussion about the morality and advisability of appealing such a strong court ruling, one must assume that each commissioner had throughly weighed the wisdom of their decision prior to the commission meeting.

Nowhere in the commissioners' non-discussion was there any question of possibly being wrong. All that was said by our lawyer was that the commissioners needed to somehow overturn the court ruling. What if the court was right?

Given that their separate decisions had to be made without group communications with the town lawyer, their confidence in this legal matter is significant. The commissioners are surely aware that if the town lawyer had communications with each commissioner in "rapid succession" prior to Monday night's commission meeting, that could constitute a violation of the sunshine law. In a December 3rd article in the Herald Tribune newspaper, the possiblity of abuse of the sunshine law in this manner was discussed in reference to the actions of the Bradenton School Board. If communications and agreements were made "behind closed doors" so to speak, coming forward when the town lawyer asked whether any violations of the sunshine law took place would have been the right thing to do to be fair to all the residents involved in the Key Club expansion litigation.

During the Monday night commission meeting, when the town lawyer was politicking to get permission to appeal his most recent pending land-use litigation defeat, the lawyer stated that the commission had always stepped up to defend their actions. I recall that previously the Klauber lawsuit appeal request made by Mr. Persson was wisely denied by the commission. This time Mr. Lesser is supposedly paying all the legal and staff expenses, as the commissioners try to reverse all seven of the adverse rulings made by the court.

Now for the no free lunch. We all know that courts can be unpredictable, as evidenced by the recent Key Club ruling against the town commission. The commissioners, in their appearant haste to appeal that ruling, did not take any time to discuss what could befall Longboat Key taxpayers if the town loses its appeal. Under Florida statutes it may be possile for property owners to sue the town for losses to property values as a direct result of illegal actions by the town commission. If that happens, Loeb Partners will most likely run away from the town. The taxpayers would end up having to pay for expensive lawyers. If the property owners prevail, the taxpayers could be stuck with a huge settlement that would be levied against the town. This is exactly what happened in the Klauber suit. Don't think it can't happen again.

Florida Statutes : 70.001 f.s.
Abstract: (2) When a specific action of a governmental entity has inordinately burdened an existing use of real property or a vested right to a specific use of real property, the property owner of that real property is entitled to relief, which may include compensation for the actual loss to the fair market value of the real property caused by the action of government, as provided in this section. (d) The term “action of a governmental entity” means a specific action of a governmental …

The commissioners are playing for high stakes, though they may not know it. By not seeking some sort of compromise between Loeb Partners and the property owners of Islandside, the commissioners are now exposing the taxpayers to possble liabilities that will adverasely affect the future of our community.

There is a distinct feeling of unfairness in the dogged efforts of the commissioners to assist Loeb Partners' efforts to add value to their golf course. By not seeking compromise, the commissioners have created a very costly zero-sum-game, where someone wins financially and someone loses. By appealing rather than demanding a workable expansion plan from the Key Club, the commissioners have prolonged the start of anything positive at the Key Club for another year at least according to the town lawyer.


Worse yet is the possibly tenuous and greatly increased financial exposure of the entire community to  losing an appeal of a fairly severe court ruling. This is foolhardy. I am amazed that the commissioners spent hours rangling over ten feet of parking space at the Publix hearing, and fewer than six minutes on the largest lawsuit on the island since the Klauber suit, which went terribly wrong for the taxpayers.