Council members sure have odd definitions of conflicting interests in Port Richey.
In declining to interview a well-respected west Pasco law firm for the Port Richey city attorney's job, a City Council majority stated it feared the mayor's long-ago ties to the firm's partners could pose potential conflicts.
Here's the supposed danger: Mayor Eloise Taylor, an attorney, taught at Kent State University in the 1960s with Gerald Figurski. She also worked, for less than a year, under Ben Harrill 20 years ago when Harrill was the Pasco County attorney.
Wow. Somebody call the Ethics Commission.
The dubious reasoning was enough for Phyllis Grae, Dale Massad and Pat Guttman to decline to even interview the Figurski & Harrill firm, leaving only two applicants for the pending city attorney vacancy.
Retiring council member Guttman said she didn't want to be accusatory, but said Taylor's ties didn't look proper. She should put on her skeptic's glasses more often.
Here are some examples of what passes for proper in Port Richey the past few years, all of which occurred under Guttman's watch:
- City Manager Vince Lupo was a member of the board of directors for Massad's charity group for aid to Africa. Massad said he offered Lupo the position because of the city manager's expertise in obtaining grant money. In other words, Lupo, whose compensation was determined in part by Massad, was expected to generate revenue to benefit Massad's group. Neither Lupo nor Massad remains involved with the charity.
- The city accepted $14,000 in donations toward pet projects of Massad and Guttman from Paradise of Port Richey, the operators of the off-shore casino based in Port Richey, a month after the council approved a new ordinance allowing the company to begin operating a previously prohibited for-profit bingo hall. The company's lobbyist, James Carter, boasted to Taylor that he wrote the majority of the ordinance. The council, with Massad dissenting, later rescinded the ordinance.
- The city allowed unchecked authority to Gary Deremer, who, under a management services contract, serves as Port Richey's de facto utilities director and engineer. Under the cozy setup, Deremer could recommend needed work, delegate it to his own private firm, H2O Utilities, and then approve it when construction is completed. Lupo has defended the arrangement as a bargain.
Massad said his decision in eliminating the law firm was based primarily on compensation, but he also repeated the council's theory of conflicting interests. Even his pocketbook thinking is debatable. Though Figurski & Harrill charge a higher hourly fee, the firm's proposal included no retainer requirement. The firms to be interviewed plan to charge annual retainers totaling $30,000 and $42,000. So much for being economical.
Figurski put the situation in proper perspective: "In light of the basis of the decision, we're not entirely unhappy with the outcome," he said.
That's a nice way of saying, we're better off not affiliated with that goofball government. Who can blame him?
