Lawyer offers to cut his fee

But the candidate worked for companies behind two of Brooksville's biggest projects.

By Dan DeWitt, Times Staff Writer
Published August 27, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Maurice Rivenbark | Times] Jake Varn has offered to take the job of Brooksville city attorney for $225 per hour, half his usual fee.

BROOKSVILLE - Jake Varn has offered to take the job of Brooksville city attorney for $225 per hour, half his usual fee.

Maybe it's a bargain, and maybe it isn't, said Dawn Marie Clary, the mayor of Yankeetown, who warned of the perils of hiring lawyers such as Varn - with a long list of prominent private clients - to guard the public interest.

Clary said the town's former attorney, Clark Stillwell, sometimes seemed to work more for developers than for the town, especially when he met in private with investors planning to build a resort hotel on the Withlacoochee River. Stillwell, a prominent development lawyer from Inverness, resigned after the council learned he had kept the meetings secret, even after billing the town for them.

"The whole town was disgusted with him," Clary said. "When you hire a lawyer who is pro-development, all of his advice is going to be, 'Gee, this is great.' "

In recent years, Varn has represented companies behind the biggest projects in Hernando County, including two of the largest in Brooksville history: Majestic Oaks, on Mondon Hill Road, and Southern Hills Plantation, on the south side of the city.

The other candidates include the Hogan Law Firm, of Brooksville, which also represents developers, and Carole Joy Barice, who previously represented Deltona and Ocoee, but since 2004 has worked at the firm of Brooksville lawyer Joe Mason.

The final two applicants have specialized in representing cities or counties: Kristie Kroslack, formerly an assistant attorney for Lee and Hernando counties, and Joseph Problick, Zephyrhills' city attorney.

The City Council will interview all five candidates at a special meeting Wednesday and then select a replacement for David La Croix, who has announced he will leave the city at the end of September.

The Florida Bar rule on conflict of interest treats cities the same as any other client, said Cynthia Booth, assistant ethics counsel for the Bar.

A lawyer "has to determine that the representation of one isn't going to adversely affect his representation of the other," she said. The rule also requires lawyers to disclose any potential conflicts to clients.

Cities such as Brooksville that are too small to afford a full-time lawyer have two choices when hiring an attorney, said Stillwell, a prominent land use lawyer from Inverness. He added that he did nothing improper in Yankeetown - merely informed developers of the town's land use regulations, and kept the then-mayor abreast of those discussions.

Cities can hire top private lawyers, who usually have many powerful clients and, along with them, potential conflicts, Stillwell said. Or cities can hire specialists in government law.

"There are plenty of assistant city or county attorneys. If that's what you want, you advertise for it," Stillwell said But "a government needs to hire a good lawyer, and Jake Varn is certainly a good lawyer."

So are Hogan and Mason, said City Council member Lara Bradburn, who said the applications of all three firms reflected well on the city.

"I think the people who applied for attorney seem to recognize that things are happening in the city and want to be part of that positive change," she said.

Barice's application includes the services of her former firm, Fowler & O'Quinn of Orlando, which has represented several Florida cities. Hogan has applied as a firm, and listed its potential conflicts. Its clients include a developer who may request a change to the comprehensive plan and two others who are preparing zoning changes, the firm's application letter said.

Derrill L. McAteer's father, also named Derrill, has annexed property into the city. That matter has been resolved, said the younger McAteer, who works for the Hogan firm. And if a similar situation comes up, "it would require me to be basically firewalled out of the discussion," he said, adding that other conflicts would be handled as they came up.

Varn said the same.

"I would have to cross those bridges when I get there, if I get there," he said.

One conflict is already obvious, said County Commissioner Diane Rowden. Varn has represented LandMar Group LLC, Southern Hills' developer, which plans to develop 900 acres to the east of the project that the city has attempted to annex; the county is fighting that annexation in court.

So, Rowden asked, will Varn represent the city's interest in this dispute, or LandMar's?

"I don't just see red flags, I see missiles. I see the big burst of fireworks here saying, 'Whoa,' " she said. She also asked why Varn would work for the city at a reduced rate if he didn't want to advance the interests of his better-paying private clients.

Because he wants to help the city, Varn said. Though he lives and practices in Tallahassee, Varn has opened a small office in Brooksville because he does so much business in Hernando.

"I'm just trying to give a little bit to the city," he said. Varn, formerly secretary of the state Department of Transportation and of the forerunner to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, has moved back and forth between public and private work his entire career.

In recent years, he said, he has worked for Pasco County and the St. Johns River Water Management District, where he helped local governments plan for future water use. Environmentalists have criticized him for pushing the Ridge Road extension through wetlands in Pasco and, for St. Johns, identifying more sources of water to enable future growth.

"It's all being done not to protect natural resources but to encourage and facilitate additional development," Volusia County environmental activist Barbara Herrin told the Times in a 2005 interview.

But if additional development is what the city wants - and it has strongly supported growth during the last decade - an attorney like Varn may be a good fit for Brooksville, said Clary, one of several opponents of the Yankeetown resort who were voted into office last year.

"If you hire a pro-development attorney, you better be pro-development," she said, "because you're not going to get unbiased advice."

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or at (352) 754-6116.

[Last modified August 26, 2007, 20:17:03]