Attorney rumor mill buzzing

The retiring Robert Sumner is upset developers are undermining his chosen successor.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP, Times Staff Writer
Published October 7, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT County Attorney Robert Sumner announced his Dec. 31 retirement in May. Chuck Grey in May attended a meeting of development lawyers about the new county attorney. Former county attorney Ben Harrill says diplomacy is as important to the office as legal skills.

News of County Attorney Robert Sumner's retirement was still fresh when a small group of men gathered in late May at the New Port Richey realty offices of F.I. Grey & Sons.

Their names read like a who's who of Pasco's development community, which is also the county's major industry.

They sensed opportunity.

For years, Sumner had been a thorn in the side of developers. Many believed his role in crafting the county's growth policies had made things more difficult for them. His retirement offered an opening to regain some influence in policymaking.

Sumner found out about the meeting and subsequent efforts to undermine his choice for successor, chief assistant county attorney Barbara Wilhite. The normally soft-spoken 72-year-old was not amused.

"It is upsetting to me that there's a movement out there to undermine what I've done without really confronting me," he told the St. Petersburg Times. "There's a lot of things they're saying about me: that I speak out when I shouldn't, that I influence policy in a way I shouldn't."

Alex Deeb, a successful Pasco developer for three decades, readily described the meeting. But he said it was no big deal.

"We were talking about people running for the county attorney's office, whether we want to back a specific individual," he said.

Sumner says they did. He called longtime Land O'Lakes lawyer Tim Hayes the "developers' candidate." Hayes denies that.

* * *

Sumner, the county's attorney since 1999, is scheduled to retire Dec. 31.

Since his announcement in May, 18 people have applied for his job, and five have made the short list to be interviewed by the County Commission on Oct. 16. They are Wilhite; Hayes; Celeste Adorno, eminent domain chief in the state Office of the Attorney General; Jeffrey Steinsnyder, who works for the Bradenton firm of Kirk-Pinkerton; and former Valparaiso city attorney Douglas Wyckoff.

A sixth name, Frederick Reeves, was on that list, but dropped out this month, said commission Chairwoman Ann Hildebrand. Reeves formerly represented the county on water-related cases, working closely with attorney Clyde Hobby.

Reeves had been one of two names that the group that met at the realty office settled on. The other was Hayes, Deeb said.

"Tim Hayes supposedly gets along with County Administrator John Gallagher," Deeb said. "The key to whole thing was: Can you get along with John Gallagher?"

To Deeb, getting along with Gallagher was shorthand for having a county attorney who would be friendlier to his interests.

"You've had tremendous gridlock since Sumner became county attorney," Deeb said. "With Gallagher and his staff, they tell you what they expected of you. If you did it, you get your project approved. When Sumner became county attorney, it seemed they were at odds with each other. One person tells you one thing, the other tells you another thing."

Deeb described the meeting in May. He said it included Chuck Grey and lawyers Ben Harrill and Steve Booth, who often represent developers and builders. There may have been other meetings later, Deeb said, but that was the only one he attended. Booth and Grey did not return calls for this story.

Deeb said growth-related ordinances crafted by the county attorney's office in the past five years have disregarded public input, including the development community's.

He said the fault didn't just lie with the county attorney, but ineffective commissioners and a county administrator who was "no longer in charge."

"If you print that, I know Gallagher's going to call me up and chew me out," Deeb said. "But I don't care. Because it's true."

"Look at how many variances there are on the tree ordinance," he said. "It is a joke. Gallagher's staff will try to work within it, and it's impossible, and then the county attorney's office will call them on it."

Exemptions, or variances, are needed today to allow a developer to contribute to a fund if he wants to cut down more trees than the ordinance allows.

But Sumner said he didn't win that battle. When environmentalists first suggested a tree ordinance, he said he proposed a tree department with professional arborists. Gallagher and the commissioners disagreed, he said, and the suggestion was whittled to a "tree mitigation fund," among other rules.

That wasn't good enough for the development community, Sumner said.

"That's me sticking my nose into policy instead of keeping my mouth shut," he said.

Similar objections to his role were raised when Sumner once suggested banning billboards, he said. Commissioners say developers also dislike aspects of the right-of-way and sign ordinances.

Sumner dismisses the notion that he's wholly responsible for these rules. He is angry that these grievances are not being brought directly to him.

"Why is this not in the open?" he said. "I would love to have someone tell me what I've done wrong, and why it's affecting Barbara."

'No dramatic changes'

About two months ago, Hayes said, he got a call from Wilhite.

The call was about routine work, but Wilhite then brought up the county attorney job, Hayes said.

"Out of the blue, she said, 'I heard you're applying,'" Hayes said.

Hayes told her it's true, and then related to Wilhite a signal he had picked up.

"'I heard that the development community would like dramatic changes made to the county attorney's office,'" Hayes said he told Wilhite. "'Barbara, I want to be up front with you. If I were to get the job, my intention is not to go in and replace anybody.'"

Wilhite declined to be interviewed for this story.

Sumner called Hayes "the developers' candidate." He said he heard Hayes had already picked someone in the Hillsborough County Attorney's office to appoint as chief assistant county attorney.

Absolutely not, Hayes told the Times.

"Quite frankly, I don't know anybody in the Hillsborough County Attorney's office," Hayes said. "Should I be the person selected, I have no intention of making any dramatic changes."

Hayes said he's not "the developers' candidate," and pointed to his record representing a broad stripe of clients, including those who oppose development.

A lawyer in Pasco for more than 20 years, Hayes was a finalist for county attorney in 1992, but lost to Tom Bustin despite being recommended by a selection committee.

Harrill, himself a former county attorney, said he reached out to Hayes to talk about the county attorney job several months ago. Harrill said he also spoke with Reeves and Gallagher about it. He did not speak to Wilhite.

Asked what they talked about, Harrill said it was about the ability of the two top county offices to work together.

"A county attorney doesn't just have to be good at legal work, but also be a good diplomat," Harrill said.

Deeb said he has never talked about removing Wilhite, but made it clear that he opposed Wilhiteas county attorney.

"I'm stabbing myself in the chest right now by saying this, but if you pick somebody from within the county attorney's office, there's no reason to believe it's not business as usual," Deeb said.

Commissioner Michael Cox echoed that statement. He said he's had many conversations with people in the business community about the county attorney's job. He said he believes the two top county offices are not working well together.

"Everyone who's appeared before the commission has said, 'Please pick someone from outside,'" he said. "County staff and even some assistant county attorneys have said, 'Pick someone from the outside.' I have nothing personal against Barbara. I think she does a very good job for what the case may be. But she's assumed a role under Bobby (Sumner), for good or bad."

Staying neutral

Not all commissioners share that view.

Ted Schrader was critical of Cox's sentiments. "Michael has been there something of a year," he said. "It's premature on his part to make comments like that."

Schrader mentioned, then dismissed, Sumner's reputation as a "sixth commissioner." As for Wilhite: "Somebody needs to point out what she's done wrong that she doesn't deserve consideration," he said.

Hildebrand said she's only had neutral conversations on the issue. She said Booth had indicated he wanted to discuss the matter, but she said they haven't spoken yet.

Commissioner Jack Mariano said Deeb had spoken with him. Deeb said Mariano would keep "an open mind." Commissioner Pat Mulieri didn't respond to calls from the Times.

But Gallagher and the commissioners, including Cox, said no one should expect wholesale ordinance changes under any new county attorney.

Publicly at least, Gallagher's staying above the fray.

He said he agrees with Sumner "95 percent of the time," and that allegations of problems between the two top county offices have been "blown out of proportion."

Not to some in the development community, though.

"Bobby Sumner could have chosen to work with Gallagher and instructed his staff to do the same," Deeb said. "They're good people who've been misdirected. All they need to do is work with Gallagher's staff."

Chuin-Wei Yap can be reached at (813)909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 6, 2007, 20:19:37]