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After hearing depositions, the city decides to fight the former commissioner who sued when his flood grant was revoked.
By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 6, 2000
MADEIRA BEACH -- More than 300 pages of depositions have hardened the City Commission's determination to fight former colleague Thomas Saxon's lawsuit to obtain a $65,783 federal grant.
"We're going to court. We're going to see this through," Mayor Tom De Cesare said Tuesday after the commission's hour-long closed session with Ed Foreman, an attorney hired to depose Saxon and his wife; former city manager Kim Leinbach; and former building official Fred Hawes.
Foreman said he will file within a month a response to Saxon's Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court lawsuit.
"It's all about ethics," said Commissioner Roger Koske, who defeated Saxon in the 1999 general election.
At issue is whether Saxon, as a public official, used his access to "inside" information to win a flood repair grant over residents he was sworn to represent. The city also questions Saxon's eligibility for the flood mitigation program.
The commission revoked Saxon's grant last year after a number of residents charged the commissioner had used his office improperly. When voters turned Saxon out of office, he filed suit against the city.
Subsequent attempts to negotiate a settlement collapsed last July, and Foreman was hired to conduct depositions to determine if the city should contest the lawsuit in court.
During Saxon's deposition, Foreman asked if "everything you (Saxon) did with respect to that (grant program) occurred after you were elected as a commissioner of the City of Madeira Beach?" Saxon replied, "Yes."
And when Foreman asked whether Saxon made "any effort as a commissioner" to ensure other applicants "were aware that there was . . . a new slot available," Saxon answered, "No."
Saxon was one of more than 20 property owners in 1997 who sought federal funds to floodproof their homes. Saxon, who was not selected, contacted the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and asked to be reconsidered when he learned from Hawes that one of the recipients had opted out of the program.
When the DCA awarded the grant to Saxon, Leinbach signed the DCA contract, but said he subsequently discovered that the DCA prohibited the participation of public officials. According to Leinbach, he was instructed by the DCA to modify the contract and allow Saxon to receive the money.
"Were you concerned about the appearance of impropriety with a council member ending up in this slot?" Foreman asked.
"Yes," Leinbach said.
"When you started getting up to two (concerned commissioners), doesn't the pucker factor start to hit you a little bit because these are the guys you work for, not the DCA?" Foreman asked.
"Correct," Leinbach said.
Leinbach admitted that he believed Saxon's selection violated the original agreement with the DCA, but he stressed that the DCA instructed him to change it.
"(The) DCA may not have cared if you gave the thing to Charles Manson, but I think your council would be very unhappy, no offense intended," Foreman said toward the end of Leinbach's deposition.
Hawes, questioned at length about his contacts with Saxon, emphatically denied a statement by DCA official Charles Speights, quoted in the St. Petersburg Times, that Hawes wanted Saxon to get the available money.
When asked if he had felt any "discomfort" in his discussions with Saxon, Hawes said, "Absolutely not. It didn't matter who you were."
But the DCA, according to Hawes, viewed Saxon as "almost a pest" because of the number of times he called to inquire about the grant process.
Saxon admitted repeated grant-related contacts with Hawes and frequent telephone calls to state and federal officials. Saxon said he recently asked FEMA "to stop the ridiculousness that we're going through. . . . The ridiculousness is that the two city attorneys have said this (grant) is not a problem. The state attorney's office has said this is not a problem. DCA has said this is not a problem. And FEMA has said this is not a problem.
"So, therefore, there must be some ridiculousness going on behind the scenes, some personal attack going on behind the scenes. . . . The city has breached the contract with FEMA, DCA and myself."