November 21, 2011 10:02 PM
Tom McLaughlin
Daily News
In what her attorney calls “an action to preserve the dignity of Florida’s celebrated Sunshine Law,” Miramar Beach resident Suzanne Harris has filed a lawsuit against the Walton County Commission.
The legal action specifically targets the commission’s failure to do what was necessary to prevent “the irregular and unlawful activities” it alleges occurred in the course of a county land purchase known colloquially as the Chat Holley transaction.
Bayside Properties LLC, a company owned by developer Lloyd Blue, made an estimated $345,000 on the sale of land for a traffic light. The lawsuit seeks reimbursement of those funds.
Blue could not be reached Monday for comment.
The lawsuit also demands that the county be required to seek repayment of all funds it paid to attorney George Ralph Miller pertaining to the Chat Holley transaction.
The legal action claims Miller was retained illegally to negotiate the land deal for the county and states he committed acts favoring Blue he knew or should have known were illegal.
Asked about the Chat Holley deal, Miller said, “I don’t think anything about it was illegal.”
He called the lawsuit “Suzanne Harris trying to smear somebody.”
The legal action also requests that Harris be allowed to assess her attorneys’ fees and costs against individual members of county government.
“Such an individual assessment is warranted and needed to ensure that Walton County taxpayers are not funding litigation for County Commission members who have broken the law,” the lawsuit said.
Commission Chairman Scott Brannon did not return a phone call seeking comment.
The lawsuit states the county violated the Sunshine Law by retaining Miller without holding a required public meeting to do so.
It also claims the Chat Holley transaction was closed without a commission vote to approve it.
The lawsuit alleges the county violated Florida public disclosure laws by failing to reveal that Blue was Miller’s “close friend and business associate.”
Harris is represented in her legal action by attorney and state Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Gaetz and Harris have successfully taken the county to task before for violations of the Sunshine Law.
“It’s significant that Walton County hasn’t learned the lesson,” Gaetz said. “Open government laws exist to protect the public and Walton County’s refusal to abide by open government laws is unacceptable.”
The transaction that led to the lawsuit filed Monday unfolded in July 2009 when the county began looking for land it needed to install a traffic signal at Chat Holley Road and U.S. Highway 331.
Blue and his wife, working as a company called 331 Bayside Properties LLC, obtained land in the area the county was looking at.
Then-County Administrator Lyle Siegler, whom the lawsuit refers to as another friend and associate of Blue, recommended the county purchase it.
Miller was retained for a $10,000 per month fee to represent the county in the Chat Holley transaction, according to reports.
Once retained, Miller convinced Brannon, as commission chairman, to sign off on the land deal without reviewing it, the lawsuit alleges.
It states Miller told Brannon he had reviewed the documents when in fact he hadn’t.
“The Chat Holley closing never should have occurred for several reasons,” the lawsuit alleges.
The document cites in bold letters “the county government already owned some of the property that it purchased.”
The lawsuit states it remains unclear who even hired Miller to conduct the Chat Holley transaction. Gaetz said he believes a great deal of information about the transaction will be revealed through depositions.
Miller disputed many of the allegations made.
He said survey records clearly indicate the county never bought land it already owned.
“They thought they had something they didn’t,” he said of Harris and Gaetz. “I don’t know why they keep repeating it. It’s kind of embarrassing.”
Miller said he was retained by the county the first time Harris sued in 2009 and has been on retainer since.
Miller said there was never a need to disclose to the county who owned the Chat Holley property it was seeking to buy.
“Whoever owned the property, the county wanted to buy it,” he said. “I never went to the board of commissioners to say, ‘Lloyd Blue owns that piece of property.’ It simply wasn’t material.”
Gaetz, however, said he thinks the Chat Holley transaction was plainly illegal.
He said it is possible that some “well-meaning” county commissioners “got duped by George Ralph Miller and Lloyd Blue” but it’s also possible there were county officials well aware of the illegality of their actions.
“Law enforcement should be involved. Crimes have been committed,” Gaetz said. “It shouldn’t always have to be Ms. Harris privately funding the prosecution of government officials who can’t abide by the law.”
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/land-45419-purchase-sued.html