City attorney will demand the Cone of Silence Monday afternoon

St Augustine City Attorney Isabelle Lopez and her trusted sidekick, Assistant City Attorney Denise May, will join City of Jacksonville Beach Attorney Susan Erdelyi, a stockholder in the outside law firm Marks-Gray PA, for an afternoon under the Cone of Silence on Monday, March 14th. Historic City News will be standing by, outside.

Sequestered safely out of the sunshine, the City’s legal eagles will be joined by the City Manager, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and three commissioners when the City Attorney requests the advice of the City Commission regarding five-year-old pending litigation.

A lawsuit brought by Donna and Scott Wendler against the City under the Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act, seeks to recover $3.5 million in damages from the City; suffered when St Augustine city officials refused to issue the proper demolition permit for eight dilapidated rental houses Wendler purchased with intentions to construct a boutique hotel that would have been a replica of the Henry Flagler estate on Valencia Street, bulldozed in the 1960’s.

The “shade meeting” will convene at 4:00 p.m. in the Alcazar Conference Room prior to the regular 5:00 p.m. city commission meeting.

A certified court reporter will take notes which the public and the press cannot access until the lawsuit is settled. Historic City News looks forward to obtaining, very soon, the five-year transcript of foul deeds and deficient legal advice which has already cost city taxpayers more than $100,000. We will publish the non-candy-coated facts as they exist in the public record as soon as they are released.

Should any matter arise that can be decided in the public meeting, that matter will be handled immediately prior to the adjournment.

In the case of DONNA R. WENDLER and SCOTT G. WENDLER, together with WENDLER PROPERTIES III, LLC; Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA, a Florida municipal corporation, Defendant; CA11-1111.