The Sunshine Law Battles of a Man and his Dachshund

By Fane Lozman

www.rbslime.com

The Old Man And The Sea, the classic Hemingway novel of a man and his fight against a giant fish he grew to respect, is the antithesis of my own battles against a massive bureaucracy determined to fight at all costs.

When I moved my floating home in March 2006 to the city of Riviera Beach Marina, I was immediately embroiled in a battle to preserve the marina for public use. No sooner had I pulled up to my dock, I learned that the marina was part of a land grab orchestrated by elected officials, which included the taking of 5,000 homes and businesses located along the water. The beneficiary of this land transfer was Viking Yachts. Viking intended to use the land for a billion dollar redevelopment benefiting society's upper class. The city’s belief that only the “rich” should live by the water was manifested in the council’s obsession with intimidating and harassing anyone who tried to stand in its way. I realized that to fight back, the public needed to be informed and the Sunshine Law was the vehicle for doing so.

Florida’s Sunshine Laws requires that city meetings be open to the public after providing reasonable notice of such meetings. As is too often the norm, elected officials try to avoid criticism that could damage their carefully cultivated image, and the council did the same in this instance by giving one day’s notice before the most important meeting in Riviera Beach’s history. This May 10 meeting occurred, few people were aware of it, and the council signed off on a contract that started the seizure of private property for Vikings’ benefit. The council had intentionally rushed to hold the meeting because the next day, Gov. Jeb Bush signed a law banning the use of eminent domain for private gain.

The city police physically barred me from attending the meeting, for public criticism is frowned upon by the council and those who engage in such criticism are retaliated against, using the taxpayers’ resources. On June 7, 2006, I brought an action to nullify the contract with Viking, which was signed at the improperly noticed meeting. After more than a dozen “visits” by the police while walking my pet dachshund, accompanied by constant threats of arrest, the city failed to intimidate me into stopping my opposition to its eminent domain action. This scheme to intimidate was even discussed in an executive session of the council and documented in a transcript. The council’s arrogance was further manifested in its decision to hire a private investigator to shadow me to determine why Gov. Bush was supporting my lawsuit.

Soon after filing my case, the city abandoned its attempts to thwart the new eminent domain law but not without retaliation. At the meeting when the city reluctantly decided to forgo its land grab, I was arrested during my public comments, solely because of my criticism of the council. This was not the council’s only attempted retaliation against me for the exercise of my First Amendment rights. The city also tried to illegally evict me from the marina, a battle the City lost when a jury ruled in my favor in March 2007 after finding that the eviction was politically motivated.

The city’s most recent tactic to thwart public discourse is either to ignore my public records requests or charge exorbitant rates to obtain them. These records will reveal a new scheme by the city to give the marina to Viking. Only another legal battle will compel the council members to abide by the very laws they swore to uphold.

On April 20, 2009, federal marshals broke down the door to my floating home and it was immediately towed 80 miles to Miami. The city had filed a false verified complaint in federal court alleging that I owed one month rent, conveniently omitting that it had returned my recent rental check and that I had already won the state eviction action. After a 10-month battle, District Judge William Dimitrouleas ordered my floating home sold at auction, even though federal admiralty court has never had jurisdiction over what has always been a state court action. The city immediately purchased my home (with all my furniture) and is in the process of destroying it. I have filed an appeal with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, yet a win will not get me my floating home back, just damages.

The final chapter of my personal battle to uphold the Sunshine Law is not yet written. We will have to see if the analogy between the Old Man’s battle to conquer a giant marlin after a protracted and heroic struggle, and my crusade to defeat a City that continues to smugly flout the Sunshine Law, holds true.

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