DiSabatino Accepts County Settlement Offer on Legal Fees

Posted Friday, April 7, 2017 12:00 am

Staff Report

BRADENTON – It looks like the never-ending saga between the Manatee County Attorney’s Office and County Commissioner Robin DiSabatino may finally come to an end. The commissioner, who was seeking legal fees for a suit brought against her by a notorious law firm that specializes in public records lawsuits, announced yesterday that she would accept an offer made by the office and supported by the BOCC.

Michael Barfield, who has made a small fortune suing local governments and office holders for legal fees when he claims they have violated Florida's government in the sunshine public record laws, filed a suit against DiSabatino and the county in 2013. After initially acting as the commissioner's attorney, the county attorney's office later informed DiSabatino that they would not be representing her and that she would have to retain outside counsel–but not before giving a copy of the commissioner's personal hard drive to Barfield (an ex-con with 68 felonies on his record) in what emails showed to be a quid pro quo exchange in which Barfield would drop the county from his suit.

DiSabatino eventually settled with Barfield, asking the county to reimburse her for her legal fees, which were just over $20,000 at the time. The county attorney’s office balked, and the board never took a vote, prompting the commissioner to file suit. County Commissioner Charles Smith made a motion at the time to hire outside counsel in order to get a recommendation, as the county attorney's office had a potential conflict of interest. DiSabatino supported an outside opinion and said she would have followed it. The motion went nowhere.

At Tuesday's meeting, the county attorney's office advised the BOCC that they recommended a $30,000 settlement offer–but failed to inform the board that they had made DiSabatino a $16,000 offer over the weekend that was rebuked, with the commissioner countering that she wanted her full legal fees reimbursed, which had grown to over $50,000 by that time. At a land use meeting Thursday, Commissioner Smith brought up the fact that the attorney's office had not informed the BOCC of those details on Tuesday.

After the meeting, DiSabatino announced in a public statement that, in the interest of taxpayers, she would settle with the county for the $30,000, even though her legal fees were now approaching $60,000, after additional hearings on the matter this week.

"I think that the county attorney, his office and this board have wasted enough of the taxpayers' money on this matter," said DiSabatino. "I don't think that this is a just outcome. It certainly doesn't make me whole, and they obviously could have saved a lot of time and taxpayer money by ending this earlier. I just can't in good conscience allow them to keep wasting my constituents' tax money, which they seem more than willing to do."

The settlement will require DiSabatino to drop another suit that dealt with the release of her personal information to a private citizen, a suit in which taxpayers could have been on the hook for hundreds of thousands or even millions of additional dollars.

"I'm willing to end this, because I do not want the taxpayers to have to continue to pay for other people's mistakes. In my opinion, County Attorney Mitchell Palmer, his office and former deputy county attorney (Rob) Eschenfelder violated my trust, the trust of the public, and divided this board. I was willing to settle on these fees a long time ago when it would have cost far less. I was also willing to abide by the decision of an independent counsel. I would have even split the cost. This did not have to drag on this long and cost the taxpayers this much money," said the commissioner.

When asked about dropping the potentially bigger case, DiSabatino again said she had no interest in benefiting at the expense of her constituents just because the county attorney's office had failed them.

"I might get a lot more if I were to continue in my suit over the release of my personal information, but I was not elected to waste taxpayer money, and I have no interest in punishing my constituents in this matter. In fact, I wish they were able to sue the county attorney's office to get back all of the money they've wasted and, in my opinion, I think the county attorney needs to be held accountable for this matter. Frankly, I think it's time for him to go."