City resumes payments for Chapman's defense

It’s been more than a year since Vice Mayor Susan Chapman was first sued for alleged violations of the state Government in the Sunshine law.

That’s enough time for the city to settle with the plaintiffs and cease paying for her defense in the case, for two new commissioners to join the board and for the new commission to revisit the decision to end the defense of Chapman — the last of which they did Monday evening.

In a 3-1 vote Monday, the City Commission voted to once again take up the defense of Chapman in the lawsuit, brought by the litigious nonprofit group Citizens for Sunshine. The decision hinged on the two new commissioners, Eileen Walsh Normile and Stan Zimmerman, who joined the board in November and reversed the course set by their predecessors.

During his first meeting, Zimmerman suggested the board should reconsider paying for Chapman’s defense, alleging that the commission was leaving a colleague behind. On Monday, he was just as forceful in his belief that Chapman had been wronged based on the merits of the case.

Chapman was named as a defendant in the lawsuit following an October 2013 meeting, during which business leaders and city officials discussed homelessness issues. City Attorney Robert Fournier has said he does not believe Chapman violated the Sunshine Law — she attended the meeting but did not speak at it.

Zimmerman agreed that Citizens for Sunshine was trying to apply the Sunshine Law in a manner in which it was not intended to be used.

“I'm one of the strongest supporters in this room of (open government) laws,” Zimmerman said. “But I'm not one to make up interpretations of the law.”

Since the city stopped paying for Chapman’s defense in March, the vice mayor says the case has been prolonged by canceled and rescheduled depositions, some of which came with no warning to her or her lawyer. Normile pointed to a series of examples — including Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown, who has had three scheduled depositions canceled — as evidence Citizens for Sunshine was not pursuing more transparent government as it claims.

“Dragging the lawsuit out over time doesn’t get you the answers you want, and it doesn’t solve the Sunshine problem,” Normile said.

During the four months that the city did pick up Chapman’s legal fees, the total cost came to $84,861.21. Despite the sentiment of a majority of her colleagues — and more than a dozen speakers, all of whom supported paying for Chapman’s defense — Commissioner Suzanne Atwell dissented from the rest of the board. Atwell, who was named alongside Chapman and the city as a defendant in the original lawsuit, settled with Citizens for Sunshine in 2013.

Although she said she was sympathetic to the arguments presented Monday, she cited fiscal concerns before casting her vote.

“I agree with almost everything said here,” Atwell said. “I still believe the taxpayers should not bear the responsibility of an individual commissioner's quest for justice.”

Contact David Conway at [email protected].