Community Development District 7 appears ready to hire an independent legal firm after a conflict of interest regarding the Project Wide Advisory Committee.
CDD 7 supervisors on Thursday will take a vote in February about moving to Tallahassee firm Hopping Green & Sams, despite some concern over substantially higher legal fees.
Last year, counsel Mark Brionez of Brionez & Brionez revealed a conflict of interest in a matter involving PWAC, which includes Community Development Districts 5 through 12 and shares infrastructure costs south of County Road 466.
CDD 7 supervisors have been concerned about escalating PWAC costs. PWAC currently consumes 49 percent of CDD 7’s annual budget.
Former CDD 7 Supervisor Ron Ruggeri spoke out at Thursday’s meeting about some nagging PWAC issues.
He pointed out that PWAC expense has grown by 11 percent. Ruggeri also raised concern about PWAC’s blind purchasing of infrastructure from the Developer without an independent engineering inspection.
“The Morse embankment project lasted for 10 years before it started going wrong,” Ruggeri said, raising a sore subject that could wind up costing PWAC more than $1 million to remedy.
Hiring attorney Jennifer Kilinski of Hopping Green & Sams at an hourly rate of $310 would cost more than the $200 rate charged by Brionez & Brionez
However, CDD 7 Chairman Jerry Vicenti said Hopping Green & Sams has a stellar reputation in the state and nationally, having carved out a niche representing special districts.
Kilinski said that having researched CDD 7 and attending the December meeting, it is apparent that a change is needed in its legal representation.
“This District has some issues. You need independent legal representation. I will answer only to the board,” she said.
