1993-03-25 Morell to Cassels •
t ri R-25-9= THU 1 1 :21 Michael Wm. Morel I 904 425:B301 P. 02
MICHAEL WM. MORELL
ATTORNEY AT LAW
310 WEST COLLEGE AvENVE
Ac•4.N.STiA,vE A•.G GO'VLCN.ENTAL LAY/ TALLAHASSEE, rLGRICA 32301-1406 ALSO ADMITTED N. T-E
ENV R=hM E,N'AL Ar,p LAN° RISE LAW Gij Ta i_` C't CCLLwEDA
(90-.) 4c','83G0
(r04) 425•8301 r,CSIMILc
March 25 , 1993
VIA FACSIMILE TRANSMISSION 813/763-1031 and U.S . Mail
John D. Cassels , Jr.
Okeechobee County Attorney
Cassels and McCall
400 N.W. Second Street
P .Q . Box 968
Okeechobee, Florida 34973
FAX 813/763-1031
Re : City of Okeechobee vs . DCA, Respondent and Okeecnooee
County, Intervenor, DOAH Case No . 92-4909GM (Okeechobee
County Comprehensive Plan Compliance Proceedings
Dear John :
The purpose of this letter is to express to you my surprise
and concern that Okeechobee County has not followed through on its
previously expressed commitment to pursue settlement negotiations
in he above-referenced case .
In your January 29 , iSS+ ; letter the County made the following
statements concerning the settlement approach suggested by the City
in its letter to the County dated January 28 , 1993 :
" [T]he approach taken by the City does provide a positive
basis upon which further settlement discussions may
occur. . .At some point, the time and money spent preparing
for an administrative hearing begins to be counter
productive to an attempt to reach a settlement. . [t]he
County is willing to modify its objection to a
continuance of the hearing scheduled for February in
order to allow sufficient time to explore opportunities
to settle the remaining issues . . .as soon as we have been
able to formally obtain the continuance, we will attempt
to schedule a meetinq, . . (Emphasis added. }
Based on the County' s representations made in this letter, the
City, in good faith, agreed to cancel depositions of the County ' s
experts even though it was necessary for the City to incur
considerable expense in serving notice of such depositions by
subpoena. The County also agreed to cancel its previously
scheduled depositions of City Councilmen, which the City had
voluntarily made available so that the County would not need to
incur the expense of service of process .
MAR-25-93 THU 11 :22 Michael Wiii. Morrell 904 42S:3301 P. 03
John Cassels
March 25, 1993
Page Two
After you and I agreed that the City would handle the
drafting, filing and paperwork requesting an agreed upon
continuance so that we could pursue settlement , the City moved
expeditiously and such a continuance was granted by Hearing Officer
Sartin on February 3 , 1993 . In his order the hearing officer
requested that we file a report on or before April 19 , 1993
informing him of our progress and if a final hearing will be
necessary.
When the County did not follow through on its representation
"to schedule a meeting", I telephoned you on or about March 3 ,
1993 . During our conversation on that day you apologized for the
delay in scheduling the meeting, you explained that the delay was
attributable to the County not having sufficient time to coordinate
with its engineers, you agreed that the City and County should
continue to pursue successful settlement in the case, and you
promised to contact City Attorney John Cooks as soon as possible to
schedule a meeting for the City and County' s engineers to examine
the water and sewer maps in greater detail . we agreed that one
additional meeting would be necessary in which I would come to
Okeechobee so that we could finalize the language of a settlement
agreement and present it to our respective clients for their review
and approval in sufficient time to file a successful status report
with the hearing officer on April 19 , 1993 .
After John Cook informed me that you did not contact him to
schedule a meeting, I called your office on or about March 18th and
left a message to have you return my call . When you did not return
my call I spoke with County Planning and Zoning Director Bill Royce
on March 23 , 1993 and urged him to talk to you about scheduling the
agreed upon settlement discussions . Mr. Royce agreed to do so and
also expressed his support for expediting conclusion of these
settlement discussions .
John, I am now concerned that there may be insufficient time
to conclude our negotiations, present the results to our clients
for approval and file an agreed upon status report with the hearing
officer before April 19 , 1993 . There certainly is insufficient
time in which to conduct the two settlement we agreed would be
necessary. The City Council has only one meeting scheduled (April
6 , 1993 ) before the status report is due on April 19th. The next
Council meeting after that will be April 20, 1993 .
John, I assume that the County is still interested in settling
this case and I hope that the repeated delay in the County
scheduling of settlement discussions can somehow be explained in
terms of how busy county officials , staff and their attorneys have
been . However, if I do not hear from you immediately and the City
and County are unable to schedule and conclude at least one
successful settlement discussion meeting, I will have to advise my
MAP-25-93 THU 11 :22 M i ,_ha.e I Wm. Mare I I 904 4258301 P. 04
John Cassels
March 25 , 1993
Page Three
client accordingly in sufficient enough time before the April 19th
deadline in order for the City to file a status report with Hearing
Officer Sartin which fully protects and preserves the City' s
interests . Hopefully this will be unnecessary and the City and
County can continue to file agreed upon status reports to the
hearing officer regarding the status of negotiations and the need
for scheduling further formal proceedings in this matter.
Therefore, it is imperative that we schedule a meeting as soon as
possible if we are to successfully conduct and conclude
negotiations , report to our clients and conclude this litigation in
an intergovernmentally cooperative matter as has been suggested by
the City and previously acknowledged by the County.
Although I will be out of the office from this afternoon at
1 : 00 p .m. until Monday morning, March 29, 1993 (John Cook is also
out of the office until Monday morning) , both John and I look
forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. If our three
schedules can be coordinated I expect to be in Okeechobee sometime
between April 2nd and April 6th and would be willing to conduct
settlement negotiations at that time .
Sincerely,
,11411 . AAW
Michael Wm. Morell
MWM:mm
cc . John Cook, City Attorney (VIA FAX)
Karen Brodeen, DCA Assistant General Counsel (VIA FAX)