City Commission Regular Meeting

ORIGINAL City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/ 19/2018 1 CITY COUNCIL CLOSED SESSION CITY OF EUSTIS, FLORIDA 2 3 4 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 5 6 SHADE MEETING CONFIDENTIAL AND SEALED 7 SESSION BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS 8 9 10 DATE TAKEN: April 19, 2018 11 TIME: Beginning at 5:15 p.m. Concluding at 5:30p.m. 12 PLACE: City Hall of Eustis 13 10 North Grove Street Eustis, Florida 32727 14 REPORTED BY: Susan L. Davis, F.P.R., 15 and Notary Public, State of Florida at Large 16 17 18 19 * * * * * * * * * * * 20 21 22 23 24 25 First Choice Reporting & Video Services www.firstchoicereporting.com  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04119/2018 Page2 1 BEFORE: 2 3 ROBERT R. MORIN, JR., MAYOR 4 CARLA GNANN-THOMPSON, CITY COMMISSIONER 5 LINDA DURHAM BOB, CITY COMMISSIONER 6 RONALD R. NEIBERT, CITY MANAGER 7 DEREK SCHROTH, ESQ., CITY ATTORNEY 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 First Choice Reporting & Video Services www .firstchoicereporting.com  City Council Closed Session City of El.istis, Florida . .. . . .. Confidential· .CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 · Page3 P R 0 C E E D I N G S . . . 2 MR. SCHROTH: Pursuant. to Section 286.011, 3 are having our closed session . . It's now. open. 4 .There are going to be the following people in attendance: Commissioner Linda Bob, Commissioner 6 Gnann:...Thompson, Manager.RonaldNeibert, and then 7 Mayor Robert Morin, and myself, Derek Schroth. 8 We anticipate the meeting to last about 15 9 minutes. I'm closing the doors now~ 10. (Whereupon, the doors to the meeting room were · 11 closed.) 12 MR. SCHROTH: And just to fill you guys in, I 13 know Linda has been through a few of these, but . 14 whatever you say is transcribed, and it's sealed • 15 And then after the case is over, it's public . 16 record. So even though we are.in a closed room, 17 what you do say will be public at.some point in . 18 time. 19 MAYOR MORIN: Thank you. 20 MR. SCHROTH: You're welcome. 21 So what I have done,· a·Commissioner asked me .. . . . . . . 22 to do this, and I thought it was a very good idea, 23 was to do asset searches on Leigh Ann Pippinand . . . . . . . . .. 24 Mr.· Teems. And. we've done that ·and the outlook· for· 25 · them is very bleak. Just letting you know; eyen First .Choice Reporting & Video Services wWw.firstchoicereporting.com  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page4 1 though they signed a guarantee, they are in 2 trouble. 3 I'll go through it. She's filed bankruptcy 4 twice; once in 1999 and another time in 2009. 5 You're eligible every seven or eight years or so. 6 She would be eligible again. 7 She owes the IRS $39,747 in an !RS lien. She 8 has another IRS lien for $6,781. She has a 9 judgment against her from Leesburg Regional Medical 10 for $5,. 654. Her credit score is 544, and she's 11 $237,000 in debt, not including City debt. 12 Mr. Teems filed bankruptcy in October of 2010, 13 so he's about eligible again. He has several 14 judgments against him and IRS liens. Publix Credit 15 Union, 15,000; another one from the Publix Credit 16 Union, 6,000. A judgment against him from HSBC 17 Bank for over 9000. And then two different IRS 18 liens; one for 21,000, another for 11,000. And 19 he's $90t000 in debt. 20 So if we decide to pursue them, I do not think 21 we are going to see any money on the personal 22 guarantee aspect. 23 MAYOR MORIN: Right. Right. 24 COMMISSIONER BOB: Did you happen to -- there 25 is rumors that there is a home that was purchased First Choice Reporting & Video Services www.firstchoicereporting.com  City Council Closed Session CityofEustis, Florida . . . Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 PageS 1 in Port Orange, Florida. Do you know anything 2 about that? 3 MR. SCHROTH: I don't. What I do know though; 4 is they musthave a bank account in someone elf:le's 5 name, because all they have· is an Insight Financial 6 Credit Union balance of less than $5. 7 So they are obviously doing business through 8 an account under someone elSe's name most likely, 9 but I haven't found out anything about Port Orange. · 10 COMMISSIONER BOB: I have gotten a tip that 11 they have got a young adult child. I don't know if 12 it's his child or her child·or their child, but 13 that could be a possibility for some of their 14 transactions. 15 MR. SCHROTH: So the purpose of this meeting 16 · was to discuss, outside a public meeting, do we .. ·. 17 want to make them any kind of offer to deed the 18 property to us, or do we want to just proceed with 19 the foreclosure. 20 MR. NEIBERT: As of right now, we have 21 expended about $4,000 in·legal fees doing research . . . 22 and pursuing th.e foreclosure preparation·document.s. 23 MR.· SCHROTH: · we have already sued them. 24 MR. NEIBERT: Yeah, we have already filed. ·· · ·25 Derek has done a lot of research through the legal First Choice Reporting & Video Services wWw.firstchoicereporting,com·  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida . Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF.EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 · Page6 1 filings to get the foreclosure process going, which 2 allows this to be an executive session here. 3 You know, is it going to cost us 15, 20, 4 $25,000 in a foreclosure, Derek? Yes, no? 5 MR. SCHROTH: Normally it shouldn't, but what 6 I'm seeing here causes me some concern, because 7 they could file for bankruptcy. They've done it 8 many -- they've done it before and so we would have 9 to go to the Federal court to seek what's called a 10 relief from the bankruptcy stay. That's expensive 11 and time consuming. 12 And also, if they are used to avoiding 13 creditors, there are certain things they can do to 14 delay the proceedings by filing motions and 15 requests and so it's possible that it could. 16 Normally it should not be $15,000 to foreclose. 17 And then you also have the time. If they are 18 good at delaying the proceedings, they could 19 stretch this out for about a year; and add a 20 bankruptcy to it, another 90, 180 days. 21 MAYOR MORIN: Are we the first lienholder on 22 the house? Are we the primary? 23 MR. SCHROTH: We're the -- yes, yes. We did 24 the search before. 25 MAYOR MORIN: Okay. First Choice Reporting & Video Services www.firstchoicereporting.com  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida . .. . Confidentil).l CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/20!8 Page7 MR. NEIBERT: There's tax liens ort i t or -- MR. SCHROTH: The taxes are, or real estate taxes are due. MR. NEIBERT: Yeah. MAYOR MORIN: That's the 2400 -- or the 4800, or 3400 in taxes? I think it's two years, I think i t was. COMMISSIONER GNANN.,.THOMPSON: But don't we 9 still own that property? 10 MR. NEIBERT: No. The deed is in their name. 11 We hold a mortgage on the property, so they would 12 have to sign a deed to deed the property to us. 13 COMMISSIONER BOB: And that's why we actually 14 talked about the deed irt lieu of originally, but 15 the only problem, and this is what my concern was, 16 is when you sign a deed in lieu of, it really mearts 17 that there are some things that's going on in your 18 life. 19 And all of that stuff, the bankruptcy, the 20 this, the that, those are all things going on in 21 their life. So we, so whenever we accept it, what 22 we are saying is that we acknowledge that 23 financially things iri your li:Ee artd stuff is upside 24 down. 25 MR. NEIBERT: Now,• We Sold the buildirtg to FirstChoice Reporting& Video Services www.frrstchoicereportirig.com  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page 8 1 them for a price of a little under $185,000. They 2 made one payment of a little under $37,000, so we 3 are holding $37,000 of what we have. 4 Obviously, if we get the property again 1 our 5 goal is to sell it. So I feel we could easily get 6 between 150 and 180 for the building. So the 7 question is 1 is anything we keep from them on this 8 principal that they have paid, is money ahead of 9 the game. 10 So, in my opinion, we have got some money to 11 play with, because we are going to recover our 12 costs in a subsequent sale, our investment in the 13 building. 14 COMMISSIONER GNANN-THOMPSON: Right. 15 MR. NEIBERT: So the question is how much do 16 we want to negotiate with them, and give us the 17 deed, and we'll give you $5,000 or we'll give you 18 $10,000 back. Keeping in mind we have already got 19 $4,000 invested in trying to reacquire the 20 property. 21 MR. SCHROTH: And I've looked up the taxes. 22 You're going to have over $4,000 to the County, but 23 th~ City will get a portion of that back. 24 MR. NEIBERT: Yeah. We '·11 get about a third 25 of that general fund back. First Choice Reporting & Video Services www .frrstchoicereporting.com  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page9 1 COMMISSIONER GNANN-THOMPSON: I don't think 2 they would take anything less than 10, but I 3 wouldn't offer them any more than 10, but I could 4 see saving us the legal fees by giving it a try. 5 If they turn us down, we can always say forget 6 this, we'll see you in court. 7 MAYOR MORIN: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER GNANN-THOMPSON: But ... 9 MR. NEIBERT: And the question is, do you want 10 to give either Derek or I the authority to offer up 11 to a certain amount to get the deed in lieu of 12 foreclosure? Do you want to make that up to 15? 13 And obviously we'll -- 14 COMMISSIONER BOB: Now, you said that you had 15 input from Sabatini, so what was that? 16 MR. NEIBERT: Sabatini did not give me a 17 dollar amount, but he said he is in favor of moving 18 with negotiating a settlement. 19 COMMISSIONER BOB: And I guess how I 20 personally feel is 7 to 10,000, definitely no more 21 than 10. 22 MR. NEIBERT: Mayor? 23 MAYOR MORIN: I think the same way. I'm going 24 along with both of you. I think the 10,000. 25 Just in case we are able to settle, can we First Choice Reporting & Video Services www.firstchoicereporting.com  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page 10 1 give him a little bit more leeway? 2 COMMISSIONER GNANN-THOMPSON: Up to 15. 3 MAYOR MORIN: Up to 15, just in case? I think 4 the long term here, the City would do much better 5 if we didn't have to go through a foreclosure. The 6 building would be available sooner, and we talked 7 about it in our Commission meeting. 8 So give him the leeway he wants to start at 9 the maximum of 10, but something in his pocket that 10 says 11 MR. NEIEERT: Well, you're going to give me an 12 authorized limit, or Derek, and we'll try to get it 13 as low as possible. 14 COMMISSIONER GNANN-THOMPSON: We are still 15 ahead by half if we go to 15. We still -- so, you 16 know, to get out of it ... 17 COMMISSIONER BOB: Let me ask you this, 18 because this is, I guess, always a thought on my 19 mind: Is the building insured? 20 MR. NEIBERT: It is now. We've covered it. 21 MR. SCHROTH: Good question. They didn't have 22 insurance. 23 COMMISSIONER BOB: Right. Right. Yeah, I 24 mean, I guess I want them to be a part of our past, 25 because it really should never have happened. First Choice Reporting & Video Services www.firstchoicereporting.com  . . . . City Council Closed Session City of Eustis. Florida ..... . ... · . .. .. . .Confidential · CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page 11 ·.1 MR. SCHROTH: I remember. . .. . . . . .. 2 MAYOR MQRIN: Well, I'm okay with the 10,000 3 if you want to stick with that. I'm :just offering 4 another one just in case, Derek. COMMISSIONER GNANN-THOMPSON:·· I thirikwe·need 6 to -- when you negotiate, .I would like to say no 7 more than 10, bU:t :t could see a leeway of jU:st 8 5, 000 more just in case. 9 MR. NEIBERT: Well, then you: have to give us 10 an amount.· 11 COMMISSIONER-GNANN~THOMPSON: . Okay~ 15. 12 MAYOR MORIN: I'd go with 15 too. 13. Are you okay, or are.youstil1 -- 14 COMMISSIONER BOB: I would do 15 15 COMMISSIONER GNANN-THOMPSON: No more .. 16 COMMISSIONER BOB: . •-- but no more .. · 17 MAYOR.MORIN: Same here. We'd get half of·our is down payment back, or their down payment back~ or 19 the first payment. 20 MR. NEIBERT: Correct . 21 . COMMISSIONER BOB: I just want them out of our 22 lives.· So, basically, yeah. 23 MAYOR MORIN: I agree; And cah we have you do it? 25 MR. NEIBERT: You can have whomever you .want First Choice Reporting & Video Services . www.firstchoid:reporting.com · · ·  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page 12 1 to. 2 MAYOR MORIN: I'm sorry. It doesn't cost us 3 anything if we have you do it, right? 4 MR. NEIBERT: No. I mean. ~. 5 MR. SCHROTH: I would do it in writing though. 6 I wouldn't communicate with them. 7 MR. NEIBERT: So you don't want to do it in a 8 one-on-one meeting? You wouldn't do that? 9 MR. SCHROTH: No. No, because what they could 10 do 11 COMMISSIONER BOB: So the both of you guys can 12 negotiate and talk to them. 13 MR. SCHROTH: Yeah, or Ron can email them or 14 even Tom can. 15 But the problem with meeting them is they 16 could say, oh, we met with the City Manager, he 17 said we could stay there six more months and 18 COMMISSIONER BOB: I like to use handwriting. 19 I use writing a lot. 20 MR. NEIBERT: Well, then let's have Derek do 21 it. Since he's done all the correspondence, then 22 let's have Derek do it. 23 MAYOR MORIN: Let's have Derek do it. 24 MR. SCHROTH: And it's not the money 25 necessarily, but it's the time. It could be a First Choice Reporting & Video Services www.frrstchoicereportirig.corri  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida . . CITY COUNCIL OF THETOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE . MEETING .on 04119/2018 1 year, soyour point is well taken . . Yeah, if we 2 could get them out riow. And I'll put a timeframe 3 on it; ten days, give us an answer.· We won't have· 4 a problem wi:th that. 5 We're going to have to update the title search 6 to make sure they haven't incurred any debts in the 7 LLC's name -- 8 COMMISSIONER BOB: Xeah .. ·Yeah. 9 MR. SCHROTH: -- to make sure there aren't ariy 10 liens attached. 11 MAYOR MORIN: I thinkwhat CommissionerBob 12 heard is the same thing I.heard.too, that the 13 property in Port Orange is another name too, so. 14 MR. SCHROTH: Under a different name?. . . . 15 MAYOR MORIN: A different name, yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER BOB: I was toldthat there's a . . . 17 home in this area. I was told that there is a 18 young adult child and that a lot of things are 19 being transferred in that name. Now, ·I never asked 20 who she was, but she's a young adult. 21 MAYOR MORIN: Now, what ' s 22 MR. NEIBERT: Well, they can't, they can't 23 transfer the building to her name.· 24 COMMISSIONER BOB: No. 25 MR. NEIBERT: The only thing theycoulddo is First Choice Reporting & Video Services www.firstchoicereporting.com  City CoUncil Closed SessionCity of Eustis, Florida . . .. . . . .. Confidential · · CITY COUNCILOFTHETOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page 14 1 "sell" the corporation. to her and the asset .of the corporation would be the building. 3 COMMISSIONER BOB: .Right. 4 MR. NEIBERT: So, no, they can 1 t sell the . . . 5 building, because they would have to release the .. . . . . . .. 6. · mortgage. · And they can 1 t assign the mortgage to ·her or the sales contract without our permission, 8 soi 1m not worried about anything related tothat. 9 MAYOR.MORIN: I thirik;.theother thirig is what 10. would their ne:x:t move be if they know they can move . . . . . . . . 11• us or get us. to give them back half of their, let 1 s 12 say $15,000, let 1 s just say .for ~- what .would be .·. 13 their next move? Would they hold off-'"" 14 MR~ NEIBERT: There would be -- Derek would . 15 send them an agreement . .. He would get a w:r::itten confirmation that they accept the offer.· He would 17 sign a -:- 18 MAYOR MORIN: No, I know that part,·butwhat 19 would they come back with, do you think? Do you 20 think they would come back, well, weive·got the . 21 City moving. · We might want to · get 2 0, 00 0 • 22 MR. SCHROTH: .. They might .. · They might. 23 MR. NEIBERT: And they came in and said they· . . . . . . 24 wanted all their money back, their principal, their ··25 interest payments I · their insurance I their water · ... .' . . . ... . · Fifst Ghoice Reporting & Video Services · · \VWw.first(:hoicereportirig,com •  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page 15 1 bills, so. 2 MR. SCHROTH: Uh-huh. I mean, I'll start low. 3 I'll probably start at 7,000 and see what they come 4 back and try to get it below the 15. 5 MAYOR MORIN: Okay. Ahd I, just for the 6 record, I want to make sure if we get involved in 7 these kind of projects in the futtire that we also 8 check assets. 9 COMMISSIONER GNANN-THOMPSON: That should have 10 been checked prior. 11 MAYOR MORIN: Yeah, that should have been 12 checked before. 13 COMMISSIONER BOB: Right, but this is what 14 happens when one Commissioner is friends with 15 someone. 16 MAYOR MORIN: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER BOB: We end up in situations. 18 That's why I don't -- people get angry with me, but 19 usually if somebody asks me something, my first 20 answer is no, because I'm not going to deal with 21 it. 22 But anytime you have got a friend in the seat, 23 and they manipulate things so that it's in their 24 friend's favor, that is always an issue. 25 MAYOR MORIN: My thought though is, I've never First Choice Reporting & Video Services www.firstchoicereporting.com  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page 16 1 heard of this. This is the first time I'm hearing 2 the assets and how -- how much they are in debt and 3 the actual liens to the IRS. That should have 4 showed up some years ago, even when we did the 5 initial sale. 6 And I understand the friendship, btit I think 7 we'· as Commissioners, need to make sure that as we 8 do -- 9 MR. NEIBERT: Well, ourintention moving 10 forward is not to sell/finance. We sell it, we get 11 a check, we move on, so. 12 MAYOR MORIN: All right. That needs to just 13 be in there too, because I think that's _:_ once 14 it's 15 COMMISSIONER GNANN-THOMPSON: I think we also 16 learn by mistakes. 17 MAYOR MORIN: Uh-huh. And yet, we are still 18 on the plus side. 19 COMMISSIONER GNANN-THOMPSON: Yes, we are. 20 MR. NEIBERT: Well, we are not done yet. 21 MAYOR MORIN: Well, at this point. What do 22 you mean? 23 MR. NEIBERT: They haven't accepted anything. 24 MAYOR MORIN: Oh, yeah. Right, right. The 25 offer at least gives us a plus though. Okay. First Choice Reporting & Video Services www.firstchoicereporting.com  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page 17 1 MR. SCHROTH: Understood. 2 COMMISSIONER BOB: And I just want to say for 3 the record, that it is important that, as we talk 4 about things, and we are corning up with our plan 5 that it doesn't leak, because I have found that it 6 leaks. And I think that we need to understand that 7 we are not supposed to leak information. 8 MR. SCHROTH: Yes. This proceeding is 9 confidential and it's privileged. 10 COMMISSIONER GNANN-THOMPSON: I have no 11 problems keeping my mouth shut. 12 MAYOR MORIN: Can you actually talk with 13 Commissioner -- Vice Mayor Aliberti about the 14 proceedings? 15 MR. SCHROTH: Yeah. 16 MAYOR MORIN: You can talk to her about what 17 happened, so she'll know? 18 MR. SCHROTH: If she asks, sure. 19 MR. NEIBERT: If she asks. Yeah, she has the 20 right to have the information as a member of the 21 body. 22 MR. SCHROTH: Yeah. Only the Commission, me, 23 and Ron, that's it. 24 MAYOR MORIN: And Commissioner Sabatini is on 25 the same page as we are all on. First Choice Reporting & Video Services www.firstchoicereporting.com  City Council Closed Session City of Eustis, Florida . Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF EUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page 18 1 MR. NEIBERT: He didn't give mea dollar 2 number, but he's definitely in favor of trying to settle it. 4 MAYOR MORIN: It sounds like. it makes the most 5 sense at this point, so I'm okay~ 6 MR. SCHROTH: Understood. 7 MAYOR MORIN:· Thank you. 8 MR, SCHROTH: YeS, E:;ir. 9 MAYOR MORIN: Thank you, Susan. 10 THE COURT REPORTER: Thank you. 11 MR. NEIBERT: Is theremotions that need to be 12 made to close the ... 13 MR. SCHROTH: No. I've got to open the doors 14 and then announce that we are done. . . 15 All right. Our doors are open. Our meeting 16 is adjourned. 17 MAYOR MORIN.: Thank you. 18 (The proceedings were concluded at 5:30 ,p.m.) 19 20 21 22 . 23 24 25 .· . . First Choice Reporting & Video Services www.firstchoieereportilig.com · · · ·  City Council Closed Session City ofEu8tis, Florida · . . . . . . .. .Confidential CITY COUNCIL OF THETOWNOFEUSTIS SHADE MEETING on 04/19/2018 Page 19 .1 CE R T IF I CAT E: 2 STATE OF FLORIDA: 3 COUNTY OF LAKE: 4 I, SUSAN.L. DAVIS, Flor;i:.da.Profess;i:.orial . Reporter and Notary Public State Florida at Large I . . I . of ·certifythati was authorized to and did repo~tthe 6 foregoing proceedings,.and that the transcript, Pages3 through 18, is a true and. correct record of my. .7 · stenographic notes. · ·· 8 I further certify that I am not a relative, employee, attorrieyj or counsel of any of the parties' 9 attorneys or counsel connected with the action,· ncir ami financially interested in the action. · 10 ., . . . DATED this 28th day of April,. 2018. 11 13 14 SUSAN L. DAVIS, FLORIDA.PROFESSIONAL REPORTER AND NOTARY. PUBLIC 15 MY COMMISSION #FF 165339 EXPIRES : DECEMBER 12 2 018 I 16 . BONDED THRU NOTARY PUBLIC . . · UNDERWRITERS 17 18 19 ·2o· 21 22 23 24 25 . . . .. . . First C)Joice Reporting & Video Services . . · · · wwWJirstr;hoicereporting.com · · · Approved by Eustis City Commission this 2nd day of August, 2018. City Clerk ~ R ERT R. MORIN, JR. Mayor/Commissioner City of Eustis Shade Meeting held April 19, 2018