FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval Co. (CTDC) and Curtis Lee, one of its directors and Chair of the Public Employee Compensation Committee, filed an amended complaint on August 23, against the City of Jacksonville, and the Jacksonville Police & Fire Pension Fund (PFPF).

The lawsuit and amended complaint, among other things, allege that all existing agreements between the City and the PFPF, as well as proposed legislation that was presented by former Mayor Peyton and which is still pending before City Council, were negotiated in violation of state labor law, and state Sunshine Law, and are therefore void. The Lawsuit also seeks to enjoin future violations. The agreements at issue provide generous pension benefits to persons employed and formerly employed by the Jacksonville Sheriffs’ Office and the Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department. These pension benefits have been in the news in recent years, as they are very costly to taxpayers, and because the PFPF has approximately a $1 billion funding deficit.

Mr. Lee stated as follows: “The City and PFPF are badly mismanaging the public pensions resulting in huge costs to City taxpayers. Currently, public pensions cost each Jacksonville resident more than $150 per year, and this cost keeps escalating. It is our goal that this lawsuit will assist in causing a fundamental reconsideration of a broken pension system.”

Joe Andrews, Vice President of CTDC adds, “For years the PFPF and City engaged in clandestine negotiations in violation of State Sunshine and Labor laws. The consequence of these illegal agreements is an unsustainable liability to Taxpayers. Had these negotiations been conducted in accordance to the law, it is doubtless that the results would have been more favorable to Taxpayers.”

More information is available from Curtis Lee (594 – 6192) or Robert Dees (357-3660). Additional information is also available on the CTDC website at www.jaxtaxpayers.org

The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, Inc. is a not for profit corporation dedicated to serving the community as a watchdog group, to oppose corruption, waste, and tomfoolery in government.

Paid for by the Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, Inc., P. O. Box 2307, Jacksonville, FL 32202

904-351-8126

www.jaxtaxpayers.org

Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, Inc.,

P. O. Box 2307, Jacksonville, FL 32202

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The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, Inc. (CTDC) and a group of individual citizens announced today that they have filed new counts in their ongoing lawsuit challenging the right of the Jacksonville government to enter into a 19 to 25 year, multi-hundred million dollar, no-bid contract extension with Waste Management to operate the City’s Trail Ridge landfill and future waste disposal technology.

Specifically, they have amended the complaint filed last year against the City of Jacksonville and the City Council to request that the Court declare the passage of Ordinance 2010-217 to be both illegal and void. The several grounds asserted include multiple City and Council violations of Florida’s open government meeting (“Sunshine”) law.

The lawsuit further seeks to protect the public interest by asking the Court to force the City to correct violations of the public records law, which require government and officials to make records available to every citizen for review and copying. The City has failed to create and provide minutes of a public meeting (related to Trail Ridge), and refused to make a Council member’s records of the official business use of his cell phone available to the public.

A press conference will be held at 12:00 noon on Thursday, June 3, 2010, in front of the Jacksonville City Hall, 117 West Duval Street, Jacksonville, Florida, by Victor Wilhelm, President of the CTDC, and John Winkler, lead attorney for the Plaintiffs.

The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, Inc. is a not for profit corporation and nonpartisan political committee dedicated to serving the community as a watchdog group, using public information to oppose corruption, waste, and “Sunshine Law” violations in government. Additional information is available from the author of this press release, immediate past president John Winkler, who can be reached at 904-384-9918.
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PRESS RELEASE
From: Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, Inc.
John Winkler, President and legal counsel
(904) 384-9918 www.jaxtaxpayers.org
April 26, 2009 Jacksonville, Florida

The legality of Mayor Peyton’s efforts to give Waste Management a $750 million City contract without competitive bids was challenged in a lawsuit by a local citizen’s group late Friday. The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, on behalf of all local residents, are requesting a court ruling on whether the Mayor’s proposal for the Trail Ridge landfill can even legally be considered by City Council. John Winkler, President of the CTDC, said his group is unaffiliated with any potential landfill operator. “Our sole purpose is to insure that the City follows the spirit and letter of its own laws on giving out large contracts, ” said Winkler. “City Council must determine both who will run the landfill and how much it will cost the residents for the next thirty years or more. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are at stake, and the process has to be transparent, fair, and free of corporate intimidation of either the public or public officials.”

Winkler explains that the suit asks the court to declare that a vote by City Council to waive the city competitive bidding rules is illegal, as would be entering into the restated contract on Trail Ridge. The CTDC maintains the Mayor’s request to City Council violates local law because the overriding public purpose of the Procurement Code and the contracts it covers make it clear that landfill operations must be bid. The proposed “restated” contract is also unlawful because it contains provisions which could force the City to sell the entire 977 acre Trail Ridge site, together with the newly-purchased City “dirt mine,” to Waste Management without following the City ordinance on land sales.

“The citizens must guarantee City Council is not intimidated by Waste Management’s threats of litigation, amplified by the Mayor, into approving execution of an illegal ‘no-bid’ contract on the landfill,” Winkler reiterated. “Moreover, even a legal contract that could force the City into selling its only landfill site to a private company is irresponsible. The people of Duval County are unwilling to take that risk.”

See filed court documents below.

Complaint For Declaratory And Supplemental Relief

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2 Part 1

Exhibit 2 Part 2

Exhibit 3

Exhibit 4