Lyon v. Lake County

Citation765 So.2d 785
Decision Date28 July 2000
Docket NumberNo. 5D99-1371.,5D99-1371.
PartiesRodney LYON, Appellant, v. LAKE COUNTY, etc., et al., Appellees.
CourtCourt of Appeal of Florida (US)

Jonathan D. Kaney, Jr., and Jonathan D. Kaney, III, of Cobb, Cole & Bell, P.A., Daytona Beach, and Edward P. Jordan, III, of Edward P. Jordan, II, P.A., Clermont, for Appellant.

Henry W. Jewett, II, of Rissman, Weisberg, Barrett, Hurt, Donahue & McLain, P.A., Orlando, for Appellees.

THOMPSON, C.J.

Rodney Lyon appeals a judgment rendered after a bench trial as to the first count of his second amended complaint, which concerned alleged sunshine law violations, and the adverse summary judgment entered as to the second count of that complaint, which asked for injunctive relief and damages. We affirm.

The case arose over a dispute regarding Lyon's property on U.S. Highway 27 in Lake County. On March 8, 1995, a Lake County employee, Mike Carter, made a complaint to the County that Lyon's property was being excavated without a permit. In April 1995, James Barker, Director of Lake County's Environmental Management Division, mailed a notice of violation to Lyon notifying him that this development violated the County's Land Development Regulations. Paula Blazer, the County's environmental program branch supervisor, and Jay Sargent, planner III and zoning supervisor, met with Lyon and Lyon's father. Blazer and Sargent advised the Lyons as to how the violation could be resolved, including advising them to submit a site plan to the County.

On August 7, 1995, Lyon applied to the Florida Department of Transportation for a temporary connection permit (a driveway) for his property. On August 21, 1995, the temporary connection permit was granted. On September 11, 1995, Leslie Campione, Lyon's attorney at the time, sent a letter to Greg Stubbs, Director of Development and Regulation Services for the County, enclosing a sketch of Lyon's property. This sketch was not accompanied by an application for site plan review and was not accompanied by the appropriate fee for a site plan review.

On September 20, 1995, a pre-Technical Review Committee meeting was held in Lake County. The Technical Review Committee (TRC) was created by the Lake County Commission. The TRC's function is described in the Lake County Code:

13.05.00 Technical Review Committee
13.05.01 Membership. The Technical Review Committee is comprised of the following: County Manager or designee(s), Lake County Sheriff, School District of Lake County, Water Authority, Lake County Health Department, Public Utilities and other representatives deemed appropriate by the County Manager or designee.
13.05.02 Powers and Duties. The Technical Review Committee is advisory to the County Manager or designee in the following:
Preliminary Subdivision Plats Planned Unit Developments MUQD's DRI's FQD's Comprehensive Plan Amendments Conditional Use Permits Rezoning Site Plans Master Park Plans [sic].
The Technical Review Committee shall meet weekly the first four (4) Thursdays of each month.

A pre-TRC meeting, on the other hand, was not created by Lake County ordinance or any other official law. A pre-TRC meeting, according to the trial court's partial final judgment, was an "informal ... meeting attended only by County staff members."

Attendance at these pre-TRC meetings varied, but Farrel, Carter, Sargent, Bechtel and Pluta attended the September 20 meeting. No official action was taken or decision made at this meeting as to Lyon's property, although his property was discussed. This meeting is the first of three different meetings Lyon in the first count of his complaint alleges violated the sunshine law, as codified at Section 286.011, Florida Statutes.1 On September 21, 1995, the Environmental Protection Board notified Lyon that the Environmental Protection Board complaint, concerning the excavation without a permit, had been dismissed.

The second meeting Lyon contends violated the sunshine law took place on October 4, 1995. This meeting, another pre-TRC meeting, was attended by Bechtel, Pluta, Tom Gutting on behalf of the Health Department, and possibly others. Little evidence was presented regarding what actually took place at this meeting. The trial court found that there was:

no evidence presented at trial other than Ms. Bechtel's notes (plaintiff's Exhibit "28") which established that the plaintiff's property was discussed at this meeting. None of the reported participants in that meeting, such as Mr. Gutting, Mr. Pluta, or Ms Bechtel, recalled the plaintiffs property being discussed.
Additionally, the Court finds by the greater weight of the evidence that the October 4, 1995, meeting was an informal pre-TRC meeting involving only staff. Moreover, the greater weight of the evidence shows that any discussions of the plaintiff's property would have been purely informational. See Mr. Pluta's October 5, 1995, memorandum (plaintiffs Exhibit "10").
The Court also finds that since the plaintiff still had not triggered the development review process as of October 4, 1995, by submitting the proper site plan and the appropriate fees, there was no official action which could have been taken at the October 4, 1995, meeting.

The day after this meeting, Pluta wrote a memorandum to Stubbs regarding Lyon's property, pointing out that Lyon was still going to have to submit a site plan regarding his intentions with his property. This memo also was sent to Campione.

On December 21, 1995, Alan Hewitt, a County Water Resource Specialist, inspected Lyon's property. This led to another notice from Environmental Management to Lyon regarding Lyon's violations of the County Land Development Regulations in the use of his land. Between that date and March 1996, the record reveals that Lyon met with Lake County Environmental Management, the County Attorney, County Public Services and an employee of the Florida Department of Transportation. Lyon was told he could restore his site to its original elevations, request a variance to the mining regulations, submit a site plan after the fact, or submit a mining site plan after the fact; he was also advised to cease all excavating and mining activities. Thereafter, on March 14, 1996, Lyon filed his first complaint in this instant action.

Sometime in early July 1996, Lyon, through his second attorney Edward Jordan, submitted a "revised" site plan dated July 5, 1996 to Assistant County Attorney Bruce Duncan, who submitted it to the TRC for review. By this time, the County was apparently calling the TRC by its new name, "Development Review Staff' (DRS)—however, the name did not officially change in Lake County's code until September 1996. County Attorney Sanford Minkoff advised Jordan that the site plan would be reviewed on July 11, 1996 by the TRC/DRS, and gave him an opportunity to ask for the matter to be continued to another day. This meeting had been advertised as a DRS meeting in the Lake Sentinel newspaper on June 27, 1996. Minkoff testified that Jordan did not object to this review taking place, and in fact the site plan was approved at the July 11 TRC/DRS meeting. This is the third meeting Lyon complains violated Florida's sunshine law; the trial judge ruled that this meeting did not have to be held in the sunshine, either.

Florida's sunshine law, section 286.0112, provides a right of access to governmental proceedings. Section 286.011, in relevant part, states:

(1) All meetings of any board or commission of any state agency or authority or of any agency or authority of any county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision, except as otherwise provided in the Constitution, at which official acts are to be taken are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all times, and no resolution, rule, or formal action shall be considered binding except as taken or made at such meeting. The board or commission must provide reasonable notice of all such meetings.
(2) The minutes of a meeting of any such board or commission of any such state agency or authority shall be promptly recorded, and such records shall be open to public inspection. The circuit courts of this state shall have jurisdiction to enforce the purposes of this section upon application by any citizen of this state.

There was no evidence presented by Lyon to suggest that the individuals who attended the September 20, 1995, and October 4, 1995 pre-TRC meetings had any decision-making authority during those meetings. Rather, the evidence developed at trial pointed to the conclusion that the pre-TRC meetings were informational meetings where Lyon's property was addressed but no formal action was taken or even could have been taken.

An exception to the applicability of the sunshine law to advisory committees has been recognized for committees related to fact-finding only. When a committee has been established for and conducts only information gathering and reporting, the activities of that committee are not subject to section 286.011, Florida Statutes. See Cape Publications, Inc. v. City of Palm Bay, 473 So.2d 222 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985)

; accord, Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 95-06 (1995)(when a group, on behalf of a public entity, acts solely as a fact-finder or information gatherer with no decision-making authority, no board or commission subject to the sunshine law is created). Because the first two meetings were merely informational, the formalities attending to meetings in the sunshine were not required. Lyon had the burden of proof to establish by the greater weight of the evidence that a meeting which should have been held in the sunshine had taken place on these dates. He failed to carry that burden.3

The trial court's ruling as to the September 20, 1995, and October 4, 1995 pre-TRC meetings as related to Lyon's claim in Count One of his Second Amended Complaint is supported by competent substantial evidence. Based on those findings, the trial judge also made the correct...

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