10-07-86SpMtg October 7, 1986
A Special Meeting of the City Council of the City of Delray
Beach, Florida, was called to order by Mayor Doak S. Campbell in the
Council Chambers at City Hall at 7:02 P.M., Tuesday, October 7, 1986.
Roll call showed:
Present - Council Member Malcolm T. Bird
Council Member Richard J. Dougherty
Council Member Marie Horenburger
Council Member Jimmy Weatherspoon
Mayor Doak S. Campbell
Absent - None
Also present were - City Manager James L. Pennington and
City Attorney Herbert W.A. Thiele.
Mayor Campbell called the meeting to order and announced that
this meeting has been called for the purpose of (1) ratifying resolution
of Debra Atkins vs City of Delray Beach case.
1. The City Attorney advised Council has been furnished the
agreement in its final version which has been executed this date by the
plaintiff and her attorney. The content of it is as was previously
described to Council and it would be in order for Council to ratify the
acceptance of the settlement agreement.
Mrs. Horenburger moved to ratify the acceptance of the settle-
ment agreement between Debra Atkins and the City of Delray Beach,
seconded by Mr. Weatherspoon. Upon roll call Council voted as follows:
Mr. Bird - Yes; Mr. Dougherty - Yes; Mrs. Horenburger - Yes; Mr.
Weatherspoon - Yes; Mayor Campbell - No. Said motion passed with a 4 to
1 vote.
Before roll call the following discussion was had:
Upon question by Mayor Campbell, the City Attorney stated it is
the consensus of the attorneys on the case that Council ought to adopt
the settlement agreement. Mayor Campbell advised he will have to vote
no; he believed it to be a bad precedent in this type of situation for
the City to be in. He stated he felt in many cases it is the intent of
the petitioner to begin with - not to have a legitimate claim but to
solicit as much funds out of the City as they can. He clarified that
the City Attorney had counselled with Council individually and given his
opinion as to the status of the case.
Mrs. Horenburger stated since Ms. Atkins was apparently unable
to complete the City physical agility test and shortly thereafter the
City discontinued the test, she felt it was appropriate then to settle
the case. She believed if the City is ever going to have an agility
test again, it ought to be in line with the normal person's ability to
do normal things.
Mr. Bird stated that when the day comes that this administra-
tion provides the Council with all the appropriate data to ensure a
successful case, then they will support it; he is not going to support
it until then because the risk on the downside is all out of proportion
to the benefit. It isn't right or wrong, it's perception of jury as to
whether we have been fair and impartial, and when we don't demonstrate
by overwhelming and conclusive evidence that the employee is wrong, then
they have every right to believe that we, the employer, are wrong. Even
if we win the case we are not going to recover from Ms. Atkins the money
that it is going to cost us to prosecute the case. What he wants to
encourage is the administration to make sure that their cases are so
ironclad, so complete and so persuasive that no one will ever challenge
the City in court.
At this point the roll was called to the motion.
Mayor Campbell declared the meeting adjourned at 7:09 P.M.
ity Clerk
ATTEST:
MAYOR
The undersigned is the City Clerk of the City of Delray Beach
and that the information provided herein is the minutes of the meeting
of said City Council of October 7, 1986, which minutes were formally
approved and adopted by the City Council on ~2~. ~ /~F~ ·
NOTE TO READER:
If the minutes that you have received are not completed as indicated
above, then this means that these are not the official minutes of City
Council. They will become the official minutes only after they have
been reviewed and approved which may involve some amendments, additions,
or deletions to the minutes as set forth above.
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