Apopka City Council
rejects a settlement agreement that would have ended the city’s legal scrum with consultant Richard Anderson.
The Apopka City Council narrowly rejected a settlement agreement Wednesday that would have ended the city’s legal scrum with Richard Anderson and paid him $60,000. The council voted 3-2 against the agreement, with Commissioners Doug Bankson and Billie Dean preferring to pay Anderson and Mayor Joe Kilsheimer and Commissioners Kyle Becker and Diane Velazquez saying no.
The council voted last year to end its personal-services contracts with Anderson, 62, after a seriousinjury accident involving his Dodge Ram pickup in nearby Lake County that led to criminal hit-and-run charges.
The contracts with Anderson, approved in 2014, paid him $22,000 a month to be the city’s lobbyist and a consultant on development projects, including the new city center and the relocation of Florida Hospital Apopka.
After the city fired Anderson, he and the city sued each other in circuit court, leading to a courtordered mediation last month. The negotiations produced the proposed settlement but required the council’s approval.
According to a document included in the Apopka City Council’s meeting packet, the city’s representatives agreed to the terms of the settlement to “avoid the inherent risks and expenses associated with proceeding to trial.”
Though Kilsheimer was on the mediation team, he voted against the deal Wednesday. He offered no explanation for his vote.
Anderson worked for the city for 42 years as a firefighter, paramedic, fire chief and administrator. He left with two city pensions totaling $9,646 a month and a lump-sum payment of $346,665 for unused vacation time, personal days and sick time.
Anderson, a licensed paramedic at the time of the crash, pleaded no contest in April to leaving the scene of an accident with serious injury — without rendering medical aid or calling 911. Though he was charged as if he was driving his pickup, that point remained unproven.
The City Council’s rejection of the deal returns Apopka’s lawsuit and Anderson’s counter-suit to the trial docket.