South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Taxpayers foot bill in battle over report
School Board members wind up unsuccessful in keeping information secret, finishing terms
Two former Broward School Board members have spent $120,000 in taxpayer dollars for legal fees to try to quash a statewide grand jury report that called for their removal from office.
Ann Murray and Donna Korn were unsuccessful in their goal of keeping details secret from the scathing grand jury report and finishing out their terms. Gov. Ron DeSantis agreed with the grand jury’s recommendation and suspended them, along with board members Patti Good and Laurie Rich Levinson.
But Murray and Korn, who received copies of the report in April 2021, were able to persuade judges to remove a few paragraphs and delay its release for 16 months.
Some current School Board members now question whether it was a good use of district funds to pay for School Board members to go through multiple appeals to try to keep the report secret. At least one board member has suggested trying to seek reimbursement from the former board members.
A review of invoices from the past 16 months, obtained through a public records request, shows lawyers have so far billed the school district $141,000 for one employee and three School Board members who challenged
the release of the grand jury report. Most of that,
$120,080, was for Murray and Korn.
Murray’s lawyer, Peter Patanzo of Fort Lauderdale, has billed the most, $74,689 as of March 7, the most recent invoice provided.
Korn’s attorneys from the Gunster law firm in West Palm Beach have billed the district $45,391 for grand jury work from June 2021 to July
2022. That doesn’t include
$1,044 the firm was paid to help Korn fight a state ethics complaint related to stays at a vendor’s beach house.
The law firm representing Good, Fort Lauderdale-based Buschel Gibbons, submitted invoices that combined work for the former School Board member with another client, former district building inspector M.L. Rouco. Those invoices, from December
2021 to June 2022, totaled
$4,141.
Buschel Gibbons billed the district $14,680 for Rouco individually from May to December 2021. While Rouco fought to keep the grand jury report secret, she was also the subject of a criminal investigation but wasn’t charged.
The school district provided no invoices for Levinson, the fourth board member removed, although her lawyer David Bogenschutz said he’d be submitting invoices soon. The district also provided no invoices for Rosalind Osgood, who was recommended for removal but had already left the School Board to become a state senator.
Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University, said he’s not aware of any law that prevents school districts from paying grand jury-related legal costs, since it’s related to the School Board member’s jobs.
“It’s a political matter, and optics matter,” he said. “Is this a really good use of funds, especially at a time when you’re saying we need more money?”
Several current board members said they are uncomfortable with spending district funds on legal fees to keep the report suppressed.
“We show our priorities and values by how we spend our money,” Board member Sarah Leonardi said. “We should always prioritize our classrooms when it comes to how we use taxpayer dollars.”
Kevin Tynan, who was appointed by DeSantis to serve a three-month term on the board, said he’d be interested in seeking reimbursement.
“I’d certainly want to look at it,” he said. “I’ve not been shy about saying fiscal responsibility is one of the things that’s important to me.”
But Patanzo, who represents Murray, said there is value in the public funding the grand jury appeal.
“When you are going to remove an elected official from their elected position, there has to be due process of law,” he said. “Taxpayers should want due process. If elected officials are being removed without due process, they should want the courts to play out the legal issues.”
Appeals were first rejected by a trial court, and then by an appeals court, which agreed to expunge a few paragraphs that suggested criminal activity that was out of the grand jury’s jurisdiction.
Murray and Korn appear to be the only School Board members who further appealed to the state Supreme Court, according to the court’s online docket.
The court rejected Korn’s appeal on Aug. 19, and the report was released later that day. Neither Korn nor her lawyer, George LeMieux, could be reached for comment Friday. Although Korn has been suspended from the School Board, she is running for a new term and voters will choose between her and businessman Allen Zeman in a Nov. 8 runoff.
Murray is still appealing her case, even though the report has been out for three weeks.
Palanzo said he asked to delay the grand jury’s release before Korn’s final appeal was rejected. He said there are problems with the grand jury process that need to be resolved. A statewide grand jury is supposed to span multiple jurisdictions, but the report focused almost entirely on Broward, he said. Grand juries are also supposed to keep out the names of witnesses who are not indicted.
“You can’t unring the bell, but there has to be some limitations on the grand jury system going forward,” he said. “This is going to set a precedent one way or another and they can’t have unlimited executive authority.”
So far, one judge has already rejected Murray’s latest appeal.
“Murray seeks to essentially repress the entirety of the Statewide Grand Jury report after its publication and release,” wrote Jack Tuter, the presiding judge for the grand jury. “Her belated arguments now accusing the Statewide Prosecutor of misconduct are baseless.”
School district spokesman John Sullivan said Friday he wasn’t able to find out whether the school district plans to continue paying for Murray’s legal challenge.
Murray couldn’t be reached for comment, but she said in an interview July 8 that she was appealing to try to clear her name.
“I am not a criminal. I am not unethical,” she said. “The grand jury was very, very angry.”
The school district also agreed to pay the legal fees for the criminal defense of former Superintendent Robert Runcie and former General Counsel Barbara Myrick, who were both indicted by the grand jury on felony charges. Their cases are still pending, and they will be expected to repay the district if they are found guilty, current General Counsel Marylin Batista told the School Board last year.
The law offices of Dutko & Kroll have billed the district $54,494 from April 2021 to March 2022, invoices show. Myrick’s lawyer, Bogenschutz, said he hasn’t submitted any invoices yet for her but plans to soon.