The Vero Beach City Council voted unanimously last week to reject a settlement offer from a county resident who has filed a lawsuit accusing officials of failing to provide more than 30 of the nearly 280 public records he has requested since May.
In the same 5-0 vote, conducted two Mondays ago at City Hall, council members approved a recommendation from its outside legal counsel to present Jeffrey Andros with a counteroffer that promises the remainder of the requested records would be produced no later than Dec. 15.
The counteroffer stipulates that the city makes no admission of wrongdoing – or that it in any way violated Florida’s public records law – and requires Andros to withdraw further requests for officials’ credit-card bills because those records have already been provided.
Also, if Andros accepts the counteroffer, his future records requests will no longer be given “special treatment” by the City Clerk’s office, as has been the case the past several months, City Attorney John Turner told the council after a 45-minute, behind-closed-doors executive session to discuss the lawsuit.
Instead, Turner explained, Andros’ requests would be placed in a queue with other such requests from the public and be answered in the regular course of business.
Lastly, the counteroffer would require both Andros and the city to cover the costs of their own legal fees.
Turner said he was recommending the council approve the counteroffer, crafted by Orlando-based attorney Rachael Crews of the GrayRobinson law firm, “strictly to settle the matter” and avoid the additional costs the city would incur to defend itself in court.
He declined to comment further, citing pending litigation.
Andros, 40, a New York native and 13-year local resident, who managed the winning campaigns of School Board candidates Brian Barefoot in 2020 and David Dyer this year, said Friday his Melbourne-based attorney, Jessica Travis, was reviewing the city’s counteroffer and that he probably wouldn’t respond until this week.
He said he did not want to comment on the counteroffer – nor would he disclose the contents of his settlement offer – but added that he would be willing to provide the “full details” after the case is resolved.
Andros, who unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Indian River Mosquito Control District board in 2020, said the lawsuit is not connected to politics, and that he requested the records in an effort to ensure city officials are held accountable.
The council approved the counteroffer one day after Crews filed her formal response to Andros’ 32-count, 65-page lawsuit, which accuses the city of “unlawful withholding of public records” and violating Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes.
Andros‘ Sept. 26 court filing alleges that the city has not provided him with copies of municipal-account emails and credit card bills he began requesting more than five months ago.
Specifically, Andros’ requests target several months of 2023 emails to and from Turner, Vero Beach Police Chief David Currey and City Manager Monte Falls, as well as multiple years of their credit card bills, some dating back as far as 2019.
City officials have steadfastly denied Andros’ insinuation that they’re deliberately withholding some records.
In fact, Crews wrote in her response that the city “never once unlawfully refused to produce a single public record,” adding that the facts will show the city has “bent over backwards to accommodate Andros’ incessant record requests.”
She stated that the city is “diligently working in good faith to complete the review and production of the remaining public records.”
According to Crews’ filing, Andros has inundated the city with 278 separate requests, requiring staffers to handle more than 580 thus far this year. Last year, she stated, the city received a total of only 231 such requests.
She claimed that Andros made 51 public records requests within a 4-hour span on June 3.