Neil Malphurs comes under fire
Tempers flared and Robert Perez got booted out of the May 21st Commission Meeting. Who could have guessed that things would turn ugly when Commissioner Robbins requested an update on the injunction filed against Turkey Creek?
The history of the issue is this: On April 17th, in order to force the City of Alachua to give an answer to a request to settle disputes between the City and Turkey Creek, Inc., Mr. Norwood Hope threatened to deny access to the sewage plant at Turkey Creek on April 30th if no response from the City was forthcoming. Click to read the full text of the letter. On April 25th, during a Special City Commission Meeting, the Commission directed City Attorney Malphurs to get an injunction against Mr. Hope.
What follows is a partial transcript from the May 21st Commission Meeting.
Mr. Malphurs: "I went before the court, and the court gave me what was called a temporary injunction. They set a date for the opposing side to appear and contest it if they wanted to. The opposing side sent a letter to the court saying that they did not want to contest it at this time. They can contest the injunction at any time, motion or other pleading. Of course that is always the way of the injunction, it can be dismissed at the court's decision at any time, so that's where we stand."
Mayor Coerper asked "So at this time we are able to access the sewer plant?"
Mr. Malphurs replied "Yes sir, at this time we have an injunction to stop him from putting up any barricades to stop access."
Commissioner Robbins: "I know we gave the instructions on the 27th, and the lookout threat was for Monday the 30th and this was dated the third. What happened on the 30th?"
Mr. Malphurs "I don't know the date, the injunction was issued on a Friday, I believe. I don't know, in the interim, from the time commission told me to move forward on this I prepared my pleadings and I moved forward. "
Commissioner Robbins: "The 30th was the Monday when Mr. Hope said he was going to lock the gates and not allow the city access to the treatment facility. The information I have on the filing was after that day. So what I am wondering was the city able to access…"
Mr. Malphurs said that he instructed the city workers to, if they encountered a barricade, to neatly remove it. Then the ball would have been in Mr. Hope's court, he would have had to go to court and get a restraining order from us not going on the property.
"The difficulty of this, Mr. Mayor, is that I had to plead all the things the city had against Mr. Hope. There were numerous. I am still may amend the pleadings and add a few more. In order to get an injunction you have to show that there is some reasons, and that you are likely to prevail." Mr. Malphurs said "I hope that answers your question, although I am not sure what that was."
Commissioner Hills asked Mr. Paulsen if he had had any problems.
Oren Paulsen: "He has put up fences out there. I don't know, today he might have done something else, but we will see tomorrow, see what happens. It changes every day. So far we have had no problems."
Robert Perez accuses Malphurs of Incompetence
Robert Perez spoke. "It is really interesting. I watched the tape of the workshop where this was first discussed. The deputy police chief told us that simply removing the barricades and taking off any locks or anything else that might be put on the property or on the access route would endanger the City legally. That is why the commission instructed the attorney to seek the injunction. So the injunction wasn't sought until 3 days after the threat. In the filing, Mr. Malphurs included a letter from Norwood Hope to Mr. Mayor Coerper dated the thirtieth, saying "As of this date all city employees will be considered trespassing." It looks here like our attorney didn't go to court until the third.
Now, also in this filing are some very interesting letters. One from the Department of Environmental Protection to Mr. Orin Paulsen. I would like to read a couple of quick things out of this letter. 'Regarding the access to the City's facility, please be reminded that the City is permit condition five.' Under permit condition five, the City must have an operator there a certain number of hours, six hours per day, five days per week, with one visit each weekend day. Has that been accomplished?"
Mr. Paulsen answered. "Yes it has."
"Including the time between the workshop and the thirtieth?"
Mr. Paulsen: "Yes it has."
"And on the thirtieth?"
"I said it has."
"Ok. Thank you very much. The actual order that Mr. Malphurs snuck in on the third looks to me like it was completely unnecessarily."
Mayor Coerper pointed out that "injunctions are only good for the people who want to follow them."
Robert Perez said "That is very true. And Mr. Hope has a bad habit of not following injunctions."
Mayor Coerper agreed.
Mr. Perez continued. "But my point is that it looks to me that our City Attorney has a bad habit of not following the directions of the commission. He was told to get an injunction to deal with the thirtieth. He didn't even go downtown to the court house till the third. I would like as a citizen to ask him why."
Neil Malphurs: "Mayor, I would sure like to respond to that! I have told you that you don't just go down there to the court, you have got to have certain pleadings. I had to prepare the pleadings. It appears you have got some of them in your hands."
Mr. Perez answered "Yes sir."
"I think you will see that they are quite lengthy. After you have prepared the pleadings the court will assign you a judge. Now, I went to the judge that I was assigned. He was not there that day. I went to three other judges. One did not want to hear it because he lived at Turkey Creek. I went to another judge, I forgot his reason. I went to the chief judge then, and he was out of town in Washington. It became apparent that I was not going to get a judge to hear it, and I might as well wait till the following day till the judge that I was assigned was there. You just don't go down to the court and ask for something! You have got to have pleadings!"
Mayor Coerper said "I think that was a good explanation."
Mr. Perez: "Then good, there are records for the time you spent and everything is available upon request to public records requests. Is that correct?"
Mr. Malphurs said that it was.
Mr. Perez: "I have one more quick comment Mayor."
Mayor Coerper: "Please wrap it up."
Mr. Perez: "I definitely will. The lawsuit brought by the City against Mr. Hope, the crux of the lawsuit deals with the fact that when we bought the Turkey Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant that we would provide two holding ponds and an easement…"
Mayor Coerper: "This has nothing to do with the injunction."
Mr. Perez: "It has everything to do with the injunction."
Mayor Coerper: "No it doesn't."
Mr. Perez: "Mr. Coerper, please allow me to finish my time!"
Mayor Coerper: "Your three minutes are already up. Holding ponds have nothing to do with this injunction."
Mr. Perez: "It has everything to do with the fact that this lawsuit was filed because these two items did not make it onto the deed that was transferred to the City. This city attorney was representing the City of Alachua when this happened!"
The situation fell apart from there, ending with Mr. Perez shouting that Mr. Malphurs is incompetent, and Mayor Coerper shouting "Please leave!" | 
