Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward has approved his attorneys asking the Florida Supreme Court to hear his case concerning the Pitt’s Slip property leased to Seville Harbor. He is requesting the 1st District Court of Appeals stay the issuance of its mandate pending resolution of these matters in the Florida Supreme Court.
It is unfortunate that the Mayor can’t accept the crushing and expensive defeat and think of the taxpayer’s that must pay for this debacle. His ego is costing the people real cash that could be utilized for services and assets that the City is lacking.
This ill-advised Motion announces an intent to ask for Florida Supreme Court discretionary review of a unanimous, well-reasoned affirmation by the First District Court of Appeal of a well-reasoned trial court decision by Judge Scott Duncan. Multiple lawyers (seven total) from five different law firms, as well as long-time City Attorney John Fleming, have looked at the issue involved and concluded that the rent due on the sublease to Merrill Land is 5 percent of the sublease rent. Four judges (trial court judge and three appellate judges) have reviewed this issue, at length, with hours of hearings and hundreds of pages of legal briefs, and reached the same conclusion.
I had hoped that the City would see fit to end this protracted litigation, stop the bleeding as to attorney’s fees, and accept the judicial rulings at the trial court and appellate level. It is unfortunate that the City is electing to do other otherwise.
The mayor wears his hubris like it’s a man’s Speedo bathing suit.
Are you kidding? Ed Fleming has taken him to the “woodshed” TWICE and the Mayor is asking for more? The taxpayers are getting fleeced by this Mayor’s incompetence and ego.