christopher o'hare - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T13:08:49Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/christopher+o%27hareLetter to the Editor: Gulf Stream confident it’s on the right trackhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/letter-to-the-editor-gulf-stream-confident-it-s-on-the-right-trac2016-11-02T17:28:01.000Z2016-11-02T17:28:01.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p> In 2014 and early 2015, the town of Gulf Stream found itself under assault from Martin O’Boyle and Christopher O’Hare, two residents who overwhelmed the town with thousands of public records requests and dozens of lawsuits. Town Hall became virtually unable to serve Gulf Stream residents. <br /> To defend against this ongoing public records abuse, Gulf Stream brought in legal staff to create a policy to respond to records requests. In addition, Gulf Stream learned through its RICO investigation about other Florida abuses committed by the O’Boyle Law Firm and a related O’Boyle company called Citizens Awareness Foundation, which it added to the town’s defenses in the public records lawsuits.<br /> Since Gulf Stream took these actions, public records requests have dropped from 80-plus per day down to several a week. In addition, there has not been another public records lawsuit against Gulf Stream in over a year and a half. Of the old lawsuits, Gulf Stream won or forced the dismissal of four of them, and won verdicts or forced the dismissal of six additional non-public records lawsuits. <br /> I cannot overstate how the volume of lawsuits and records requests back in 2013 and 2014 overwhelmed our small staff. The clerks regularly worked nights and weekends; they put off other town responsibilities; they hunted through old file cabinets and closed land-use folders trying to respond to requests pouring in almost daily; they called commissioners, board members, past employees and active and retired police to identify documents and their possible locations. But, the quantity of these requests was simply not manageable, and some documents were inadvertently missed.<br /> At no time did staff refuse the legitimacy of O’Boyle’s or O’Hare’s requests or try to prevent them from receiving documents. For example, one such request required production of “All photos of people riding bicycles on N. Ocean Blvd. in the town’s public record.” Since town records go back to its founding in 1925, this request necessitated a needle-in-the-haystack search, and for which we were still sued over a “gotcha” photograph. <br /> A case currently being litigated involves some inadvertently missed documents. Despite a good-faith effort to locate all requested records, missing records constitute a technical violation of the public records law, so the town offered to settle the case. O’Boyle’s settlement demand, however, was so outrageously high that the town concluded it was in its best financial interest to go to trial and let a judge determine reasonable fees. That case was tried recently and there will be a hearing on fees in the near future.<br /> The town is confident that under Florida law, the court will award fees up to the performance of the records request and not beyond. This is why the town elected to try this case, as it will any other case where it appears that O’Boyle built up large attorneys’ fees.<br /> Gulf Stream will continue to defend the remaining O’Boyle and O’Hare lawsuits until our two litigious residents drop the meritless cases and negotiate reasonable settlements in good faith on the others. <br /><br /><em>Scott W. Morgan</em><br /><em>Mayor, Gulf Stream</em></p></div>Gulf Stream: No resolution of legal cases in sighthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-no-resolution-of-legal-cases-in-sight2015-12-30T16:29:44.000Z2015-12-30T16:29:44.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p> It should surprise no one in Gulf Stream that Mayor Scott Morgan and the town’s two litigious residents, Martin O’Boyle and Chris O’Hare, look back on 2015 with radically different opinions about their dueling court cases.<br /> O’Boyle and O’Hare have dozens of lawsuits pending against the town, most dealing with hundreds of public records requests. In recent months the two men have publicly trumpeted their successes.<br /> Most notable is a federal judge’s dismissal of the town’s RICO conspiracy suit against them in June, a decision the town is appealing. Then in November, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Richard Oftedal made a similar ruling, and dismissed the town’s request for an injunction that would have prevented the two men from making more requests for public records.<br /> O’Boyle and O’Hare have criticized Gulf Stream’s legal counterattacks against them and the resulting bill for taxpayers of about $1 million in attorneys’ fees over the past year. <br /> But Morgan believes that, despite the setbacks, the fight-back legal strategy is paying off. The mayor cites several successes.<br /> “One is the O’Boyle Law Firm, which everyone knows was started by Mr. O’Boyle and run by his son, and which really was the scourge of the state of Florida, across municipalities in every county of the state,” Morgan said during the Dec. 11 town meeting. “Most of its lawyers have fled and the couple left are handling the existing cases they have. But its effectiveness is really in question.”<br /> The O’Boyle firm is “essentially denuded,” the mayor said, and he cited the reported demise of Citizens Awareness Foundation, Inc., a group affiliated with O’Boyle, as another positive sign.<br /> “That sham nonprofit organization set up by Mr. O’Boyle to be essentially the bank of money that would come in from all those public records cases, it would be tax-free as well,” Morgan said, “that company is essentially shut down.”<br /> The mayor said that Joel Chandler, the former executive director of CAFI, has “turned whistleblower and he will shortly be testifying on behalf of the town of Gulf Stream” against O’Boyle and O’Hare.<br /> “So with that in mind, I think we’ve had a pretty good year,” Morgan said. “Keep things in perspective, and stay the course.” <br /> O’Hare used expletives to characterize the mayor’s assessment.<br /> “A bunch of lies, sir,” he told Morgan. “You are full of bull.”<br /> Oftedal made two more rulings in December that went in favor of O’Hare and O’Boyle. The judge denied the town’s request to consolidate dozens of the cases, and he rejected a motion for a rehearing on the November ruling.<br /> O’Boyle told the commission that he is willing to sit down and negotiate a settlement. He blamed the town’s attorneys for refusing to come to the table, and commissioners for “squandering dollars” of taxpayers on legal defenses. Morgan has said repeatedly that the town is willing to enter negotiations as soon as the two men drop their lawsuits.<br /> “You’re using our money,” O’Boyle told the commission. “There is no accountability with you folks, and that I find to be outrageous. … The town in my opinion has forgotten many of the basic tenets of honor and integrity, and it’s my belief they’re out of control.”</p></div>Letter to the Editor: RICO suit stressful for defendanthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/letter-to-the-editor-rico-suit-stressful-for-defendant2015-07-29T16:31:04.000Z2015-07-29T16:31:04.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p> As a co-defendant in the town of Gulf Stream’s recent RICO lawsuit, I would like to set the record straight. The town initiated this action for one purpose — to censor, intimidate and silence its critics.<br /> I have been very careful to make sure my legal complaints against the town were thoughtful, valid and worthy of the court’s time. Mayor Scott Morgan labeled them all “scandalously malicious and frivolous.” Now the town’s RICO complaint has apparently been determined to be frivolous. How ironic.<br /> Mayor Morgan, using the town’s outside counsel, attorney Robert Sweetapple (previously my attorney), first offered to exclude me a year ago from this RICO complaint if I agreed to drop all my lawsuits against the town. I did not take him up on his offer. <br /> Last October the mayor and attorney Gerald Richman assured the other commissioners that the RICO threat would make me withdraw all my complaints and cause me to stop asking for public records. Additionally, the commission anticipated that a RICO judgment would get them all their legal expenses back three times over. <br /> Perhaps naively, I thought my right to free speech was more important than the inconvenience of defending against a RICO claim. I had no idea just how debilitating and costly that defense would be.<br /> This experience has been very stressful for my family and me. The financial strain of defending myself, the uncertainty of a possible devastating outcome and the shock of being falsely accused have taken a toll. I thank God U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Marra finally put an end to it.<br /> I consider the mayor’s RICO lawsuit against me and his publicity campaign of “bully pulpit” comments at Town Hall meetings, his official letters to residents, town interviews on TV and in newspapers, and even a defamatory law review article by another of the town’s attorneys, all to be part of a continuing campaign of retaliation against me for speaking out. <br /> I have made many public record requests about the police officer who trespassed into my home over three years ago and other questionable activities by the town. I have spoken publicly at town meetings about issues town leaders may find uncomfortable. The town wished to chill such public speech by claiming it was part of some organized crime effort. Thankfully the judge ruled otherwise.<br /> Rather than admit past wrongdoing, agreeing to follow state law in the future and acting like a real democratic government, town leaders instead choose to stall the inevitable by ignoring settlement offers and prolonging a legal strategy apparently intended to “save face.” <br /> In July, the commission voted to appeal Marra’s decision and ask another judge to examine this expensive and unwarranted RICO lawsuit. <br /> Also at this meeting, the town manager disclosed that next year’s budget will allocate $1 million for legal expenses (25 percent of the town’s entire budget). Where is this money coming from? At that same July meeting the town approved a preliminary budget that raises the millage rate from 3.1 mills in 2012 to 5.0 mills in 2015. According to the town’s own estimates, when adjusted for increases in property value, this is a total increase of 73.57 percent in just three years.<br /> This RICO complaint may have been born more out of hubris than actual government purpose, proving to be more self-serving rather than serving the public and certainly intended to protect town leaders by punishing town critics. Consequently, the notion of fair government has been besmirched and unfortunately town residents will be stuck with the hefty and growing bill.<br /> <strong>Christopher O’Hare</strong><br /> <strong>Gulf Stream</strong></p>
<p><em>Editor’s Note: According to the Town of Gulf Stream, Mr. O’Hare has filed more than 1,000 public record requests with the town.</em></p></div>Gulf Stream: Town to appeal dismissal of RICO suit against O’Boyle, O’Harehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-town-to-appeal-dismissal-of-rico-suit-against-o-boyle2015-07-29T16:23:46.000Z2015-07-29T16:23:46.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p> Gulf Stream town commissioners have unanimously voted to appeal a judge’s ruling that dismisses their federal racketeering lawsuit against residents Martin O’Boyle and Christopher O’Hare.<br /> Commissioners also have agreed to continue their fight against O’Boyle and O’Hare in the state courts, where dozens of cases about public records disputes and other matters await resolution.<br /> Mayor Scott Morgan says that U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Marra’s decision in June to throw out the town’s class-action RICO suit was not a validation of the two residents’ behavior and should not diminish Gulf Stream’s resolve, especially at the state level.<br /> “Make no mistake. These people will be held to account for their actions,” Morgan said.<br /> “We have not put all eggs in the RICO basket. In fact, our actions have been ongoing in the state cases, predating the RICO action, where we’ve had success.”<br /> Taking the RICO case to the U.S. appellate court, Morgan says, will give the town’s lawyers a chance to argue that the federal statute should be expanded to consider the town’s allegations against O’Boyle and O’Hare.<br /> “The judge is a trial judge,” Morgan said of Marra. “Trial judges do not make law. This is a case of first impression. That means there is no other case like this — not in Florida, not in the entire United States.”<br /> Morgan said O’Boyle sent him a letter in July, urging commissioners to “have a sit-down” and enter into settlement negotiations. But Morgan said the town thought it ended the disputes with O’Boyle in 2013 when the two sides settled a lawsuit over the remodeling of his home. Within months, however, new issues arose, Morgan said, and O’Boyle filed a “new round” of lawsuits.<br /> “A review of history is important,” Morgan said. “We’ve done this (settlement) before, and it cost the town an awful lot of money and embarrassment.”<br /> The mayor said the town’s more recent attempts at finding a settlement “turned into threats, and banners and more litigation” from O’Boyle. Other commissioners agreed.<br /> “I fully support your taking charge of this, and I think you’re handling it the right way,” Commissioner Joan Orthwein told the mayor during the July meeting. “I like your history of it. I think there’s no way we could ever settle again.”<br /> “Amen,” said Vice Mayor Robert Ganger.<br /> O’Hare told the commission he had no choice but to take his issues with the town to court.<br /> “I don’t want to sound like Don Quixote, but there are democratic principles at stake,” O’Hare said. “The only way it seems to get those principles on line is by redress from the courts.”<br /> O’Hare accused the town of mismanagement and wasting taxpayers’ money, with a newly minted budget proposal that sets aside $1 million for legal fees in the next fiscal year, including the RICO appeal.<br /> “I could see the town’s millage rate going to 7.5,” O’Hare said.<br /> Jonathan O’Boyle, Martin’s son and a director with the family’s law firm in Deerfield Beach, has said that the blame for the legal hostilities lies with the commissioners and the town’s managers.<br /> “If the town were a corporation, the shareholders would demand to know how much this lawsuit cost, demand a refund, and replace management,” Jonathan O’Boyle said. “The taxpayers deserve personal refunds from their leaders.”<br /> Morgan stands by the town’s RICO assertion that O’Boyle and O’Hare used public records to “intimidate and extort, by means of misleading and fraudulent behavior, money and changes in action from municipalities” in a conspiracy that reached across the state.</p></div>Gulf Stream: Town rejects link to mocking websitehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-town-rejects-link-to-mocking-website2013-10-30T18:30:00.000Z2013-10-30T18:30:00.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p>By <b>Tim O’Meilia</b></p>
<p> The logo on the main page of “The Un-Official Guide to the Town of Gulf Stream” website includes an upside-down town seal. Take that as a hint to the content within. </p>
<p> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960474866,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960474866,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="141" alt="7960474866?profile=original" /></a> Gulf Stream resident Christopher O’Hare’s site skewers town management, challenges town commissioners’ decisions and mocks town officials and commissioners in parody videos.</p>
<p> Above the masthead is a disclaimer: “This website is not endorsed by or affiliated with the municipal entity known as the Town of Gulf Stream. Nor do we want to be.”</p>
<p> He fibbed. On Oct. 11, he asked commissioners to put a link to his site on their official site.</p>
<p> The town attorney said no. </p>
<p> “Inappropriate,” Town Attorney John Randolph called it.</p>
<p> Randolph said the town’s site, <a href="http://www.gulf-stream.org">www.gulf-stream.org</a>, includes only links to other government-related sites plus The Gulf Stream School. A reference to the town’s web-hosting company, the Green Group, has been removed.</p>
<p> O’Hare later said he created the web site, <a href="http://www.townofgulfstream.com">www.townofgulfstream.com</a>, because “a lot of investigative reporting is not being done.”</p>
<p> The website is not his first tangle with the town. He filed two lawsuits against the town in Palm Beach County Court in October, claiming public records law violations. </p>
<p> The suits claim the town did not reply quickly enough to his requests and that he was charged too much in fees for a variety of documents, including those related to a 2004 accident involving a town police officer, in which two bicyclists were injured. Although the town claimed both the officer and the bicyclists shared fault, the town settled a $15,000 claim with each. </p>
<p> A 12-year town resident, O’Hare has clashed with town officials over code requirements several times since he moved to Place au Soleil two years ago. His request for a metal roof was denied in May 2012 by the town commission. Three appeals in Palm Beach County Circuit Court were denied, the latest in June.</p></div>Along the Coast: Sculptor’s artificial reefs ready for divershttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-sculptor-s-artificial-reefs-ready-for-divers2012-10-31T20:24:33.000Z2012-10-31T20:24:33.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960409661,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960409661,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960409661?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>Christopher O’Hare in his Pineapple Grove Designs factory. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><strong>Video:</strong> <strong><a href="http://thecoastalstar.ning.com/video/firehock-memorial-reef">Firehock Memorial Reef</a><br /></strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Cheryl Blackerby</strong><br /> <br />Christopher O’Hare first started worrying about the fish in Lake Worth Lagoon when he moved to Ocean Ridge in 1992 and saw the sea walls that had replaced the native mangroves that grew at water’s edge.<br /> “Mangroves provide ideal habitats for fish. It’s one of the big issues facing environmental management of Lake Worth Lagoon,” O’Hare said.<br /> The mangrove’s long, tangled roots reach through shallow water, creating crucial nursery areas for fish and shellfish, as well as food for a variety of marine life, including snook, snapper, tarpon, jack, oysters and shrimp. <br /> Twenty years of research later, O’Hare, 58, has perfected his Reef Cells modules, intricately designed cast-stone (a concrete) artificial reefs. <br /> His fourth reef, south of Phil Foster Park and the Blue Heron Bridge, was installed in August in 6 to 10 feet of crystal-clear water. Six of his reef modules — each 5 feet by 8 feet by 4 feet and weighing 2 tons — were placed in a line of limestone boulders. <br /> The 800-foot-long snorkel trail already is popular with divers — and fish. <br /> O’Hare, a sculptor who now lives in Gulf Stream, is owner of Pineapple Grove Designs, which makes architectural art in cast stone for clients ranging from the Department of Defense to Notre Dame and Princeton universities. <br /> It was natural for him to turn his experience with concrete and sculpture to underwater habitats for fish. His cast-stone reefs are a labyrinth of tunnels, half bowls, small and large cavities, and ledges that accommodate a wide variety of fish and mollusks. <br /> “Fish are curious, and there were fish on the reef within a matter of four hours — a lot of lobster, snapper, snook, grunts, little blowfish, and parrotfish that nibble on the reef surface,” he said.<br /> He studied marine life and habitats to determine the right materials for the reef, which he found to include silica sand and calcium carbonate, the same materials in seashells.<br /> “It’s super-tough and will grow as coral attaches to it, and last as long as a natural reef,” O’Hare said.<br /> Fish have vastly different house preferences, so there are no one-size-fits-all reefs. <br /> “We had to find out what different species of fish require as far as shapes for that fish to survive. Sharks and barracudas are basically comfortable in the open ocean. Mollusks need a surface they can attach to, plus light and a water current to deliver food,” he said.<br /> Goliath grouper, which are around 400 pounds when mature, would need a very large cavity to back into. Some fish like to have a back door — if there’s a threat they can escape. <br /> “But a moray eel doesn’t want something to come from behind,” he said. “The general theory is to provide as much variety as possible and see what shows up.” <br /> O’Hare’s first reef was the Firehock Memorial Reef, a tribute to firefighter Peter Firehock, founder of the Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Dive Team. Firehock was killed in December 2001 by a hit-and-run driver as he was bicycling in Boynton Beach. The second reef is in 30 feet of water due east of the Boynton Inlet, and the third is near the end of the pier on the northeast corner of Peanut Island.<br /> O’Hare’s four artificial reefs were installed with the help of Jim Vance of Vance Construction, the chief marine contractor for Palm Beach County, and Carman Vare of the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resources Management. Paul Fitzgerald of Pinnacle Group International is planning to attach live corals to the Reef Cells to quicken colonization of the artificial reef.<br /> “Everything we’ve done has been volunteered and donated,” O’Hare said. “We hope to teach people around the world how to build these habitats with materials they have at hand.”</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960409466,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960409466,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960409466?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960409296,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960409296,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960409296?profile=original" /></a></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;">The artificial reef (left) was designed by O’Hare and placed near the Boynton Inlet. Six months later, it is a thriving eco-system for marine life, at left. <br /><strong>Photos provided</strong><br /><br /></p></div>