News

By Dan Moffett

    The recall movement against Ocean Ridge Town Commissioner Richard Lucibella died in a Palm Beach County courtroom when a circuit judge ruled that petitions seeking his ouster were legally flawed.
    Judge Gregory Keyser found that the recall organizers had failed to follow state law in the way they articulated their complaint against Lucibella and how they collected hundreds of signatures.
    Keyser’s June 10 ruling said the group’s allegations against Lucibella were too vague — his “conduct on the board does not reflect the values of the town” — to support a malfeasance charge. Without a more specific statement of more substantial misconduct, it was impossible for Lucibella, or any other recall target, to defend himself.
    “Such generalized conduct does not meet the legal requirements to allege malfeasance or any other prescribed statutory grounds for recall,” the judge wrote in a 10-page opinion.
    For Lucibella, the decision is a victory that ends a five-month battle for his seat that began when he took a lead role in forcing Chris Yannuzzi to resign as police chief early in the year.
    “You don’t institute a recall proceeding because you don’t like the way somebody votes,” said Lucibella. “That turns the whole election process on its ear.” He said he never doubted the judge’s ruling because the petitions were obviously flawed and the recall group’s organizers should have known it: “If they’d have just done their homework, they would know this recall never would succeed.”
    Haley Joyce, leader of the recall group, said that recalling Lucibella was the only way for citizens to change the town’s course. She said the people who took part in the petition drive had the best interests of Ocean Ridge at heart.
    “There’s nothing personal against Mr. Lucibella,” she said. “We’re using the statute to object to his behavior as commissioner.”
    Keyser was somewhat sympathetic with Joyce’s complaint that the statute is vague about exactly how petitions should be constructed and filled out.
    “While the Court is aware of Defendant Joyce’s frustration at attempting to comply with (Florida Statutes), and the importance of our citizens participating in their government,” he wrote, “the Court has a duty to strictly follow the requirements of our Florida Statutes and the Florida case law interpreting those statutes.”
    But Keyser said Joyce erred by not following requirements that were clear in the law. She didn’t identify herself as chairwoman of the recall committee on the petitions, and each signature wasn’t individually witnessed.
    Lucibella said he hasn’t decided whether to try to recover — either from the town or his opponents — the tens of thousands of dollars he’s paid to fight the recall in court. His attorney, Sidney Calloway, told the town in April that he had run up $30,000 in fees — and that was before the five-hour trial before Keyser in May.
    “I haven’t thought about that,” Lucibella said of the cost. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. There have been more important things at stake here, including the integrity of the commission.”
    He criticized the recall proponents for damaging government in the town and deterring residents from getting involved in public service.
    “It serves no purpose,” Lucibella said. “What these attacks do is clear out the bench of people who might serve the town in the future … I think there are people who absolutely aren’t going to run for office now. I think it’s shameful.”
    In other business, Steven Cullen, executive director of the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics, sent Lucibella an advisory opinion in May, answering questions raised by the commissioner about taking town officials and staff on hunting trips.
    Cullen told Lucibella it would not be an ethical violation for the commissioner, a pilot, to fly officials or staff to his hunting leases in Florida, Mississippi or Texas — as long as there is “no official quid pro quo involved” and rules on gift reporting were followed.
    Also, Cullen reminded the commissioner that the Sunshine Law still applies.
    Lucibella declined to comment on the advisory opinion or hunting trips.