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Ocean Ridge resident Haley Joyce, one of the leaders in the recall effort, confers with her husband, Fred, at the May 6 hearing.

Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star

INSET BELOW: Town Commissioner Richard Lucibella

 By Dan Moffett

    Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Gregory Keyser is expected to rule this month on the fate of the recall movement against Ocean Ridge Town Commissioner Richard Lucibella.
    During a five-hour trial in West Palm Beach on May 6, Lucibella’s attorney, Sidney Calloway, told Keyser that petitions calling for the commissioner’s removal were “fatally flawed” and did not satisfy requirements in the state’s recall statute.
    Chief among Calloway’s complaints was that the petitions were too vague and did not articulate specific allegations of misconduct against Lucibella.
    “There has to be something that puts the public on notice of what the real allegations are,” Calloway told the judge.
    The recall movement is rooted in Lucibella’s role in the forced resignation of former Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi in January. Recall supporters say Lucibella was guilty of malfeasance during Yannuzzi’s ouster, but they may not have detailed their case explicitly enough.
    “We have not taken any shortcuts,” said Haley Joyce, the recall leader who represented herself during the trial. “We have done everything properly and accurately.”
    Joyce told the judge the statute is itself vague about exactly what form the petitions should take. She said she sought guidance from the Florida Department of State’s office and received assurances that the petitions’ format was legally sound.
    “I would never have thought to hire an attorney to start my petition,” Joyce said. “It was reasonable for me to read the statute and follow to the best of my ability what it said.”
    Another member of the recall group, Nan Yablong, testified that Lucibella’s behavior in the Yannuzzi matter had put the town in legal peril.
    “I had lost confidence in a commissioner who would open our town to hundreds of thousands of dollars in liabilities,” Yablong said.
    Recall efforts in Florida are rare, and almost always fall apart early on. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher, who was named as a co-defendant in Lucibella’s suit, said she was unaware of a recall that has succeeded in the state. So, there is little legal or practical precedent for how legislators intended the law to be followed.
    “I think everyone here agrees that the statute could be clearer,” Keyser told attorneys.
    Calloway said the statute was clear enough and the petitions were legally insufficient because they weren’t properly witnessed and they didn’t properly designate Joyce as the recall group chairman.
    Ocean Ridge is siding with Lucibella in the suit, and Town Attorney Ken Spillias said that Calloway got a call from Keyser’s office on May 28, requesting proposed orders from the plaintiff. Joyce said she’s heard nothing from the judge and there’s been no request for a proposal from the recall group’s side, leaving an inference that Keyser could be leaning toward ruling in Lucibella’s favor.
    Complicating matters further is the passing of the statutory deadline for ordering the recall. The group had until the end of May to get county elections officials to certify the petitions and order a special election. But in April, Circuit Court Judge Peter Blanc, who was filling in for Keyser, approved an emergency injunction preventing the petitions’ certification.Spillias told the Town Commission at its June 1 meeting that Keyser could possibly rule the case moot, since the certification deadline has passed “and therefore there will be no recall election based on those petitions.”
    Said Spillias, “I don’t think he will decide that because the issue certainly can rise again.” He said the town needs guidance from the judge to help put the dispute behind it.