BEVERLY HILLS - In yet another contentious meeting Tuesday, the Northeast fire district board fired its two controversial attorneys and fire chief - but left the door open for them to walk away with hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance that a judge ruled last week they couldn't have.
Before a standing-room crowd, Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District directors Robert Edwards and Rhea Willis approved a lengthy resolution to fire attorneys Elbert Walton Jr. and Bernard Edwards Jr., and Chief Joseph L. Washington. But the two directors agreed to allow an arbitrator to review the contracts and settlement agreements to determine what they will be paid.
Passage of the resolution brought jeers and angry comments from some of the 60-plus residents and others, but a chuckle and a smile from Walton.
At an emergency board meeting Nov. 22, the board voted 2-1 to pay severances of $190,000 to Walton, $90,000 to Edwards and $450,000 to Washington. But two days later, St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Richard C. Bresnahan voided the agreements. He said that the board's notices of open and closed meetings on the day the agreements were signed did not comply with the Sunshine Law and that, therefore, any votes taken in the closed session - including passage of the severance agreements - were no good.
People are also reading…
Bresnahan also ruled Nov. 24 that a freeze on district funds initiated Oct. 20 was to be extended "until further order of the court."
That ruling, however, didn't stop Willis and Robert Edwards from voting Tuesday night, as part of the resolution, to pay bills listed on the district's check registers from Oct. 20 through Dec. 1. Those bills include thousands of dollars in legal fees.
The resolution also amended the district's annual budget so $1 million could be transferred from the "ambulance user fees fund" to the general fund to provide for "contingent liabilities" not otherwise covered.
Further, the resolution named Anthony Gray as the district's new legal officer and Rufus Tate as the district's "special legal counsel." Gray's contract allows him a retainer of $5,000 a month as well as $225 an hour for any litigation not covered by the district's insurance. Tate's contract gives him a monthly retainer of $1,000, plus $200 an hour "for any legal services provided." The contracts also allow the attorneys to hire support staff to be paid by the district.
Before the agreements were approved, new board member Bridget Quinlisk-Dailey made a motion to amend the agenda with four resolutions: to fire Walton immediately, to fire Bernard Edwards Jr. immediately, to pay essential bills approved by the court, and to allow law enforcement officials open access to all district files.
The district is being investigated by county, state and federal authorities.
The motions, however, were met with silence by fellow directors and audience pleas.
"Come on, Rhea!" someone shouted, only to be rebuked by an audience member who sat next to Bernard Edwards Jr.
Willis endeared herself to district residents in October, when she denounced the board and its attorneys and refused to vote along with Robert Edwards. But she shocked residents on Nov. 22, when she voted for more than $780,000 in severance for the attorneys and fire chief. After that vote, she told the Post-Dispatch she had made a mistake and wanted to rescind the severance agreements.
Said Quinlisk-Dailey, who cast the sole vote against the severance agreements last week and the resolution Tuesday: "The district darling was given two opportunities to do the right thing, and she didn't."
Before the meeting adjourned, Quinlisk-Dailey asked the other directors when they had been given the resolution, legal contracts and a 17-page ordinance that also passed. The latter adopted a civil service system regulating district hiring, firing and disciplinary procedures. Quinlisk-Dailey said she was handed most, but not all, of the documents at the start of the meeting. Included in the documents given to her, however, was what appeared to be a script for the meeting, with Willis seconding all of Edwards' motions.
"Is this how you handle normal business on this board?" Quinlisk-Dailey challenged as she pointed to the pages of documents. "Why am I getting this now? ... Do you think this is just to our taxpayers?"
Asked for a comment on Tuesday night's agreements, Willis said an attorney had told her not to.
Robert Edwards, when asked for a comment, responded, "What do you want to talk about?" and then walked away when asked about the agreements.
Tate, one of the newly hired attorneys, defended the resolution. "Binding arbitration is always going to be the best route," he said, adding that if a mutually agreed-upon arbitrator decides that no money is to be rewarded, "then that's it."
Asked whether he had discussed his and Gray's hiring with Willis or Robert Edwards beforehand, he said, "I was aware that my name was in the hat."
After the meeting, state Rep. Don Calloway Jr., D-Bel-Nor, and attorney Kris Boevingloh handed Tate a notice for a hearing in Circuit Court today to challenge what happened at the meeting, particularly the agreement to pay bills and a post-meeting gathering of district officials in a closed office that did not include Quinlisk-Dailey.
"The board continues to act in contravention of the Sunshine Law," said Calloway, who filed the suit that led to the district's freeze on funds. "The board's actions of this evening are per se contempt, and we consider any actions prior to further court order to be void. New lawyers or old, the board has a duty to act in the public view and be fully accountable to taxpayers."
