Key West The Newspaper - February 1, 2002

Stock Island Marina Owner Says County Is In Contempt Of Court. Calls For Mass Resignations

COUNTY IS IN VIOLATION OF TWO-YEAR-OLD COURT ORDER TO FIX SHRIMP ROAD.

MAJOR STOCK ISLAND LAND OWNER SAYS HE HAS HAD ENOUGH. CHASTISES ATTORNEY.

ATTORNEY QUITS

OFFICIALS PROMISE ACTION. AGAIN

by Kip Blevin

"Throw the rascals out!" That's the sanitized version of what the millionaire owner of Robbie's Marina on Stock Island said he wants to do with the Monroe County commissioners and certain high-ranking county staff.

Robbie Reckwerdt said he's mad as hell "and I'm not taking it any more." Reckwerdt said the county has done little to fix the drainage problem on Shrimp Road, located near the abandoned dog track, despite a two-year-old court order to do so. The longtime Stock Island businessman and entrepreneur said he's been patient long enough since winning a court order against Monroe County to fix the road. He said the road constantly floods after every rain, which his engineers contend, was caused when the county built Bernstein Park in 1995.

In frustration, Reckwerdt chastised "my good friend and longtime attorney" this week "after paying thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in legal fees."

Reckwerdt didn't identify who his "good friend and attorney" was in the case, but County Mayor Sonny McCoy did. McCoy said Reckwerdt called his attorney, David Paul Horan, "a crook"— an assertion Reckwerdt denies he ever said.

Reckwerdt said Thursday that when he told Horan he was going to Key West The Newspaper with the story, Horan threatened to quit.

"I'll be stopping by to pick up my file in the near future," Reckwerdt said.

Reckwerdt has put himself on the commission's Sounding Board at its next scheduled meeting in Key Largo on Feb. 13. He said he will call for the all of the Commissioners' resignations.

"How do you feel about being in contempt of court and leaving county citizens at risk of injury on that road?" he said he will ask them. "How can you justify your jobs?"

Reckwerdt is also targeting the jobs of County attorney Jim Hendrick, County administrator Jim Roberts and County engineer Dave Koppel, who he said "lied on the witness stand at his court hearing."Reckwerdt, who had non-exclusive easement-access to Shrimp Road, sued the County in November of 1999. The potholed road, which stretches about three football fields along Stock Island's shrimp docks area on its meandering way to Reckwerdt's sprawling marina property, was paved by the county following picketing by people who live or work near the road.

But the park is slightly higher than the roadbed and stormwater runoff regularly inundates the road. The lawsuit blamed the county's impact from park construction for the road's condition.

Koppel said the county built a swale to retain the stormwater on county property and is not responsible for the flooding.

"The county was under no obligation to build a drainage system to handle Shrimp Road flooding," Koppel told the court. The county also asked the court to excuse its actions using the defense of sovereign immunity.

But Judge Sandra Taylor came out to the site and personally inspected it. The court declared that the county "contradicted itself" on several occasions, that "standing water created an inherently dangerous situation" on the road.

And on Nov. 11, 2000, she denied the "sovereign immunity" motion and ruled that the "county will make all necessary and reasonable inspections, modifications and scheduled maintenance as needed to assure the drainage system functions adequately on Shrimp Road in order to prevent a threat to public safety."

Additionally, there was a separate negotiated settlement, Reckwerdt said, between his attorney and County attorney Jim Hendrick, who he was representing Miami attorney Roger Bernstein, whose family owned the park property and most of the road.

"In that settlement, I gave away the farm," Reckwerdt said. "I was advised to sign away part of my easement, give up a hard-fought permit for trash transfer and pay $50,000 to Hendrick."

And now he is beside himself. "I signed away $400,000 altogether and I got nothing to show for it. I did everything to settle the lawsuits and I'm not happy with the results. I paid through the nose and this time, it's gone too far," he added.

"County officials have ignored this court order for nearly two years and the road has gotten worse," he said. "I also signed an agreement with the county not to talk to the media about this, but no more."

He said the "straw that broke the camel's back" occurred when he was told by about 10 of his regular racing yacht customers during the recent race week activities, that they are getting more concerned about the risks of bringing their large and expensive sailboats down Shrimp Road because of the flooding.

"I stand to lose between $50,000 and $100,000 in revenue each year during that three-week period," Reckwerdt said.

Hendrick said Tuesday that Reckwerdt "has a legitimate beef, that the road has not been improved." The county attorney said he also gets grief from his wife, who uses the road, as well as school official Andy Griffith, who owns adjacent property out there.

Hendrick said Tuesday he called County Public Works "and it's in their hands," said Hendrick.

Hendrick pointed out that there may be some problem with part of the road being constructed on state bay bottom. "Also, the funds have to be found in the county's seven-year work plan. And every person has a bad-road complaint— but Robbie does have a court order," he acknowledged.

Reckwerdt said that Bernstein assured him he had done his part in conveying the road to the county six months ago. Koppel, however, said he confirmed on Wednesday that the county still does not have full ownership of Shrimp Road.

"I believe the next move is the County's," Koppel said. "However, we need to do some legal work and then go before the County Commission." He agreed, however, that despite the ownership questions, the court has ordered the county to improve the part of Shrimp Road next to the park.

"In the very near future, I would say within weeks, we will be able to go out to bids for some resurfacing and some drainage improvements for that part of the road that's contiguous to the park," he said. He said the county usually allows three months from the time it advertises for bids.

As for whether or not Shrimp Road will get priority over the 20-30 other roads on Stock Island, Koppel said he was uncertain. Commissioner Dixie Spehar, however, said she will be proposing at the next commission meeting "that we proceed using impact fees or gas tax to do the work on Shrimp Road, if nothing else, in piecemeal fashion, to correct the drainage problem out there."

Mayor McCoy agreed. "If he has a court order, it should be enforced."

And Bernstein said Wednesday that "everything Robbie wants is going to be taken care of in the next two weeks. It's taken a long time and the county commission will have to adopt a resolution taking over the road."

But whether Reckwerdt will be satisfied remains to be seen. "I've heard it all before and the way the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing only confirms my feeling that either there's gross incompetence at the county level or Big Business is trying to squeeze me off this valuable piece of real estate."

Reckwerdt is referring to his deepwater docks, where he has been trying to position himself for several years as the logical site for a ferry service to a post-Castro Cuba.