Apopka City Council kills deal to settle lawsuit with ex-official Richard Anderson – Orlando Sentinel

The Apopka City Council narrowly rejected a settlement agreement Wednesday night that would have ended the citys legal scrum with Richard Anderson and paid him $60,000.

The council voted 3-2 against the agreement, with Commissioners Doug Bankson and Billie Dean preferring to pay Anderson while Mayor Joe Kilsheimer and Commissioners Kyle Becker and Diane Velazquez said no.

Kilsheimer said the city had offered to end the legal fight before the judge ordered mediation. We proposed that both sides walk away from the litigation with no money exchanging hands, Kilsheimer said.

Anderson rejected it.

Council voted unanimously last year to end its personal-services contracts with Anderson, 62, after a serious-injury accident involving his Dodge Ram pickup in nearby Lake County that led to criminal hit-and-run charges.

The contracts with Anderson, approved in 2014, paid him $22,000 a month to be the citys lobbyist and a consultant on development projects, including the new city center and the relocation of Florida Hospital Apopka.

After the city fired Anderson, he and the city sued each other in circuit court, leading to a court-ordered mediation session last month. The negotiations produced the proposed settlement but required the councils approval.

According to a document included in the Apopka City Councils meeting packet, the citys representatives agreed to the terms of the settlement to avoid the inherent risks and expenses associated with proceeding to trial.

Although Kilsheimer was part of the citys mediation team, he voted against the deal Wednesday. He offered no immediate explanation for his vote.

Cliff Shepard, the citys legal adviser, told City Council he tried to question Anderson under oath about the hit-and-run crash, but the deposition was thwarted by the ex-officials lawyer who repeatedly invoked Andersons Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The lawyer asserted Andersons right to literally everything about the accident, Shepard said. Everything, anything related even marginally to the accident, he took the Fifth Amendment to.

Anderson worked for the city for 42 years as a firefighter, paramedic, fire chief and administrator. He left with two city pensions totaling $9,646 a month and a lump-sum payment of $346,665 for unused vacation time, personal days and sick time.

Anderson, a licensed paramedic at the time of the crash, pleaded no contest in April to leaving the scene of an accident with serious injury without rendering medical aid or calling 911. Though he was charged as if he was driving his truck, that point remained unproven.

Investigators never interviewed him nor swabbed the trucks airbags for DNA. Anderson said nothing in court or afterward, avoiding eye contact with the injured driver of the other vehicle, Michael Falcon, and Falcons family.

Prosecutors said they couldnt prove Anderson was driving his pickup, though some passers-by who aided Falcon identified Anderson from a photo array as the white-haired man they saw near the truck after the crash.

But none saw him driving.

Falcons family said they always had feared Andersons money and influence would defeat justice.

The City Councils rejection of the deal returns Apopkas lawsuit and Andersons counter-suit to the trial docket.

Commissioners Bankson and Dean argued against continuing the lawsuit, concerned about the possible financial cost. Bankson estimated it could cost Apopka $200,000 more to keep fighting.

I dont want to risk further [financial] damage to the city, he said.

But Becker pointed out the city would be paying Anderson a sum of money that is greater than the average family in Orange County earns in a year.

He said he opposed paying Anderson as a matter of right versus wrong.

Im willing to risk dollars if it means that were doing the right thing to protect the integrity of the people of this town, the city commissioner said.

Stephen Hudak can be reached at 407-650-6361, shudak@orlandosentinel.com or on Twitter @Bearlando.

Stephen Hudak / Orlando Sentinel

Former Apopka official Richard Anderson walks into a Lake County courtroom on April 11, 2017, where he was sentenced to three years felony probation in a hit-and-run criminal case.

Former Apopka official Richard Anderson walks into a Lake County courtroom on April 11, 2017, where he was sentenced to three years felony probation in a hit-and-run criminal case. (Stephen Hudak / Orlando Sentinel)

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Apopka City Council kills deal to settle lawsuit with ex-official Richard Anderson - Orlando Sentinel