Locked in a dispute about paying for photographs at the controversial 1st District Court of Appeal, the Florida Department of Management Services this week filed a lawsuit against state Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and an agency he leads.
The dispute stems from Atwater’s refusal to pay for $357,500 in historical photographs that had been planned for the 1st District Court of Appeal — a nearly 2-year-old building in Tallahassee whose opulence has led to it being derisively called the “Taj Mahal.”
DMS, which oversaw construction of the building, filed a lawsuit Monday asking a Leon County circuit judge to send the payment dispute to the state Division of Administrative Hearings, where an administrative law judge could hear arguments and try to resolve the issue. Atwater and the Department of Financial Services contend that the CFO has the power to decide whether the invoices should be paid without it going to an administrative law judge.
In the lawsuit, DMS argues, among other things, that it has been denied “due process.”
“This petition is just one part of an evolving process seeking to establish the proper review procedure for an aggrieved party to challenge the DFS/CFO’s denial of a payment requested and owed under a contract entered into by agencies, vendors and their subcontractors,” DMS said in the lawsuit.
But in a Sept. 11 order rejecting an earlier attempt to take the case to the Division of Administrative Hearings, Atwater said the state constitution gives him the authority to deny payment — a position DMS disputes.
“No other officer of the state is granted that authority or shares in that authority,” Atwater’s order said. “It is exclusive to the office of the CFO.”
The towering 1st District Court of Appeal building has drawn heavy scrutiny during the past two years, with an investigation even helping spur the resignation of former Chief Judge Paul Hawkes. Atwater’s predecessor, Alex Sink, also refused to pay for the historical framed photographs, which have not been installed.
A Tallahassee firm that did the photographic work, Signature Art Gallery, filed a lawsuit last year against the state and a general contractor to try to get paid. That lawsuit, which also is in Leon County circuit court, remains pending. Though it signed off on the invoices, DMS is a defendant in the Signature Art Gallery lawsuit — which is at least part of the reason the agency is locked in the dispute with Atwater and the Department of Financial Services.
DMS sought to get the dispute heard in the Division of Administrative Hearings this summer but was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Atwater decided to hold a hearing about whether the invoices should be paid. He designated a hearing officer, who after listening to testimony, ruled last month that payment should be denied.
In the lawsuit filed Monday, DMS took issue with the fairness of that hearing, saying it “did not afford due process and violated essential requirements of law.”
“As part of two separate politically elected officers, the competing interpretations of the CFO and the governor’s agency (DMS) need to be resolved by an independent judicial determination,” the lawsuit says.
By Jim Saunders
