After City Attorney David Levin abruptly resigned during the April 16 Punta Gorda City Council meeting, City Manager Melissa Reichert called local attorney Steven Leskovich to inquire about his willingness to provide interim city attorney services and his fees.
“He offered to come back to the meeting to discuss with Council in person,” she said.
Leskovich will serve for six months while the city searches for a permanent city attorney.
At a previous Council meeting Levin, the city’s attorney since 2005, offered to serve as interim attorney after he was informed his contract, due to expire in July, would not be renewed.
Council refused Levin’s offer and said they were moving toward hiring an in-house attorney who, members contended, would be better able to serve the city.
Levin, of Sarasota-based firm Icard Merrill Cullis Timm Furen & Ginsberg P.A., was paid $165 per hour. The city will pay Leskovich, who owns the Leskovich Law Group P.A. in downtown Punta Gorda, $175 an hour.
At the April 16 meeting, Council discussed keeping Levin along with an interim attorney, but Vice Mayor Greg Julian said it would cost the city too much money to pay both attorneys.
Before departing, Levin told Council, “I will make myself available to communicate with your selected city attorney,” and he pledged to “do anything I can to make the transition smooth.”
After the meeting, Council member Jeannine Polk said of Levin’s resignation, “You know what? He worked for the city for 20 years — can you blame him?”
Polk said Leskovich’s agreement to step in comes at a crucial time, as the city is in the midst of several lawsuits initiated by resident Andrew Sheets, who is suing the city for alleged civil rights violations, and with Fishermen’s Village.
Now, Leskovich must pick up where Levin left off.
Earlier in the nearly six-hour meeting, the city disagreed with Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell’s contention that a total consolidation of a county-controlled 911 system would better serve the public.
He tried to convince the city to consider the consolidation, but the city remained firm.
Council previously voted unanimously to retain the city’s own dispatch. Even if all calls are first routed to the county’s new dispatch center and sheriff’s administration building on Loveland Boulevard, the city’s 911 calls would be rerouted to Punta Gorda dispatch.
Punta Gorda Police Chief Pam Davis and Fire Chief Holden Gibbs disagreed with Prummell’s contention that total consolidation would be good for the city.
They said the city’s dispatch response time is quicker than the county’s dispatch would be if city calls were first routed to Port Charlotte.
Although it costs the city about $1.2 million per year to maintain its own dispatch, Council voted at a previous meeting to keep it after Levin advised that they have the right to do so under home rule.
Mayor Debi Lux said at stake are life-saving seconds and cost should not be a factor.
Residents turned out in support of the city’s dispatch and first responders.
During public comment, resident Keith Henderson, a critical care physician who ran a 911 dispatch center in North Carolina, said the attempt to consolidate the 911 systems was “a hostile takeover.”
Michael Hirsh, a Vietnam veteran, author and journalist, said the city’s 911 system “has worked extremely well” and implored Council to “stick to your guns.”
Gibbs said the city’s fire trucks responding to medical calls have paramedics and Advanced Lifesaving Systems.
Whether to have 911 calls first dispatched to the new county dispatch center on Loveland Boulevard in Port Charlotte will be decided by the Board of County Commissioners at their 9 a.m. April 22 meeting.
