BRADENTON BEACH – Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) members discussed hiring a separate CRA attorney at an Oct. 20 meeting after learning that the city could be out of compliance with statutory requirements.
CRA Chair Scott Bear, Police Chief John Cosby and city Treasurer Shayne Thompson attended a Florida Redevelopment Association meeting from Oct. 14-17 in West Palm Beach.
“First and probably foremost, one of the things they told us is it is probably not a good idea, in fact in one session, it was also suggested that it was illegal, to have the city attorney be the CRA attorney,” Bear said. “So, we need to look for a CRA attorney through Trask. My understanding is they do have a CRA attorney who can help us, so we need to engage that person really quickly.”
The city has retained the Trask Daignault LLC law firm on an interim basis with Erica Augello as lead attorney. Retired City Attorney Ricinda Perry formerly represented both the city and the CRA…