Real Estate & Property Law

When conflict of interest embarrasses

By Alan Ackerman

Even if the city official is not in any way a participant in the negotiation process, embarrassment results once those close to them, be they family or friends, are in the acquisition process.  
    When the aunt of a St. Petersburg city official acquired something in excess of fair market value, even if otherwise acceptable, the result was an embarrassment to the community!

Tampa Bay.com
    
"We will pay her the $80,000 it appraised for in 2007, as we would like to maximize the benefit to your mother with her purchase of a new home," McGarr wrote. "The (next-door neighbor's) new appraisal came in $25,000 less than the (2007) appraisal and that kind of hit would not be good for her."

McGarr's boss said the e-mail only suggests a negotiating tactic to coax Gray, who had been unwilling to sell.

"That was Amy's attempt to generate enthusiasm for the sale," said Bruce Grimes, director of the city's real estate and property management department. "Whether it was (Gray) or anyone else, they would have been treated the same way. Who this woman was had no influence. It was a nonissue to us."

Yet the Times discovered McGarr's e-mail only after Gray provided it. It had not been included in a file on the project the city provided for review.

"It should have been in the file," Grimes said.

No money is available to build the park, but beginning in 2007, city officials had about $565,000 to purchase property for it. The job to find it was assigned to the city's real estate department.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on August 25, 2010 (boomark / email).