***KEEPTHEFISH.COM EXCLUSIVE***
First Clearwater employee in Angler case identified
Documents show Quinteros treated with disdain
Updated: March 25, 2009
1:33 pm Eastern
© 2009 www.keepthefish.com
During a meeting at Clearwater's Municipal Services building on March 16th, Jeff Kronschnabl, the city's Development and Neighborhood Services Director, and Dan Bates, Development Services Manager, disclosed to Dru Jeanis, editor of keepthefish.com, that the name of the city employee first involved in The Complete Angler case is Scott Kurleman.
Kurleman resides on Island Estates in Clearwater Beach and is a neighbor of the Quinteros.
The case of Herb and Lori Quintero, owners of The Complete Angler, for violations of Clearwater sign code ordinances is now in federal court in Tampa, awaiting the issue of a ruling by the judge. The city had cited the Quinteros for having a mural of fish on the side of their building and later covering it with a banner containing the text of the First Amendment. The ACLU then filed a federal lawsuit against the city on behalf of the Quinteros, alleging violations of their First Amendment rights.
Within hours of the Monday meeting between Jeanis and the two city employees, Kurleman sent an email to the Quinteros at their business email address. The email was sent from Kurleman's other place of employment, the town of Belleair, Florida's police department.
In the email, Kurleman stated that he "told Michael Delk" that he preferred not to have his name mentioned in relation to the case and also stated that Delk "agreed" to the request. The date the agreement occurred is not mentioned.
Delk, Planning Director for the city of Clearwater, was the city's lone witness during the federal court hearing concerning the case held earlier this month.
At the hearing, Kurleman’s name came up during the examination of Herb Quintero by ACLU attorney James K. Green. When Green asked who the Quinteros met with when they first went to the city in response to the initial notice of violation, Mr. Quintero responded by stating, “Scott Kurleman.” (At the time of the testimony Quintero was apparently unaware that Kurleman was also the first city employee involved at the time of the original complaint.)
Documents related to the case finally released by the city of Clearwater to keepthefish.com after repeated requests under the Florida Public Records Act provide several references to Kurleman’s involvement in the case.
In addition to being the first city employee involved with the initial complaint about the fish mural, Kurleman is noted as being the person the Quinteros were “instructed” to go see to discuss their options related to signage issues. One notation states that Kurleman “did extensive sign counseling” with Lori Quintero.
Internal city emails from Bates to Kronschnabl and others sent last June show agreement among city employees of the view that the Quinteros were “shopping around” for a more “sympathetic ear” than they were apparently getting from Kurleman.
Two other emails of significance were discovered by keepthefish.com during an online search of Clearwater’s Laserfiche document management system.
On January 5th, 2009 the Quinteros sent an email to the city with the subject line: PLEASE HELP SAVE OUR MURAL!!
The following excerpt is from that email:
“…the City of Clearwater is infringing on our Constitutional Rights. Since fighting to SAVE our mural the Code Department is coming in and harassing us, making false accusations against us and providing us with wrong information that has cost us......We have done nothing but better our area of Clearwater, and this is how we get treated?? We just don't know why we are being DISCRIMINATED AGAINST!
“Please........come visit our store. See what we have done for our area of Clearwater.
“We would truly appreciate your assistance in this matter. “
The following week, on January 11th, Herb Quintero and his son Andrew placed a banner with the text of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution over the mural.
The very next day, City Manager William Horne sent an email with photo attachments to the mayor and council members. In it he wrote:
“FYI, we have been working with the Complete Angler property owner to come into compliance. Our latest effort was to allow him to cover the mural for 30 days while he comes into compliance. The photos show how [sic] his response to our goodwill.”
On February 12th the city sent a notice of violation to the Quinteros ordering the First Amendment banner to be removed or face fines.
At last Thursday’s (March 19th) city council meeting, Jeanis brought up the subject of Kurleman’s involvement in the case and asked about the alleged cover-up. None of the city council members replied to his inquiry.
Moments after Jeanis left the podium, Michael Delk took the floor. He then stated, “And, just for the record, I don't allow our employees to review permitting applications for their neighbors. If we find that's the case as we do here we will assign it to another staff person. I don't believe that's appropriate public policy. So...but it's the normal practice if we find that that's the case.”
After Delk’s statement at the meeting neither the mayor nor the other council members asked for any additional clarification concerning the matter.
