Milton Mayor Heather Lindsay served with legal papers as public records lawsuit is filed

Milton Mayor Heather Lindsay was served Friday with a legal complaint filed by the city she was elected to lead.

The City Council had voted Tuesday to file suit at the request of City Attorney Alex Andrade, who contends the mayor has refused to turn over public records he has been seeking, in some cases, for nearly a year.

Lindsay called the lawsuit a "waste of taxpayer dollars" and said that the Milton City Council has been deceived into believing she has done something wrong.

"I intend to seek legal advice," she said when asked. "But I also don't have any reason to think the lawsuit will be successful against me. I've produced all the records I have as far as I know, though it has been a very long time period."

Milton turmoil: Milton City Council votes to sue Mayor Heather Lindsay

She said the only public records request from Andrade she has failed to respond to were two made this month while she has been away from work and unable to conduct city business while on extended medical leave.

"I am still not approved to do work of any kind," she said.

She said she believes the Milton City Council has been duped into believing she'd intentionally broken the law.

"The council has been led to believe that I did not produce records, that I hid records," she said, adding "I don't understand their rationale for moving in this direction under the circumstances."

The lawsuit alleges that as far back as July 22 of last year Andrade began seeking documents from Lindsay that under Florida's Sunshine Law are considered public records. At that time, it states, he requested documentation of all cell phone and email communications between the mayor and former City Clerk Dawn Molinero in which the two discussed a candidate for city manager.

It states that on Aug. 23 Andrade requested all communications between Lindsay and Molinero from July 1, 2023 through the date of the request "and all emails, phone calls and text messages between Lindsay and Molinero's attorney, Matthew Hargraves, between July 1, 2023 and Aug. 23, 2023."

The lawsuit states that on Aug. 31 Andrade received, rather than documents in answer to his public records request, an email from Lindsay alleging "your unprofessional communication with me did not include a request for records."

In that email, the lawsuit said, Lindsay asks "why are my communications with Dawn Molinero relevant to any work you have been asked to do by the City Council?" It goes on to say that Andrade has no authority to investigate her and charge Milton taxpayers "for work that serves your own interests."

The lawsuit states that on Sept. 15 Lindsay produced incomplete records of communications related to the first of his public records requests.

It says that on March 23 of this year Andrade renewed his public record requests, seeking emails and texts between Lindsay, Hargraves, local resident Pam Mitchell and Scott Collins, the city manager candidate referenced in previous records requests.

It also states he was unsuccessful in a call for Lindsay to provide all drafts of a bar complaint the mayor had filed against Andrade. The city attorney has said that he believes the bar complaint may have been shared with confidants after its filing.

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Andrade has also called for emails sent by Lindsay to 13 individuals, including council members Mike Cusack and Marylynn Farrow.

Lindsay said she had only recently heard that Andrade was questioning the completeness of her responses to his requests for public records.

"I'm checking to verify whether I do have a record that I haven't produced," she said. "I do not know what he's talking about."

The lawsuit filed by Andrade requests an immediate hearing in the case against Lindsay and calls for her actions to be declared illegal and intentionally designed to subvert the Public Records Act. It also calls on the judge who hears the case to order the mayor to produce "all public records in Heather Lindsay's possession."

"I will certainly do what the judge asks me to do," Lindsay said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Milton Mayor Heather Lindsay sued by city for public records violations