Legal firm, state at odds over chartered jet expense

Jim Ash
Thursday, July 22, 2004

TALLAHASSEE A politically connected Miami law firm wants Florida taxpayers to pick up a $5,000-plus tab for its chairman's private jet ride to Tallahassee.

That bill is part of the approximately $149,000 in legal fees and expenses that Steel, Hector & Davis says it's owed for representing Secretary of State Glenda Hood in her unsuccessful bid last month to keep an error-riddled list of suspected felon voters out of the hands of the press.

"Because of short notice, we had to use a private jet to accommodate Mr. Klock's schedule. The only way that he could attend was to fly out early on the morning of the hearing," the firm wrote to state officials to justify the $5,385 flight.

The letter refers to Steel, Hector & Davis chairman Joe Klock, the election-law specialist who represented Hood when she was sued last month by Cable News Network and a host of Florida news outlets, which demanded the right to investigate a list of 48,000 suspected felons on the state voter rolls.

Hood announced last week that she was abandoning the list because a computer glitch missed thousands of potential felon voters with Hispanic surnames.

Hood's office is not disputing Klock's $425-an-hour fee, or the $300 an hour he charged for each of the 10 members of his legal team that worked on the case. In all, the firm documented $138,165 in legal fees. Billing records the firm filed with the state show:

• Klock charged $9,945 for the 23.4 hours he said he put into the case, at $425 per hour.

• Gabriel Nieto, another lawyer in the firm, charged $31,230 for the 104.1 hours he invested in the case, at $300 per hour.

• The firm billed the state $5,385.33 for the charter of a 1981 Learjet that flew Klock, Nieto, and two other firm employees from Tamiami Airport to Tallahassee on June 9, the morning of the hearing. Hood's office is disputing the charge for the Learjet.

"We're not going to pay for that expense," Hood spokeswoman Nicole deLara said Wednesday.

The state maintains the Learjet violates the terms of its contract with the firm. The contract says the state will pay only for "justified and reasonable travel expenses which are directly and exclusively related to the professional services rendered."

In 2000, Klock became a familiar face on national television when he defended former Secretary of State Katherine Harris during the presidential recount debacle. A registered Democrat, Klock travels in the highest of Republican Party circles. This year, he co-sponsored money-raisers for President George W. Bush's reelection campaign.

Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Hood to replace Harris.

Hood claimed the suspected felon list was protected under a 2001 Florida law that allows only politicians, political parties and committees to obtain copies of the state voter rolls. The public may inspect the list, but the law does not allow individuals to take notes while doing so.

Judge Clark eventually disagreed and declared the law unconstitutional. News reports of errors in the list surfaced the next day.

Hood hired Steel, Hector & Davis after the state attorney general declined to take the case, deLara said.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Charlie Crist said his office does not represent the state in public records disputes because it could pose a conflict of interest. Crist's office has a division dedicated to helping the public gain access to public records. DeLara said that the department's own legal team is too small and too busy to take on such a large legal case.

The state department also is disputing other charges in the bill relating to "office overhead," and some other travel expenses.

Officials with both the attorney general and the state Department of Management Services say there is no standard rate for paying private lawyers.

Nieto declined Wednesday to discuss the details of his firm's bill. However, he expects the firm will insist the state pay for the private jet. The total cost to taxpayers won't be known for several days, Nieto said.

"That's still up in the air at this moment... no pun intended," he said.