Windermere to host attorney-client session pertaining to boathouse litigation

The meeting will include only the mayor, Town Council members, the town manager, town attorneys and a court reporter.

By Annabelle Sikes
| 9:00 a.m. February 7, 2024

Southwest Orange
News

The town of Windermere will host an attorney-client session pertaining to the pending boathouse litigation at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, at Town Hall, directly before the monthly Town Council meeting.

The meeting will include only Windermere Mayor Jim O'Brien; Town Council members Mandy David, Tony Davit, Brandi Haines, Tom Stroup and Andy Williams; Town Manager Robert Smith; Town Attorneys Tom Wilkes, Nick Dancaescu, Summer DeGel and Rick Mitchell; and a designated court reporter.

Town representatives said the purpose of the meeting is to allow the town attorneys to seek advice from the Town Council, which will be confined to settlement negotiations and strategy related to litigation expenditures regarding the pending lawsuit, Town of Windermere v. Fanelli, Daniel.

According to official court documents, the lawsuit was filed by the town of Windermere July 15, 2022, in the Orange County Circuit Courts at the Orange County Circuit Courthouse. Daniel and Anne Fanelli are listed as the defendants and counter plaintiffs.

The Town Council approved unanimously a resolution to officially authorize the town attorney to proceed with a lawsuit filed against occupants of the boathouses at the September 2022 Town Council meeting.

The town previously filed lawsuits against each of seven boathouse owners July 15, 2022, following the occupants refusal to vacate the structures when their leases ended in June.

However, after the boathouse occupants’ attorney, A. Kurt Ardaman, argued the lawsuits were not valid because of a lack of a signed resolution that had not accompanied the filed lawsuits, the resolution was devised as “an abundance of caution regarding the work previously done by town staff and the attorney, and with respect to legal work yet to be performed regarding the boathouses,” according to the official resolution.

Read the full story on the approved resolution here.

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author

Annabelle Sikes

News Editor Annabelle Sikes was born in Boca Raton and moved to Orlando in 2018 to attend the University of Central Florida. She graduated from UCF in May 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in sociology. Her past journalism experiences include serving as a web producer at the Orlando Sentinel, a reporter at The Community Paper, managing editor for NSM Today, digital manager at Centric Magazine and as an intern for the Orlando Weekly.