DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — The city of Delray Beach has filed a motion to disqualify Jennifer Marshall as presiding officer in a dispute with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), according to documents WPTV obtained on Friday.
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The motion comes days after an informal hearing was held Tuesday morning in Orlando, regarding Delray Beach's fight to save its Pride intersection against a directive from FDOT to remove road murals.
The state and the city had until today to submit more materials to support their arguments, as both wait for a final answer on whether the state can tell Delray Beach what to do with a city-owned road. However, the motion was filed instead.
In the filing, the city cites alleged ex parte communications and potential bias by Marshall and provided evidence and documents to support the allegations, including emails that show Marshall was involved in discussions about enforcement of the alleged non-compliance before being designated as presiding officer.
According to the motion filed, Marshall presented previously undisclosed emails between herself and other FDOT employees regarding the compliance issue at Tuesday's hearing.
The motion cites Florida Statute Section 120.665, which allows for disqualification of an agency head for "bias, prejudice, or interest."
"All we want is a chance to have an evidence based fair hearing to show that this is actually safer than it was before this was installed," Delray Vice Mayor Rob Long tells WPTV's Michael Hoffman. "We have the evidence to prove that we just haven't been given a chance to prove that if the state's really concerned about safety in this intersection, this street right Here, became eight times safer after this streetscape was installed, let us prove that."
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