By The Sunny Isles Beach Reporter – Sharon Elster, Editor
As the great Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over til it’s over.” We can finally report to our readers that a lawsuit filed on November 17, 2014 by Lewis J. Thaler against Sunny Isles Beach Mayor George “Bud” Scholl, Jane Hines as City Clerk and other government agencies involved in certifying the election results of November 4, 2014 has been ruled in favor of Mayor Scholl by the 11th Circuit Court.
The 56 year old Mayor Scholl soundly defeated 78 year old Thaler in the November 2014 election. Mr. Thaler and his inner circle of advisors, unhappy with the election results, decided to file a lawsuit for a redo election despite the fact that Mayor Scholl’s victory had been certified and all election regulations and laws of our City, County and State judiciously followed.
So much time and effort by good people who serve our City went into dealing with this lawsuit and tens of thousands of dollars was spent defending the City against Mr. Thaler’s failed lawsuit. The City’s legal bill from Holland & Knight is in excess of $49,000 in addition to the personal financial cost to Mayor Scholl defending himself and the election results. At least Mr. Thaler chose not to appeal the Court’s decision, which would have driven the costs even higher.
The certified election results of November 4, 2014 are now officially upheld by the 11th Circuit Court declaring Mayor Scholl the undisputed winner. It’s unfortunate that Mayor Scholl and his family had to endure the burden of such a lawsuit, but our very popular Mayor has taken this in stride with his usual good grace.
Access Court Hearing, Final Summary Judgment and Financial documents below.
022516_HonorableKreeger_Hrg_PDF for E-Filing201603161120(1)