County Commissioner Mack Bernard added as individual defendant in pay to play lawsuit

Circuit Court Judge Joseph Curley has ruled that Palm Beach County Commissioner Mack Bernard can be individually sued for the role he played in the award of a multimillion dollar contract to oversee the construction of new fire stations.

County commissioners voted 4-3 on March 22, 2022, to give the work to Core Construction Services of Florida, despite the county purchasing agent’s finding that the company was improperly given credit for having a presence in Palm Beach County. When points were taken away from Core, Robling Architecture Construction of Green Acres was in line to receive the contract. But Mack and then Commissioner David Kerner led the fight at the commission meeting to instead award the contract to Core.

The move resulted in a lawsuit filed by Robling against the county to challenge what occurred. Robling's lawyers, citing newly discovered evidence, sought to add both Bernard and former Commissioner Dave Kerner as individual defendants. Curley ruled that Bernard could be added but that Kerner could not.

The lawsuit is months away from being heard, and there was no ruling on its merits — only that Bernard could be individually named as a defendant. The ruling could result in the county having to provide separate counsel for Bernard.

Lawsuit: Commissioner 'exceeded scope of his official capacity'

Robling's lawyers argue that the new evidence shows Bernard solicited and ultimately obtained a $5,000 contribution made by Core Construction in exchange for seeing that the county contract was awarded to Core. The alleged conduct shows Bernard engaged in activities that "exceeded the scope of his official capacity as a county commissioner," according to the lawsuit.

Core made a $5,000 contribution to the Housing Trust Fund, the entity that successfully pushed for passage of a $200 million affordable housing bond issue in November. At issue are emails from Core’s former director of business strategy, Tara Moses, to her superiors:

Lawsuit: Two county commissioners pressured builder into making political contribution

“A few promises were made to some of the folks who assisted with getting the PBC Fire Renovations project across the finish line and indicated that a donation should be made to Hometown Housing Trust, at Commissioner Mack Bernard’s Request.”

Moses said an aide to Mack, who was not identified, requested a donation of between $10,000 and $25,000.

Why David Kerner was not added as an individual defendant

The lawsuit also alleges that the emails show that Kerner attended meetings with Core and that both Kerner and Mack "acted in bad faith in disregard for Robling’s constitutional rights.” There were no emails, though, uncovered that involved any direct communication between Kerner or his aides with Core to make a contribution to the housing trust fund.

Bernard has said he cannot comment “on the substance of the pending litigation” but added that the county attorney’s office is “vigorously defending the allegations contained in the lawsuit.”

Efforts to obtain comment from Kerner, now the executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Robling lawyers are seeking to subpoena records from the Hometown Housing Trust to determine if there are more emails that relate to allegations contained in the lawsuit.

Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government and transportation. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Mack Bernard added as defendant in Palm Beach County pay to play lawsuit