An inspector general late Friday cleared Attorney General Pam Bondi of wrongdoing in the forced resignations of former foreclosure lawyers Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson.

There was “no discovery of evidence of wrongdoing on the part of anyone involved in the matter,” an 85-page report written by Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater‘s inspector general, asked by Bondi to look into accusations that her office mishandled the terminations, concluded.

“The report confirms the terminations had nothing to do with politics or outside influence. Rather, it was about doing the right thing, in defense of the people of Florida,” Bondi said in a press release.

The report drew criticism from two Democratic lawmakers who have asked for an independent investigation into the matter.

“From the outset, the investigation requested by Attorney General Pam Bondi raised troubling questions. There was little to no independence as she turned to a colleague, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater to look into her own conduct and that of her office. Much like a close relative investigating as opposed to a distant cousin, the pronouncement by Mr. Atwater’s office of ‘guilt-free” is hardly reassuring – to me, or the thousands of Florida homeowners looking for protection from foreclosure fraud abuse,” Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, said in a statement.

“Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson netted $2 million in foreclosure fraud damages for Floridians and were quickly fired thereafter. The termination of these attorneys is a violation of state policy by obstructing the prosecution of mortgage and foreclosure fraud. The inspector general’s report focuses, instead, on minutiae in order to avoid making a call on the big picture,” Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, said in press release.

Sports Illustrated has its famous cover curse — where sports figures featured on the front seem to tank the next season.

But Florida Trend? The public policy and feature mag never seemed to be a place to fear, until current “Floridian of the Year” Rod Petrey ran afoul of the board of trustees at the esteemed Collins Center for Public Policy.

The board is scheduled to meet next Thursday, with Petrey, the president who was hand-selected for the job by late Gov. Leroy Collins, expected to be shown the door.

The center’s finances are at the heart of Petrey’s problems. Petrey has run the center since 1992, but its venture into administering a foreclosure mediation program seems to have undermined Collins’ finances, with those close to the situation saying upfront costs have sparked a serious cashflow problem that became evident to the board last month at a retreat.

In Palm Beach County, the Bar Association runs the mediation program, ordered to be conducted in all 20 court districts by the Florida Supreme Court in 2009. The Miami-Dade circuit recently dropped its association with Collins, heightening the money woes facing the think tank.

Merrett Stierheim, a former Miami-Dade County manager, is being positioned to replace Petrey on a temporary basis. But Petrey so far has indicated he is not willing to go, perhaps forcing an ugly ouster at Thursday’s meeting.

Petrey was named ‘Floridian of the Year’ in January by Florida Trend, earning a place on the cover and a generally laudatory story about his long relationship with the late governor, and the groundbreaking work done at the Collins Center, which includes working to develop low-income communities around Lake Okeechobee, a study on the potential effects of offshore oil-drilling in Florida, the costs of prison construction and elections reform in Florida.

Under Petrey, the Collins Center called itself the ‘think tank with muddy boots.”

“He has done a fabulous job in the past for the Collins Center,” said Parker Thompson, a Miami lawyer and Collins’ board of trustee chairman. “But I don’t predict the future.”

UPDATE: Petrey agreed Friday to step down from the Collins Center immediately; Stierheim to succeed him for now.

State Rep. Darren Soto, an Orlando Democrat,  kept the heat on Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday over her firing of a couple of high-ranking investigators probing foreclosure practices by banks and law firms.

Soto, joined by state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, asked the U.S. Justice Department to look into the May dismissals of June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards.  Bondi on Tuesday said she was confident the actions were warranted, but acknowledged she was asking an “outside inspector general” to examine the case to see if any missteps were made.

Soto, who sought documents last week related to the dismissals, said that was a good move by the first-year attorney general. But it didn’t go far enough, Soto and Sobel said.

“Public records indicate that these terminations occurred while Ms. Edwards and Ms. Clarkson were in the midst of successful mortgage fraud litigation and in spite of prior successful reviews,” Soto and Sobel wrote in their letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. 

 ”As legislators representing areas ravaged by foreclosure fraud and in the interest of our constituents, we believe these terminations present an overwhelming public concern.”

The Democrats also asked Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson to push for a probe of Bondi’s actions by ”an  investigatory agency not directly associated with the State of Florida in an effort to get the most neutral review.”

Chief Justice Charles Canady ordered judges throughout the state to open up foreclosure proceedings, responding to requests from civil rights lawyers, the media and First Amendment advocates.

Florida law already requires that the foreclosure cases be open, but judges and court officials have barred the public from attending them in part because the onslaught of foreclosures has forced some judges to hear the cases in their chambers.

“I recognize that the challenge you face in assuring that these cases are resolved properly is unprecedented,” Canady wrote in his letter to chief judges throughout the state.

Florida lawmakers gave the courts extra money this year to help manage the foreclosure filings, which have skyrocketed in the past two years. Florida has the fourth highest number of foreclosures in the nation.

Rubio’s campaign says the issue has been resolved since court documents were filed Monday. But a call to the bank’s attorney wasn’t immediately returned.

Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos said the two federal candidates from Miami had not paid their mortgage since January because of a dispute over how payments on their adjustable rate mortgage would be calculated when the interest-only period expired in April.

The two men bought the 1,200 square foot home for $135,000 in 2005 to use while they were in Tallahassee while they were state legislators. Court documents show they now owe about $138,000 on the home, including interest and late charges.

Story here.

Foreclosures could be sped up if lawmakers give the court system about $9.8 million in an era when they’re looking to cut criminal and civil justice spending by up to $500 million this year.

Judge Belvin Perry of the Ninth Judicial Circuit and chairman of the state court system trial court budget committee, told a Senate committee this morning that the courts could set up an “economic default recovery” division staffed by senior judges and hourly workers to serve as case managers until the backlog of foreclosures now clogging the judicial branch is managed.

The new division could be broken up into three tracts for homesteaded, abandoned or commercial properties.

The $9.8 million for the new division would come from the court’s trust fund made up of court filing fees.

Lawmakers increased the foreclosure filing fees last year and they went from $295 to up to $1,900, depending on the value of the mortgage.

“This is a way to take the money that they’ve paid in filing fees to give them the services that they paid for.
About 80 percent of our trust fund is generated by the filing fees in mortgage foreclosures and they’ve gotten absolutely no additional services as a result in the increase in fees,” Perry said.

Perry said that a proposal floating in the legislature that would allow mortgage lenders or banks to foreclose on properties without going through the courts probably won’t have any impact on the cases clogging the courts now.

That’s because current mortgages – more than 500,000 in the foreclosure pipeline already – are based upon contract law and must be dealt with in the courts.

Mortgages would have to be written as trusts for foreclosures to avoid being processed by the courts, he said.

“I think it would be difficult to do,” Perry said.

The seminar will include bank officials, lawyers and real estate brokers who will be available to talk with homeowners and condo association officers about foreclosure, state Rep. Maria Lorts Sachs, D-Delray Beach, said in a press release today.

“It is time to shed light on how foreclosures are impacting condominium and homeowners associations,” Sachs said. “We need to alleviate the heightened fees that remaining residents are facing, which are being imposed by associations to make up for lost revenue from foreclosures.”

Sachs said she has hosted five foreclosure workshops.

The details of the event:

Time: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Date: Friday

Place: Sachs’s Delray Beach Office, 203 NE 1st Avenue Delray Beach, 33444

After backpedaling on plans to deliver his campaign finance numbers in electronic form, Gov. Charlie Crist said today he was also not inclined to disclose his list of campaign bundlers. Last year, both Barack Obama and John McCain volunteered their list of bundlers, or the men and women who collect hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of checks on behalf of the candidate.

More on the bundling issue here. And background on previous questions about Crist’s bundling here.

Crist answered questions from the media today after visiting the state Department of Children and Families – the last in his tour of state offices around the Capital City.

Asked about news today of the deepening foreclosure problems in Florida, Crist said the best thing to do was hope the economy turns around.

With Florida accounting for one of every six foreclosures in the country and legislators showing little interest in addressing the crisis, a handful of judges are exploring ways to keep borrowers and lenders out of an increasingly congested court system.

“It’s very frustrating to recognize that consistently over the last three years we’ve sustained budget cutbacks and staff reductions in the court system and this tsunami has hit with foreclosures,” said Burton Conner, a judge in the judicial circuit that includes St. Lucie, Martin and Okeechobee counties.

That circuit has begun requiring borrowers and lenders to meet before their first court appearances, leading to many cases being settled. Meanwhile, Palm Beach County’s circuit court last week launched a pilot program to help homeowners understand options that could keep them in their houses.

But action from Tallahassee has been limited, even with nearly 11 percent of all mortgages in Florida in foreclosure – the highest rate in the country, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Foreclosures in Florida dropped from April to May but were still up 50 percent from the same time last year, according to numbers RealtyTrac released Thursday.

Story here

Read the Florida Supreme Court’s foreclosure task force interim report here | Complete the court’s foreclosure survey for homeowners, lenders and attorneys here

The Palm Beach Post editorial board today throws it’s support behind a bill (HB 1397) from Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami, to require lenders pay, within 15 days of filing a foreclosure, all unpaid fees owned to condo and homeowners associations.

(more…)