Rock Paper Scissors

The dispute over Southard Street is taking on the proportions of a no win fight where already the high powered pecock personalities are struting their stuff. There is enough silliness to go around. It's fun theater but in the end will benefit neither the City nor Truman Annex. A Florida federal judge had the righ idea when he ordered two squabling attorneys to settle their dispute in a fashion that could work for the Southard Street tiff.

At high noon on July 4, 2006, Bill Andersen and Bob Tischenkel, lawyers for TAMPOA and the City, respectively, together with their chosen "seconds" should meet in the center of Southard Street, just in front of the Truman Annex Guard House. There they will engage in one game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors." The winner shall be entitled to keep the street and designate restrictions on ingress or egress, traffic patterns, gates and hours of public access. If the City wins, it gets the street to do with as it sees fit. If TAMPOA wins, it gets its gate, keeps the street and can designate restrictions on ingress or egress, traffic patterns and hours of public access.

There is legal precedent for such a solution. On June 6, 2006, U. S. District Judge Gregory Presnell ordered the parties to a dispute pending in his court to resolve their squabble using the game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors." The City and TAMPOA along with the judge in their current court case might take a lesson from Judge Presnell. For their benefit, we have set forth Judge Presnell's full order below:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

ORLANDO DIVISION

________________________________________________

AVISTA MANAGEMENT, INC., d/b/a Avista Plex, Inc., Plaintiff,

-vs-

WAUSAU UNDERWRITERS INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant.
________________________________________________

ORDER

This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff's Motion to designate location of a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition (Doc. 105). Upon consideration of the Motion – the latest in a series of Gordian knots that the parties have been unable to untangle without enlisting the assistance of the federal courts – it is

ORDERED that said Motion is DENIED. Instead, the Court will fashion a new form of alternative dispute resolution, to wit: at 4:00 P.M. on Friday, June 30, 2006, counsel shall convene at a neutral site agreeable to both parties. If counsel cannot agree on a neutral site, they shall meet on the front steps of the Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse, 801 North Florida Ave., Tampa, Florida 33602. Each lawyer shall be entitled to be accompanied by one paralegal who shall act as an attendant and witness. At that time and location, counsel shall engage in one (1) game of "rock, paper, scissors." The winner of this engagement shall be entitled to select the location for the 30(b)(6) deposition to be held somewhere in Hillsborough County during the period July 11-12, 2006. If either party disputes the outcome of this engagement, an appeal may be filed and a hearing will be held at 8:30 A.M. on Friday, July 7, 2006 before the undersigned in Courtroom 3, George C. Young United States Courthouse and Federal Building, 80 North Hughey Avenue, Orlando, Florida 32801.

DONE and ORDERED in Chambers, Orlando, Florida on June 6, 2006.