Tampa officials confirm former city attorney Gina Grimes is not working with the city in any capacity | Tampa Bay News | Tampa

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Pictures via Netflix

Gina Grimes goes condo shopping in the first season of the Netflix series “Selling Tampa.”

After saying former City Attorney Gina Grimes could return to the city despite resigning earlier this year, the City of Tampa has now confirmed she is no longer working for the city in any way. .

Director of Communications Adam Smith told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay today that Grimes’ last official day of work with the city was September 16 and that she is not working in any official role or under any type of contract. for the city.

Grimes resigned Aug. 5 and helped hand over his role to new city attorney Andrea Zelman until last month. The city had considered creating a new leadership role for Grimes to continue working with the city after she resigned as an attorney.

“As part of her transition out of the legal office, she investigated the possibility of the city creating an internal project manager type position to ensure accountability, efficiency, fairness, etc. on the multiple major projects of ongoing city that overlap multiple city departments,” Smith wrote via email to CL on Sept. 7. “I know the mayor would like to have Gina in this role, but nothing has been decided.”

When asked why the position didn’t work out, Smith said he assumed it was because Grimes wasn’t interested or the timing wasn’t working.

“She was an outstanding municipal attorney who would be a tremendous asset to the city,” Smith wrote.

When Grimes resigned in August, she said it was primarily because of bureaucratic rules, which require department heads to live within Tampa city limits. Grimes, named city attorney by Castor in 2019, currently resides in Pinellas County and has not lived in Tampa during her tenure as city attorney.

“Due to personal family circumstances, it is no longer possible for me to relocate to the city of Tampa,” Grimes wrote in the memo announcing his resignation.

Earlier this year, CL reported that Grimes used his personal cell phone to communicate with a lawyer who sued former councilman John Dingfelder out of office, in part, for using a personal email. Grimes declined to represent Dingfelder in the lawsuit.

Although she told city council members not to use their personal phones for city business, Grimes used hers to stay in regular contact with the attorney who sued Dingfelder, Ethan Loeb, during business hours. phone calls between December and March of this year, according to the documents obtained. by CL.

Grimes also used his personal cell to discuss property within the Tampa city limits with Stephen Michelini, a consultant for developer Jon Lum.

In Grimes’ communications with Michelini, information from the October 5 texts in Grimes was missing – two days before Grimes said the city would not represent Dingfelder.

When CL asked where the images and PDFs were, the city attorney’s office said that was how they appeared on Grime’s phone when it was scanned as part of the request made. by CL.

All of the attachments in the request for the recordings indicated that they were stored in Apple’s iCloud web storage service, but the city could not locate them, which violates the Sunshine Law, which requires that the recordings public are retained.

Grimes previously served as the city’s chief assistant prosecutor and city council prosecutor from 1985 to 2004. Before returning to the city in 2019, she worked as a land use lawyer with Hill Ward Henderson.

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