Hans Ottinot
Lauderhill’s interim city attorney will earn more than a million dollars in annual retainer fees funded by taxpayers, city records show.
Hans Ottinot, who also serves as city attorney in Tamarac, was named Lauderhill’s top lawyer during a hastily called meeting Monday at City Hall. His appointment became effective Tuesday.
Ottinot and his law firm replaced Lauderhill’s previous city attorney, Angel Petti Rosenberg, whose resignation became effective Monday.
Lauderhill will pay Ottinot $85,446.30 a month in retainer fees, according to an agreement signed by Ottinot and Lauderhill’s newly elected mayor, Denise Grant.
In Tamarac, city records show Ottinot is paid $600,000 a year in retainer fees alone. On top of that amount, taxpayers pay hourly for Ottinot and his firm’s work in Tamarac on all city litigation, labor negotiations, complex real estate transactions, and utility issues.
Rosenberg, who Ottinot replaced in Lauderhill, will be paid around $35,000 a month by that city for the next five months, a “transition period” in which her firm will turn all city casework over to Ottinot’s firm, according to public records and city officials.
“It is with mixed emotions that we move on and truly wish the City of Lauderhill the best in the future,” Rosenberg wrote in her Dec. 13 resignation letter.
Rosenberg, who has worked for Lauderhill in various roles since 1996, wrote that she had made herself “available 24/7 for the past 28+ years, and the City of Lauderhill has become a part of the fabric of my being.”
She did not respond to a request for comment about why she resigned. City officials have not publicly offered a reason for Rosenberg’s quitting.
In addition to his retainer fees, Ottinot’s agreement with Lauderhill gives him wide latitude in billing certain expenses to the city. Among them are investigative costs, computerized research charges, court costs (such as witness fees), mediator fees, accounting and appraisal fees, plus expert fees and expenses, the agreement states.
Ottinot and the three to four attorneys he works with now represent Lauderhill, Tamarac, and the Broward Village of Lazy Lake, records show.
In Tamarac, Ottinot and his firm are paid $265 an hour for legal services and $125 for paralegal services, in addition to $600,000 a year in retainer fees, Tamarac city records show.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday how much Ottinot and his firm earn for their work representing Lazy Lake.
Lauderhill called an emergency meeting to deal exclusively with Ottinot’s hiring Monday and did not appear to have sent letters of interest for legal services to any other attorneys.
Melissa Dunn, the lone commission member to vote against Ottinot’s contract, pressed Interim City Manager Kennie Hobbs Jr. for answers about how Ottinot became the city’s lone candidate. She received little information from Hobbs in response.
Lauderhill commission members voted 4-0 to approve Ottinot’s hiring, with Dunn disallowed from voting because she attended the meeting remotely.
Ottinot – who has also done lucrative work as a political consultant – has been trailed by allegations of impropriety over a long career in municipal law.
He has forged political alliances with politicos in both Miami-Dade and Broward Counties over the years, including Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton.
Formerly the city attorney for several cities, including North Miami Beach, Ottinot resigned from that municipality in March 2023 rather than be fired in connection with a wide-ranging legal dispute.
He was fired from the city attorney job in Tamarac in May 2021 and later rehired in December 2022 at Bolton’s behest.
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