TREASURE ISLAND -- When one city files a lawsuit against another you would think the defending city's lawyers would want to be notified.

Not so in St. Petersburg, whose city attorneys refused earlier this month to accept notice of a lawsuit filed against the city by Treasure Island.

"They did not want to accept process service, so we'll just have to track down the mayor," Maura Kiefer told the Treasure Island Commission June 16.

On Friday, the notice of the lawsuit was finally accepted by St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker's office.

Turns out, Kiefer said, St. Petersburg's city charter designates the city's mayor as the only person who can accept legal notices from process servers.

The charter defines the mayor as the city's "chief administrative official". Among his duties are accepting "service of process", a legal term referring to the delivery of legal documents such as summons, court orders, and notification of legal actions.

And the lawsuit? Treasure Island is asking for a declaratory judgment throwing out St. Petersburg's demand for a wastewater treatment surcharge  of $35,000 a month -- an amount Kiefer said will total "millions" over the next 10 years.

-- Sheila Mullane Estrada, Times Correspondent