I will open this blog post with a couple of points, one being: I love America and our First Amendment Right – The Freedom of Speech; and two: this post is in reference to an unexpected development that took place at a commission meeting 2 months before finishing up my term in office which unbeknownst to me spurred a citizen to file an ethic complaint. That person exercised his freedom then, and I exercise mine now, with the intent to confirm what was already truth and I pray no harm to all.
Patience is a virtue, it has been just over a month since I completed my second term and chose not to run for office of Mayor for the city of Lake Helen for a third term-it is in the end that Time will reveal all Truths.
I received an early Christmas gift in the form of a letter from the Florida Ethics Commission dismissing case number 21-161 on all counts on the basis that there was no sufficient legal base to merit an investigation.
Getting an ethics complaint is not what any person wants, least to say an elected official … and in the spirit of humor, looking back with a chuckle in tow, I suppose you’ve not experienced the full vim of politics if you don’t get one ethics complaint along with a petition to recall your seat (from perhaps 20 citizens to include one commissioner who has chosen to defend an employee and not keep the oath to his office – the interest of the citizens and the future of the city). So, in that spirit, I am grateful to say I can check those items off the list of things that qualify me as a full fledged politician.
What I was not expecting was who the complainant was… all this is a matter of public record, for blog purpose I will make up a name for the complainant simply because I believe in the good Soul of the person complaining, and maintain that I do not support the intention in which it was initiated. I will share relevant documents as to support the theme of my post “The Truth Will Set You Free”.
Due to instructions by the ethics commission I was not able to share this incident until their investigation was complete.
Let me set the stage going back to when I first took office, that’s about the time that I met Mr. Ex (complainant). He was very involved in our community, it seemed as if every weekend Mr. Ex was out and about our city volunteering and helping our public works, he also was appointed to the Planning and Land Development Board – a city board, which he vacated before his term was up. Additionally, he volunteered with one of the local civic groups. He was engaged civically by attending city commission meetings and speaking during the public forum at the meetings. I was impressed when he coordinated the Wreaths Across America for the city of Lake Helen. What a lovely ceremony… remembering our veterans during the Christmas holiday.
So much was Mr. Ex’s contribution throughout the year that when the League of Cities requested the city of Lake Helen nominate a citizen to receive the “Citizen of the Year”- it was I who brought up Mr. Ex’s name to be submitted. Not one on that 2017-2018 commission considered nominating a citizen, it was I who thought of our people and selected a citizen. The commissioners were more focused on staff picks.
I took every opportunity to highlight the contributions and involvement of Mr. Ex speaking of his efforts within our city and through-out Volusia County – and guess what, Mr. Ex got the award. It was commendable and I was proud for him and for our city.
In late 2018 Mr. Ex was most helpful in providing me with information regarding our namesake lake restoration project so that I may submit for a grant from the state. As I’ve mentioned throughout my personal blog on various occasions… we are all part of this tapestry called life.
While I may never know the motivation behind Mr. Ex’s action to file an ethic complaint because he never contacted me to discuss whatever may have been disturbing him.
He had formulated a story in his head and that’s where he parked it, irrelevant of anything else that may have been going on in the city’s political arena. I was judged and hung without a fair one-on-one conversation.
From reading the complaint I conclude this to be the Backstory: I believe there were a couple catalysts that contributed to the course of the trajectory of this complaint, one being the resignation of the previous city administrator (who use to be our city clerk) back in November of 2020, and the second catalyst was due to the then deputy clerk contracting covid (for time-line purpose, this happened right after the resignation of the previous city administrator), and for over 5 months she was relegated to work from home, part of her duties was to do the meeting minutes and reconcile the accounts… (which, as reported by the current city administrator, accounts were not reconciled and minutes were behind. This former city clerk failed to provide those minutes and the city had to hire someone temporary to catch up all the audio files into written minutes while still paying her to ‘work-from-home’) …needless to say, she eventually resigned in early 2021.
I would hear bits about the state of the accounting from staff and I would inquire with the new (current city administrator) about the process and if things were well. I could not understand why the previous administrator had not delegated the reconciliation duties to the financial firm that was contracted to do that job (they were getting paid for a job they were assigned to do but not doing)? Keep in mind, that in my opinion the previous administration was flawed and I had expressed this to the commission, which looking back it is evident that my values did not align with the sitting commission: one of them being, as tax-payers we have the right to hold our government accountable for its errors and to create solutions with oversights.
As it turned out things were not well… the city was behind in providing the minutes to commission meetings and also had not reconciled the accounts for over 7 months – things were falling behind, and in that vacuum 2 fraudulent checks were processed.
In comes Mrs. Zee. Mrs. Zee is a long time citizen of Lake Helen and her family has made many contributions to the city. Because of this, she knows a lot of people and a lot of people know her, she has no problem speaking her mind and walking into the city administrator’s office and having a “talk-down”. Mrs. Zee gets word that fraudulent checks were issued and apparently the perpetrator forged the public director’s signature. (The public director is now retired)
See how all this is looking? People resigning and people retiring.
I happen to be in Orlando at a conference for the League of Cities when Mrs. Zee calls me inquiring about the matter. In my telephone conversation with Mrs. Zee, I told her that I did not have all the details, that she could make a public request for documents and that I’m sure it’s being investigated. I suggested she contact the city administrator for more information. Before hanging up she vehemently asked should there be fraud would I pursue a full investigation. I assured her that if there was such a finding… that I would support an investigation and additionally that I would support establishing policy and procedures to avoid such things happening again in the future. That was that.
Lake Helen is a small beautiful town… it’s so sweet and peaceful that gossip is the main attraction, and some people depend on it as if it were oxygen.
Comes the September 2021 commission meeting – the topic of the fraudulent checks came up for discussion. The majority of the commission agreed that this was a grave matter and it should not be ignored, and that the best course of action first is to do an internal investigation which would include working with the bank as well as reviewing the city’s process and as things progress the next step would be to assess that progress and then… based on those findings escalate the investigation. Zone 1 commissioner put a motion for a full FBI and Attorney General investigation (the motion did not mention the city to investigate or review process or policy). I asked Zone 1 commissioner if she wanted to revisit her motion and she said no. The votes were cast, it was 4 nayes and 1 aye (Zone 1).
This is where Mercury hit the ceiling and Mrs. Zee, who had attended the meeting, jumped out of her chair and shouted out to me something to the effect (probably with some explicit words) how dare I vote no after I told her that I would support an investigation. Order was re-established in the meeting, I asked the commission if anyone wishes to place a motion to initiate an internal investigation so we could establish how to proceed, one of the commissioners placed a motion to that effect and the commission unanimously voted yes on doing and internal audit and investigation and to have administration report back to the commission to determine the next course of action.
Very shortly after, I received a letter from the ethics about the stated complaint from Mr. Ex. There were 5 allegations against me. ALL were dismissed, in effect implying that the complaint did not merit an investigation for lack of legal substance. I particularly want to bring to attention the response from the Ethic Commission to one of the allegations against me:
“To conclude that the subjects of the citizens comments were the Respondent’s (that would be me) political opponents or those she disliked is, therefore, a leap of logic, and, regardless, this still identifies only a detriment to these individual, which is not a sufficient basis to commence an investigation”.
I was dismayed that “LIKING” someone or NOT was an allegation. Are we in kindergarten? or the Twilight Zone? As a side note there is a t-shirt for sale in the Lake Helen Museum with the print: “Lake Helen where Mayberry meets the Twilight Zone”.
In the course of my nearly 60 years of life, I have worked and collaborated with many people. To have someone who does not know me intimately claim to know who I LIKE or DISLIKE is quite pretentious. I have met ugly people…(not referring to physical appearance), ugly in the sense of moral-compass, specially in the course of my tenure as a Deputy Sheriff – I can tell you that as Mayor and Elected Official I have met much more ugly people and what makes them dangerous is that they hide behind smiles and good deeds.
To NOT approve someone’s actions is simply that- has nothing to do whether you like them or not. Anyone that has been a parent can understand this concept. I would ask anyone that has ever had a one-on-one with me, whether I was at an event volunteering, helping out, collaborating or working with… (and to the reader… who has had the opportunity to interact with me) I would ask please take a moment and assess my character based on YOUR personal interaction with me. Do YOU doubt yourself or are you so gullible to believe the gossip? There is an old saying: Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.
Point is… I was not the one that ignored an issue, as a matter of record… it was I who rang the alarm so that the sitting commissions could have the opportunity to make a policy decision to ensure that “houses not get placed on city land, that records get processed correctly, that permits have proper review, and that fraudulent checks get investigated” – last I recall, when someone forges a signature and creates a document to look like a check – that is fraud. Too bad the sitting commission was more concerned with ‘appearances’.
As Mayor, I focused on the “collective” Lake Helen while representing my core values based on God, Love, Honesty, Family and Truth… for the most part, we the tax-payers end up carrying the weight hoping that people in office or administration uphold those values.
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I believe that on the part of the complainant there must be some underlying issue for this complaint or perhaps I did not align with his personal values – unfortunately elected officials are walking targets out on display – it comes with the territory. To conclude, there is a saying: Hurt people, ‘hurt’ people.
Too often we humans spend much time nourishing resentments, and condemn people based on preconceived notions. We as individuals and as a community could benefit from letting go of our resentments so we can all heal.
