Our newspaper has been around since July 1, 1999. Over the years, we’ve stepped on more than a few toes and learned how dirty local politics can get.
Though none of these incidents will show up in Netflix’s House of Cards Season 4, they will make a great novel.
1. W.D. Childers calls
In the fall of 2001, everyone was praising the leadership of Escambia County Commission chair W.D. Childers. However, behind the scenes people were telling a different tale. They said Childers was out of control.
We published “Crazy Like a Fox or Just Crazy.” At 5:30 am on the following Sunday morning, I received a phone call from Childers. He told me he loved the cover and wanted to frame it…but his real message was he wanted me to know he knew where I lived and how to reach me.
2. Public Record Faxes
During the first Touart era, Inweekly made several public record requests of County Administrator George Touart. Every request was immediately faxed to one of our shareholders at the time.
I asked the county PIO if it would save time if we just faxed them to the shareholders for her. We began listing all our public requests in the paper and how long it took for the county to fulfill them. The faxes stopped.
3. McNesby Christmas Present
One Christmas season, McNesby’s campaign manager Rex Blackburn dropped out a gift-wrapped box at the Inweekly offices. When I opened it, the box was filled with old law books and card saying “Wishing you a Double-Jesus Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa.
I sent Blackburn a note: “Thank you for the wonderful set of law books. I couldn’t help but notice they had never been read.”
4. Calling Out The Publisher
During the middle of the Board of County Commissioners debate over who would control the county jail, Commission chair Gene Valentino got frustrated with our criticism of the potential takeover by the BOCC.
During a televised meeting, he called me out, saying that if I was any kind of man that I come into the chambers and defend myself. I just so happened to be watching a live stream of the meeting.
I walked across the street, walked down the aisle and sat on the front pew. The chairman declared the BCC agenda was too full, and he would not allow any public comment.
5. Broken window
After our cover story on the disparities between the black and white communities in our area, my office window was shattered. The culprit was never found.
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There are dozens of other incidents, but I will save them for the Walker Holmes novel.
BTW: My “Freddy’s BBQ” was King’s BBQ on north Palafox. I miss Mr. and Mrs. King Rivers.
