County Clerk Pam Childers has sent a certified letter with an invoice for $39,670 to County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh. The invoice is her estimate of what the county’s legal department spent on the lawsuit over the commissioner’s text messages stolen from the county’s server.
Background: When voters went to the polls on Tuesday, the PNJ published Childers’ claims that morning before other media received a copy of the letter. Commissioner Bergosh’s opponent, Steve Stroberger, received 2,295 votes to Bergosh’s 1,185 on Election Day.
- The newspaper posted several articles on Bergosh and a negative viewpoint during the Early Voting period. Stroberger got 1,686 votes during that one-week period to Bergosh’s 1,031, erasing the incumbent’s lead and putting the challenger ahead by 423 votes.
- I will let you determine if the Gannett newspaper put its thumb on the scale to punish Bergosh and help his opponent.
Pam’s Reasoning: Childers claims that since the judge ruled in the case of Escambia County v. Gannett MHC Media that the county had “no possessory interest” in the text messages, “public resources were expended” to benefit Bergosh.
- She blames the county for not discussing the matter with her last November when she “attempted to determine the legality of the proposed expenditures before payment.”
Childers admits the invoice is her best guess of what the county’s legal department spent because:
- “I have previously asked for an accounting of the hours spent by the County Attorney’s Office related to this action, and absent a response, a fair cost has been imputed to you for personal legal representation.”
The invoice is based upon the average amount of attorneys’ fees expended by the defendants in defense of this action. Childers provided no supporting documents to transparently show how she came up with $39,670.
Read 2024 08-21 Letter to Jeff Bergosh With Invoice.
#notreadbypamchilders
Yep. Peacock popped right up on ECW election night. Consolidation here they come. Voters are dumb.
And so the legal quagmire continues, with no end in sight.
Is Pam’s plan to continue to tie the commissioners up in legal action for as long as she maintains her position? As much as the Underhill-Owens-Stroberger brigade is no doubt thrilling on Bergosh’s reversal of fortune (for those who aren’t aware, Stroberger posted a Facebook photo of Jonathan assisting him with his ground game on primary day, and Underhill did a last-minute, check the box–ahem–endorsement), one would think that more level-headed taxpayers are looking for some end in sight to the legal chaos.
Sadly, there seems to be no real chance of that until at least the general election, and very likely beyond. If this approach wins in court, that will set precedent that any one commissioner can be sued personally for the results of a board action. I can’t even wrap my head around the operational ramifications of that.
But what does seem certain, is that if I’m Commissioner Bergosh, no way am I entrusting the legal defense of this to the County Attorney’s office, after that office’s continual, years-long fall-down in defense of the BCC as a whole and its individual members. As someone who successfully weathered frivolous litigation at the hands of a government official made powerful by the full logistical support of the previous County administration, the only safe recourse I can see is to go find the best damn attorney money can buy and entrust him or her with the defense of this.
That person will have to overcome a strong legal backing for the Clerk’s office, for sure, but once that dragon at the gate were cleared, any competent attorney could sure enough make quick work out of extracting adequate compensation out of the County attorney’s office. Maybe at some point the BCC will get tired enough of continually losing winnable suits, a serial outcome that somehow seems to empower their attorney even more. If not, this drain on the public coffers and endless distraction will probably continue, while Downtown licks their chops at the advent of a commissioner elect who campaigned on the Charter.
It would seem the jackels who stole them and still continue to publish them should be facing jail time if indeed they are deemed private. Or at least sued for defamation to the tune of the potential loss of income as well as duress inflicted on the Bergosh family. They are insidious, ruthless and the epitome of utter and complete evil and contempt. You can’t use the law as a sword as well as a shield. They will regret this.
Without commenting on the decision making of anyone involved, $39,670 is probably low. At a low rate (for lawyers) of $300/hr that is only 132 hours of time.