ATU Local 1395 president Mike Lowery is stunned how County Clerk Pam Childers attacked ATU International Vice President Curtis Howard during the public forum of the county commission on Thursday, July 23.
The public is given three minutes to voice their opinions on items not listed on the agenda during the Gary Sansing Public Forum before the regular meeting. They address the commission, not the county clerk.
On his Facebook page, Lowery shared a video of Howard’s appearance at the forum and Childers’ comments after he returned to his seat. Childers made it seem like she had been a party to the bargaining sessions.
“Commissioner Bender, I would like to comment that I’m attending the ECAT union agreements that are on track,” said Childers in public forum. “There is one this Friday; I am appalled at how unprepared the union is when they come to the table.”
Not true, according to the union president.
“The Clerk of the Court – Pam Childers literally lied in this video,” Lowery wrote. “She attended one negotiating session. She completely had her facts wrong.”
The president told Inweekly in a phone interview Saturday morning that Childers was “unhinged” to speak out during public forum. “She attended one negotiation session in over three years, and now she’s an expert on our negotiations? I don’t think so.”
Lowery said ATU VP Howard was thinking about filing a complaint against the clerk for her comments and instigating a situation that led to him being escorted out of commission chambers.
“He was pretty upset, and he felt kind of degraded because if you watch the video, he was calm and collected the entire time,” said Lowery. “Childers wasn’t a party to our negotiations, but told untruths to the public and acted like she had got the power to do this.”
He added, “The Clerk of the Court. Yes, she’s elected, but she acts like she’s part of the board.”
With all due respect, it’s obvious Pam Childers had no idea what she was talking about, as the ATU and the County, led by Michael Lowery and Wes Moreno, came to a wage agreement the very next day.
I was shocked by Curtis Howard’s disrespectful treatment. It was completely unnecessary. A few of our elected officials we’ve entrusted with our county are showing us they’re incapable of putting petty personal differences aside, and focus on what’s best for the county as a whole. Instead, they’re letting their personal issues with one another cloud their judgement, and the county residents will be the ones suffering the aftermath.
I have questions regarding Pam Childers and the 401(a) retirement plan. Commissioner Underhill gave his slum dog pawn, Alex Arduini, the documents to post on Facebook about the 401(a) retirement plan to help create a “scandalâ€. As he’s done several times previously with other documents he’s freely given to Alex Arduini. Whom I recall as being previously listed as one of In Weekly’s biggest losers of the month. Now Pam Childers is saying it’s an illegal plan, that’s been in place since 1999.
Since 1999?
Then this morning commissioner Underhill is on Facebook attempting to rile up his few fans by calling for the arrests of Commissioner Barry and county attorney Allison Rogers, before all of the facts are in.
I don’t agree with the retirement payout in the least bit, but Commissioner Underhill’s vendetta has become quite clear.
My questions are:
1.) The statutes were amended in 1999 concerning the annuity fund inclusion. If that is the case and the annuity fund was removed as an option, why didn’t the forms provided to the commissioners reflect that?
2.) How did our Pam Childers not know until now that this was not an option, and allowed Commissioner Bender to receive payment under that plan at the same rate as FRS for the last couple of years?
3.) According to statute 129.09 Any clerk of the circuit court acting as county auditor, whom pays any illegal charge against the county not authorized by the law shall be personally liable for such amount. So does that mean Pam Childers also broke the law and is responsible for paying that amount back?
Commissioner Underhill’s Facebook posts below calling for arrests.
“It is not enough to just “pay back” stolen money. This is criminal behavior, intended to personally enrich those who are elected to serve the people’s interests. They met in private, lied in public, hid the truth from public records requests…the very definition of conspiracy to commit a crime.â€- commissioner Douglas Underhill
“Nancy Demlow I think we should be asking why charges have not been filed. Barry is a Certified Financial Planner…are we supposed to believe he didn’t know what he was doing? The attorney researched this program extensively, they discussed it often and in detail, drove to Tallahassee to create a “protection” of an Ethics Decision that would appear to cover their tracks.They lied about the size of the “class” of affected people to make it sound like it was about more than themselves.†– Commissioner Douglas Underhill
Pam Childers seems awfully unhinged about a lot lately. What’s really going on with her?