*Has backroom dealing become Escambia County’s new preferred governance style?*
Whispers of possible violations of Florida’s Sunshine Law have been heard in McGuire’s Irish Politicians Club and private clubs like The Establishment, Harry Roy’s and the Pensacola Yacht Club. Too many Escambia County Commission votes, particularly surrounding the Chappie James Monument and TDC, appear to have a backroom element.
The recent News Journal article about County Commission Chairman Mike Kohler privately meeting with County Clerk Pam Childers over Kohler backing Childers’ effort to make former Commissioner Jeff Bergosh pay legal fees for a lost lawsuit had a telling sentence:
- “With the addition of newly elected commissioners Steve Stroberger and Ashlee Hofberger, Kohler said he may have the board votes needed to pursue legal fees from Bergosh.”
What did Kohler actually say? We don’t know because only the PNJ was invited to the meeting.
ANOTHER POSSIBLE CLUE
At last week’s board meeting of the Santa Rosa Island Authority, Board member Bruce Childers said that he had two votes to get $15 million for beach renourishment:
“Why are we dealing with TDC? They’re just an advisory board. They don’t carry any weight at all. I agree with you. Seriously, that was a reason I wanted to go to the county commissioners about this beach renourishment. Forget about the TDC and they’re the ones that are going to vote on this. The TDC ain’t vote for anything.”
He added, “We got Steve (Stroberger), we got Mike (Kohler), you got Ashley (Hofberger), we got three votes right there. You got Lumon (May), and hopefully, you got Steve(n) (Barry).”
We know the “you” was directed to SRIA Executive Director Mike Burns. But who is the “we” that Bruce mentions? He and Pam?
- How does Pam’s husband, Bruce, know that he has these votes? Has he talked to them individually or together? Even if he met with them individually, did he tell each whose votes he had in his pocket?
WHY THIS MATTERS
For nearly two years, the once-daily newspaper and Pam pushed the state attorney’s office to investigate Bergosh and businessman David Bear for alleged Sunshine Law violations. The allegations stemmed from text messages exchanged between Bergosh and Bear regarding county business.
The News Journal and Pam received the text messages from former County Commissioner Doug Underhill’s aide, Jonathan Owens. Owens said the records—60,000 text messages and 1,600 photographs from Commissioner Bergosh’s personal phone messages—mysteriously appeared on his desk.
“I said a thumb drive showed up in my office when I was still working at the county, and lo and behold, it had all Commissioner Bergosh’s text messages on it.” – Owens
Instead of reporting it to the county administrator or attorney, Owens kept the documents and gave them to attorneys suing the county – more than a year later.
- An Escambia County grand jury investigated the allegations against Bergosh and Bear and found no evidence that a crime had been committed.
Last summer, we learned that the county’s IT director, Bart Sider, had given the records to Owens. The state attorney gave Siders immunity to receive the testimony. Owens faces state ethics charges.
CURRENT CONUNDRUM
Why aren’t Pam and the PNJ investigating Kohler, Stroberger, and Bruce’s communications?
- Too many discussions out of the sunshine with only a PNJ reporter at the table. But what is really happening behind closed doors, and why have WEAR-TV, Inweekly, NorthEscambia.com and WUWF been excluded?
The same players who cried foul over Bergosh appear comfortable with private meetings and pre-arranged votes when it serves their interests. The public deserves better.
Note: No records were stolen from the county’s servers to write this post. The PNJ article is on their website, and the SRIA board meeting audio can be found on the SRIA website.