Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation, told Inweekly that City Administrator Eric Olson crossed the line when he called the boss of Melanie Nichols, president of the North Hill Preservation Association.
Petersen is considered an expert in Florida Sunshine laws. She was the person that Mayor Ashton Hayward and Tamara Fountain brought to Pensacola in August 2013 to train city employees on Sunshine and public record laws. The training was in response to a scathing report by the State Attorney’s Office regarding how the city was handling public record requests.
State Sen. Don Gaetz has called her “Florida’s respected guardian of open records, open meetings and open government.”
When asked about Olson calling Nichols’ boss, Petersen told Inweekly, “Calling the requester’s employer is outrageous and chilling and interferes with her constitutional right of access.”
Olson has been unapologetic —-following the pattern of the Hayward administration of “doubling down” on a mistake and acting like nothing wrong happened.
Mayor Hayward has been silent. Was Olson following his orders when he made the call to NAS Pensacola? Did the mayor approve Olson’s mandate that city employees not answer emails from federal government accounts?
Melanie Nichols, the homeowners’ association president targeted by Olson, had her attorney send the mayor a cease and desist letter on July 20. Hayward’s response was to make Olson fully in charge of the city when COO Tamara Fountain resigned on Aug. 10. It would appear that Olson has been rewarded.
If Mayor Hayward is behind the targeting of his citizens, then this episode takes on a “Watergate/Richard Nixon” vibe.
The mayor needs to face the media in a press conference and clear up this matter.