County Commission ignores rule of law
The Florida Crown Affair continues
Columbia County, FL (posted May 26,
2009)
By Stew Lilker
Com DuPree started the
Florida
Crown Affair in February. He has yet
to produce any information to
support his 12th hour motion.
The Florida Crown Affair took another twist in
Columbia County at the May 21, 2009 County Commission
meeting. Operating on the fringes or outside the law is
nothing new for Columbia County and they did not
disappoint at the May 21st commission meeting, proving
once again that operating in the shadows and surprising
the public is what they do best.
The Florida Crown Affair began three months ago on
February 19th, with Commissioner Jody DuPree’s
twelfth hour motion to withdraw from Florida Crown.
Three months later, after Com. DuPree and the rest of
the Columbia County Commission have caused the waste of
tens of thousands of dollars in time and the production
of thousands of pages of documents, Columbia County
remains in a fog regarding the functions of Florida
Crown.
On March 5th the County Commission unanimously passed
a resolution,
Resolution 2009R-9, stating that they had
determined that Florida Crown “has been both ineffective
and non-responsive to the employment and job needs of
Columbia County ... and it is no longer in Columbia
County’s best interest to remain a member of the
consortium or party to the Interlocal Agreement.”
Resolution 2009R-9 went on to state, “This resolution
shall be effective May 15, 2009, unless rescinded by
action of the Board of County Commissioners prior to
that date.”
Florida Crown is one of the top performing
work force boards in the state. Columbia County has
never produced any information to support Commissioner
DuPree’s motion, other than six purported letters of
complaint which suddenly appeared at the county under
questionable circumstances.
On May 13th, in order to evade the Florida Sunshine
Laws, Commissioner Stephen Bailey, County Manager Dale
Williams, and their unlawfully retained counsel, Greg
Stewart of the high profile Tallahassee law firm, NGN,
met with representatives of Florida Crown and their
attorney two days before the County Commission’s self
imposed deadline of May 15th to rescind their resolution
withdrawing from Florida Crown was to go into effect.
At the conclusion of the May 13th meeting it was
reported that County Manager Dale Williams pointed out
that there was “still the matter of the resolution
hanging out there.”
Mr. Larry Thompson, the Chairman of the Florida Crown
Workforce Board, replied that withdrawing the resolution
would be a gesture of good faith, but ultimately this
appeared to him to be a Columbia County problem.
At this point, Columbia County had one day to
withdraw its resolution or, by their own words, they
were out of the Consortium that represents the working
families of Columbia County.
Columbia County failed to act. On May 15th, at
12:01am, Columbia County was officially withdrawn from
the Florida Crown four county Consortium.
Everyone the Observer spoke with was relieved and it
appeared that the final chapter in the Florida Crown
Affair had played out. Columbia County was gone from the
Consortium and the folks at Florida Crown could get back
to what they were supposed to be doing as the employment
agency for the four county region, helping folks find
jobs and training.
In a county that believed in the rule of law, the
story would have been over, but in Columbia County, the
saga continued, as the county schemed, once again, to
evade the rule of law.
As the days counted down toward the May 21st County
Commission meeting, the county was silent about their
plans and when, on May 15th and again on May 20th the
county manager posted the Commission agenda on the
internet, all that was written about Florida Crown was
“Stephen Bailey, Chairman -- Florida Crown Workforce
Board Withdrawal Update.”
Chairman Bailey reads from a
prepared statement.
It appeared that the update was going to only be
three words, “We are gone,” but, this was not to be and
in a carefully choreographed minuet, Commissioner
Stephen Bailey
read from a prepared script and claimed that “Mr.
Thompson has asked that we withdraw the resolution based
on a good faith effort that we will resolve all the
issues at hand.”
Hanging the whole affair on Florida Crown Board
Chairman, Larry Thompson, Commissioner Bailey went on to
say, “So at this time for the update, I am bringing to
the board Mr. Thompson’s request that we withdraw our
resolution based on the good faith effort.”
After the meeting the Observer spoke with Chairman
Thompson and asked him, “Did you mean the County should
withdraw their resolution whenever they wanted, or by
the fifteenth, as the resolution stated.”
Chairman Thompson answered, “I meant by the
fifteenth.”
The Observer asked, “What do you plan to do now?”
Chairman Thompson answered, “We will have to see how
this plays out. Right now we have to do what we are
supposed to be doing, helping the people out there that
need our help.”
