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I have established this blog as a means of transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory.

Thursday, May 11, 2023

On 1370 WCOA's "Real News with Rick Outzen" Today: Latest on Medical Examiner vs. Funeral Director Claims


 

Rick Outzen called yesterday and invited me to appear on his popular morning drive news program "Real News with Rick Outzen" this morning at 7:00.  He wanted to discuss the issues surrounding the recent claims by the Medical Examiners that there is no basis to the complaints by several funeral home directors.

A real strange story where apparently I am the bad guy for publishing some public record emails sent to my office with outrageous accusations that affect the families and loved ones of the constituents I represent.  And I was very skeptical about the veracity of these claims----- which I stated in my post.

Come to find out one of the funeral directors who wrote theses salacious, scathing letters trouncing the ME's office and reputation has now had a change of heart and wishes he would have never even written the letter.  He all but recanted what he wrote. He feels really "bad" about it.

How weird is that?  Was it true what he wrote?  Will someone get around to asking him that question??

Meanwhile, I've been subsequently contacted by another funeral director who specifically does NOT recant what he wrote and who believes things are improving but there are still issues with that ME's office.

And then I received a gruesome account via email of how another body was "butchered" by the medical examiner's office.  This one, received just yesterday, is so gross and distrurbing I am not even going to publish it.  It is stomach turning, nauseating, and heartbreaking for the grieving family member who experienced it.

So I don't know what is going on, but it sounds as if there is still some work to be done to rectify all the issues.  Meanwhile, folks ought to be careful about crying wolf then feeling bad about it, because when I get stomach-truning accounts like those letters sent to me in my official capacity----yeah, I am going to talk about it and blog about it.

Had I not done so, the media would have never covered it and we would not yet be close to a solution to the problems--which at least we now appear to be BECAUSE of the publicity this gory episode received.

Rick and I had a good discussion, which I will link here once he publishes the podcast.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I still want to know what Commissioner Barry's involvement was with those letters. If the content of those letters is what was discussed at the meeting then why did he let them write and send them?

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile Rome still burns and you continue to focus on ridiculous issues. You and Rick continue to do circle jerks patting each other on the back while the community suffers from a leadership vacuum. Horrific Alice study information, large part of community is a food desert. Please tell us your vision for long term strategic growth in Escambia county

Jeff Bergosh said...

4:40--Constituents come to us with all sorts of complaints. If put in writing they hold more weight. I can only assume that is the reason the funeral directors put their issues in writing--which frankly has led to progress being made on this whole episode. I have been contacted personally by constituents on a multitude of topics----MANY of which of which I have no oversight responsibility over. (Like the time a constituent left me a profanity laced voicemail at my office because he bought a Mountain Dew from a District 1 convenience store and the label had writing in "Puerto Rican" [sic] Spanish! But I still take in the complaints. But in this particular instance, there apparently was a pent up frustration over multiple issues including a lack of communication from the ME's office and so those letters--once they hit this blog and were subsequently mined by the local media to reach an even wider audience---helped foster conversations that are apparently leading to solutions. 1228--I know your IP address, know who you are. You are not interested in any solutions, you like to talk, talk, talk. You have no sway with any of your ideas so you are quite frustrated. Here is the thing, I could write the cure for cancer on this blog and you would find fault with the font of the typing I use. That's who you are. The ALICE issue is one which is concerning but not a new phenomenon here. Fortunately--we are a very giving community and there are numerous faith based organizations and NGOs that assist with the need created by this generational poverty and generational social dysfunction which leads to some pockets of our community never emerging from their dependency on social services, social programs, entitlements and also crime, drug use, and community blight. Folks like you, 1228 don't want to have the conversations necessary to actually address those issues because you can't get past your ideology of blame of others for the poor life choices of large swaths of our area that together manifest themselves into high crime, poor school performance, low property values, high rents, lack of private businesses and jobs. Meanwhile, that is a topic that is not germaine to the discussion on the ME's issues, perhaps it warrants its own discussion on a separate thread..