But important details must never be overlooked. To do so by one's political opponents is to be expected; to do so by the press is disingenous at best, deliberate and intentional with actual malice and in a false light at worst.
So here is what is important for folks to know, in granular, factual detail.
1. County records were stolen, this was investigated by the county, and is being investigated by Law Enforcement Authorities currently as I write this.
2. Some of the records stolen are indeed bonafide, releasable public records. However, many (if not most) of the files stolen and inappropriately disseminated are not public records and would never be released or released unredacted under any public records request made of the county, ever.
3. The records within the stolen file that are bonafide public records were not requested of me by the lawyers representing Dr. Rayme Edler--otherwise they would have been provided. We learned subsequently these texts were not requested because these lawyers opposing the county had already been provided this file by Jonathan Owens, unredacted, and outside of the discovery process in that case.
4. On June 5th the county attorney proactively reported this theft of files directly to the state attorney once it was determined that records had been stolen, disseminated by former employee Jonathan Owens unredacted, and subsequently possessed unlawfully by multiple individuals and entities.
5. An investigation into potentially criminal misconduct associated with this episode was launched and both the county and I have cooperated every step of the way.
6. Florida Statutes, specifically 817.5685, provide that mere possession of another's personal identification information, unauthorized, is a misdemeanor. If the unlawful possession by a person includes personal identification information on five or more individuals, it is a Felony. The information within the stolen files contains such information on more than 5 persons. A total of 23 citizens' information is contained in the stolen files. Cancer diagneses and prognosis, medical information, personal identification information, and reams of files that would be unlawful to release.
7. There does not appear to be an exception to this possession of personal identification information law allowing for the media to possess such information. (e.g. what specifically within 817.5685 would allow for the PNJ to possess the Driver's Licenses and Passports of my wife and children who are not even public figures? What exception in that law allows the PNJ to keep my daughter's bank account number?)
8. On June 14th County Attorney Alison Rogers, County Administrator Wes Moreno, and I met in my office with law enforcement investigators assigned to look into the unlawful theft of the property from the county and any other associated crimes. The County and I personally signed a release on the spot allowing unfettered access to these files to investigate ANY crimes associated with these files by law enforcement. (I have asked for a releasable copy of this signed waiver and would have published it here, but I have been told by law enforcement this is not releasable yet, until the investigation has been formally completed)
9. I also provided my copy of my complete, unadulterated iPhone Download contained on a stick drive I had in my safe to law enforcement investigators as well----months ago. And I consented--- by voluntarily providing this file--- for them to search it for any evidence of ANY crime. I have nothing to hide, there is no "there" there as I stated at the last meeting.
10. An analysis of my downloaded phone file that I provided to law enforcement, originally produced in February 2022, is an exact match of the file that law enforcement retrieved from the county's computer systemf a year and a half later in June of 2023--the hash files are identical. This has been verified to me by the principal investigator in this case.
11. I have also been told by law enforcement investigators that my file that I provided to law enforcement is NOT an exact match of the file that Jonathan Owens provided to lawyers for Dr. Rayme Edler. The hash files DO NOT Match, the original file has been manipulated. This has been verified to me by the principal investigator in this case.
12. The County's replevin/conversion civil lawsuit for return of stolen county property from other entities (Jonathan Owens, Alex Arduini, Gannett, and others potentially via follow on amended complaints as necessitated by facts obtained in the soon to commence depositions in this case), authorized by the BCC via a 4-1 vote, will enable a comparison by law enforcement of the unadulterated county file to these stolen files to determine what has been changed and by whom--thus the need to recover the stolen property via replevin and conversion.
13. Replevin actions have recently been successful in circumstances involving data files.
14. The iphone I had imaged and copied by IT in 2022 to preserve the files that were public was malfunctioning and was inaccessible when the staff was able to save the files and then "re-start" it. It was activation locked, and I did not delete any file or picture prior to the phone being downloaded in 2022, nor have I deleted or manipulated any file contained within that download subsequently--a fact which the analysis conducted by law enforcement confirmed when it was determined my copy is/was an exact copy of what was on the county's system a year and a half later--the hash signatures match.
15. Steve Storberger (Mike Kohler's Secretary) is upset that the redistricting of 2021 resulted in his residence moving from D2 to D1.
16. Steve Stroberger has asked county staff if he "must resign in order to sign up to run against Jeff Bergosh." To which I understand he was told YES--because that is board policy and he and his boss both know this.
17. I welcome Steve Stroberger's challenge to my seat in this election, I encourage him to pre-file immediately, and I look forward to running against him and putting our ideas, resumes, experience, and vision side by side for the voters.
18. I have never violated the open meeting law nor have I ever violated the public records law nor have I ever utilized a coduit for two-way communications with other board members to poll members outside an advertised meeting to frustrate the law. There is no evidence of such conduct in these files which I voluntarily released to law enforcement months ago because no such conduct has ever occurred.
19. I have a very robust understanding of the open meeting law--as compared to many who do not fully understand the opaque and sometimes confusing aspects of it. I have taken ethics training for 17 years and in my now 18th year in local public office I have never violated the provisions of this law nor have I ever been accused of it nor have I ever had any ethics complaints filed against me. Additionally, when I was a member of the Escambia County school board I briefly worked to seek a patent to develop a website which was legal and allowed for lawful, one-way communications by board members online--with safeguards built in to prevent the violation of Florida's open meeting laws. I did significant research and hired and paid for the top public records firm in Tallahassee to look at the web site idea in order to ensure such a web site, with controls to prevent two-way communications between members of the same board, was legal.
20. Projecting my views and opinions online, on this blog, in person, via op-eds and radio appearances and via individuals, interested citizens, and community leaders where I SPECIFICALLY DO NOT solicit or accept responses from current BCC counterparts and where no polling is conducted ----such one way projections are NOT a violation of the sunhine law. One way communications are legal and appropriate by board members--we do not have to live in self imposed isolation chambers.
From that opinion:
10 comments:
Why doesn't PNJ run this story?
And that pretty much sums it up.
(Except no, the PNJ didn't defame you with actual malice hahaha. That's one thing I like about you, Commissioner Bergosh. We can argue this until the cows come home and still get along and work towards good things together. Thank you for that.)
Mel invite Mike Kolher an wife over christmas prepare a nice dinner yall could have a exchange of ideas and a nice time of fellowship.
I don’t like anonymous so my name is Steven Bursey
Would your conversation with David Bear about redistricting be considered a public record you would have to provide if it was requested from a citizens.
If it is in fact not altered and was said will you apologize to Commissioner Bender for saying “hopefully Robert will keep his “”” mouth shut “ ? If you did say are you embarrassed everyone has seen that ?
Show us. Side by side by side. What has been altered by the PNJ? How are they different? Let’s see them, custodian of record.
It's truly nice to see your name pop up, Steven. Hope you and your family are doing well.
I agree that Commissioner Bergosh should address this with Commissioner Bender publicly--just rip the scab off and tell him what he might have been angry about at the time.
Otherwise, it stands a chance of just festering and will never, ever be totally good between them on the dais again. Everybody gets pissed from time to time; in politics, everybody gets pissed at everybody from time to time. I've been absolutely furious with Commissioner Bender in the past, when he was chair during the worst days of the EMS debacle. I tried to contain my anger towards him individually in public, but wasn't always able to, with jail time for innocent people hanging in the balance. I did express it directly to him privately--and pulled no punches--but that's something that Commissioner Bergosh doesn't have the luxury of doing, assuming it was something that happened on the dais. Since then, I've come to have a more complete understanding of the games the past administrator was running, and how that impacted people's understanding, and that resulted in supported Commissioner Bender in his last race and being really grateful of a lot he accomplishes on the dais. His recent vote against Kate Kenney's money not being one of those times; I'll never understand that, but I'm over getting angry about it. Not so a few years back, and I had every right to be angry, although I have since apologized for not understanding how potent some of the administrator's gaslighting of everybody Downtown actually was. She's one of the best.
Then there's that thing in politics today--NEVER. APOLOGIZE.--that has become one of the many embarrassing Trump copy-cats that has bled out into society and is partially at root of our descent into Lord of the Flies crumbling of the bonds of civilization. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, in any capacity, *especially* when you know that you owe an apology, then you *really* don't do it. Nope nope nope nope.
That's a trope at this point that's as meaningless as a meaningless apology.
Commissioner Bender deserves an apology, but Commissioner Bergosh also deserves to be able to say what he was so angry about. Gee, what might be the result of that very simple idea? Robert feels better, Jeff feels better, everybody feels better--you know, the reason for apologies and good people working things out to begin with, a deeply necessary human transaction that the Trumpifying of our culture has smashed to smithereens.
Conversely, maybe they could participate in the Peruvian tradition of Takanakuy this year instead of Christmas, have a fist fight, then toss one down together and happily move onto the New Year:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takanakuy
One awesome thing about that scenario is we would get a whole nother round of ECW coming absolutely unglued at photos of happy people celebrating important moments. Because laughter is also a good medicine.
The thing is, the people in the DOH complaint were not innocent.
JB handed out a free ceu. Kate said she "got it done"
You all did talk about a non interference clause for commissioner's to not interfere with staff. You didn't pass it and you did begin to interfere.
Of course you didn't have a functioning merit protection board.
Even though the AMA was ridiculous, why didn't you just remedy it and get the training May 2019.
It happens.
Instead everyone up the chain bailed.
Can't some one say .. oops. Sorry.
"I'll fix it. "
I think the pissing match would also be an alternative.
I think Robert did keep his f#%*ING mouth shut. 🤔 Steve @839
So why would Bergosh
need to apologize for hoping Robert kept his f%$*ING mouth shut?
Uh uh uh.. uh uh...
LOL.
What is also going in on I think is you are timing this out and hope you get reelected.
Just keeping a lid on it. Until after that.
Of course having personal,info was bad but ya gotta admit, this is some juicy stuff.
Like the Streisand effect.
I'm sure you and Mel texting about Selover and Edler will come out.. as if..
Hard to look away.
It is public record though.
I think that's why Steven Barry prefers phone calls. 😉
I remember my Momma telling me one time, "If you REALLY don't want someone to know a secret, don't tell anybody and especially DON'T write it down."
I had no idea of the context behind that.
That was Way before email and text.
Good advice..
9:56, there's one comment above that I won't let go unanswered:
"The thing is, the people in the DOH complaint were not innocent."
The thing is, at least three of the people in the DOH complaint were not only completely innocent, not a single agency or organization presented a shred of evidence to the contrary, after punitive measures were undertaken that then had nothing to back them, despite exhaustive interviews and investigations. Which is why the charges were dropped, the records were expunged, and the County is wisely settling to taxpayer advantage, rather than letting stuff run in civil court.
Whoever the person is contributing to the serious comments on NYT Sullivan, thank you. Whether we agree, it's an important situation that people need to be aware of.
The rest has devolved into nonsense, gibberish, and noise. That makes for a good stepping off point, since it's already too close to Christmas to be talking politics. Wishing everyone a safe holiday, and keeping fingers crossed with those who care that we'll still have our democracy intact by the end of the upcoming New Year. Cheers to that hope.
The USA is a Constitutional Federal Republic, not a democracy.
Also, Under the law, innocent until PROVEN guilty.
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