It was a devastating fire, and a tremendous tragedy. A citizen was lost in a large commercial fire in Escambia County last week--- and the prayers of an entire community are and continue to be with the family of this victim.
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| View of the roof of a warehouse engulfed in flames at a recent Escambia County Fires scene where tragically one trapped individual did not get out of the building alive. |
Disgusting, unprofessional, and uncalled for.
Nobody should leverage a tragedy, a death, to further labor union negotiations. Nobody. When told about this, I could not believe my eyes when I read it. I literally was sick.
And so I have subsequently requested and received the fire report, the dispatch report, and I am waiting to review additional information including recordings and potentially video from inside the large warehouse. I have asked that the county ascertain if this situation was really due to a "lack of resources" as insinuated by the fire fighter's union. We all want to know what happened and what could have been done. We will know, because this is being investigated by the county and the State Fire Marshall. So we WILL get to the bottom of what happened--and we as a board and as county leaders will take appropriate steps to fix any issues identified if needed.
meanwhile, I have subsequently spoken now to several firemen who were on the scene who have reported to me that there were no shortages of resources or personnel. The report I reviewed lists 60 firemen and 9 officers on the scene. The dispatch log shows the first truck dispatched to the fire arrived just four minutes after the call came in--and three other trucks were there a short 8 minutes later so far as I have been told. Ultimately there were more than half a dozen trucks on site in very short order.
So was it really all about a lack of resources? I have my doubts and so do many others with whom I have spoken. We will know when we get the report.
I asked who it was that made the post. I'm told that when asked who made the post by Escambia County Administrative employees---the union employees would not reveal which one of the three personnel that have admin rights to this site actually made the post. "We're not going to divulge who made the post" is what the union told admin.
What a weak, feckless, and insubordinate response. No leadership in County Fire right now--a rudderless ship if this garbage is tolerated. Disgustingly unprofessional.
I've prayed for this victim, and I continue to pray for her family. I cannot help but to think of how horrible this must have been. I want us as a county to learn from this and hopefully there can be lessons learned that can help at the next scene.
But the heartless, thoughtless, cruel and inaccurate characterization that this was somehow preventable is just reprehensible.
The fire union OWES this family an apology for their uncalled for, unprofessional comments online!
32 comments:
Yes I saw on the agenda that the IAFF was in negotiations then saw the social media posts. Like clockwork.
On another note, I am so sick and tired of the people who want to grow government. The original idea for fire fighters was to keep an entire city from burning down. Why doesn't anybody point the blame where it should go -- personal responsibility. Sure accidents happen but remember Smokey the Bear? "Only YOU can prevent forest fires" and so on..
It's a disease of whiny cry babies that infects people.. all around, even during the hurricane..duh.. If people live in a flood zone it might flood..don't want to flood..move. The first 72 is on you.. Power goes out --plan accordingly..right?
Can't people haul their stuff to the dump or chop a tree limb up..
Social media is just a bunch of complainers mostly.. Turn it off. Scan it and let it go.
But yeah why do you have a sand pit next to eleven mile creek..It's up to them to look at the satellite photo and figure that out though..
I'll always be fair to the taxpayers and the union, and that immediately makes me the bad guy in the union's eyes because I WILL NOT RAISE TAX RATES on Escambia County property owners. They know this, and it burns them up with a seething, fiery rage. This is why this union, in particular, took such an active role in trying to unseat me. But they failed miserably, and have egg all over their faces as their guy took third place, distantly. It wasn't even close. Now, disgustingly, a small faction of this labor union has crossed a line and now dances, figuratively, on a victim's grave--distorting the truth about what happened at that fire. It is disgusting. I hope the honorable men and women in that union 1.) disavow this current leadership cabal that has failed 2.) apologize to this victim's family for the disgraceful, dishonest post on their union facebook page 3.) Elect a union president that will work with us to raise pay, treat volunteers respectfully, and work together as a team instead of sowing discontent and mayhem. This would be a good start!
But you will vote in the affirmative to put the “Child Tax” on the ballot. Who do you know that is going to be benefiting from the 80+million over 10 years that’s going to be brought in with no oversight? Inquiring minds would like to know!!
Not to mention EMS beat the first fire truck on scene by two minutes.
Sigh. Much as I hate the outcome of more division sewn between Fire and EMS, it was inevitable from the moment that post went up on the Union Facebook. So it's a good thing you pushed for facts, Commissioner Bergosh. EMS has enough pressures without fake news kerosene thrown on top by the Fire Facebook admins.
The sad thing is, from what I understand Fire wasn't at fault either. If people who should know are correct, the Marshall's opinion will be that this was a horrible tragedy but that nobody was negligent. Thus it's really unfortunate the Union went on this tack again. I was one of the first and only people on the string saying "This is bad; this won't work" and took the typical beatings for it.
It's just torture to see the continual chaos emanating from our Public Safety, year after year. And while yes, these tactics from Fire have never been good, the REAL problem is that
**THERE IS NO GOOD LEADERSHIP AT THE COUNTY RIGHT NOW.**
Commissioner Bergosh, you and your peers on the BOCC have two direct reports: the County Attorney and the County Administrator. Your Board doesn't just have discretion to manage these reports, but a duty to make certain that the people holding those positions have the competence and desire to work for the best interests of the taxpayers.
[Part 1.]
[Part 2 con.]
If you want to fix the Fire problem and *all* the problems at the County in one fell swoop--before you're left with cascading implosions and the City coming in for the assist with a Charter putting them in charge--then it is a matter of urgency that you address and solve the following facts:
--Your Administrator is in over her head; making bad friend hires; working her "Ethics and Compliance" department like a gulag; slashing and burning anyone at the County with the wherewithal and ethical bone to protest her self-preserving power trip; playing illegal games with public records requests and putting it off on the people below her; and lording it over multiple new multi millions of dollars of administrative layers that serve no other purpose than to provide her with bumpers of plausible deniability coming at huge taxpayer expense.
--Your County Attorney is writing horrible legal opinions, can't be trusted not to politic for Gilley and Underhill, and is so conflicted out she can't even represent the Board she serves. And yet still gives advice on the things she isn't supposed to be involved in, while she bolsters Janice and Doug's program with whatever crap, non-pertaining case law she can drudge up to keep the legal house of cards standing for another day. Not to mention the millions of dollars of taxpayer money that get thrown away, year after year, while she has one of the biggest departments at the County at her disposal. What are all those lawyers and aides for if Charlie Peppler is the only one who can litigate his way out of a bag?
--As a result of the combined self-preservation program of your Administrator and your Attorney, it has emboldened Janice's "baller" hire for head of HR, Jana Still, to conduct continual illegalities of due process that would be jaw-dropping even if the County weren't already losing a lawsuit for perpetrating exactly this thing just recently. Rumor has it she was up to engineering another doozy of broken due process just this past Fire Me Friday. Oh, and BTW, she still hasn't coughed up those records on whatever advertising job Gilley did while she continues to try to shoehorn Chris Hatch into the Chief role. (Again, this is nothing against Mr. Hatch's character or experience, but a statement against Janice's affinity for nepotism and the breakdown of productivity and wherewithal at the County resulting from it.)
Until the BOCC faces these facts, while you may have success with putting out spot fires, you will never get the inferno of the numerous orange-alert crises currently burning at the County under control.
If you want the Fire Union to see the wisdom of negotiating without using human life as a bargaining chit, that would necessitate a change of leadership in that Administrator's chair. Because that is what it will take to get the necessary re-do on the recent Public Safety hires that are already falling down on the job because they were hired to be nothing more nothing less than yes men and women for Janice.
That's really the long and the short of it. A problem here and there may get solved, but the overall direction of the County will continue to be zero sum game on who can squat over the most scorched earth until the Board recognizes the need for a clean slate up on that dais.
Anything short of that is just a broken sprinkler on a 4-Alarm Fire.
--Melissa Pino
The dipswitch falsifying the records is what caused the problems in EMS.
The rest is fall out. Janice didn't bow to Melissa's word assault with Kevin posting the address of the Medical director on social media as more intimidation so Janice is the new target of blame..Sure Edler was on a power trip..
Hearing on that libel suit is coming up.
Anyone who thinks Trump is a homicidal maniac has no credibility. Everybody knows that.
Back to the point Hunsucker is the one who published one of the comments. I thought it was against county policy for employees to do that.
Anonymous 1:16 PM,
Always amused when anonymous posters are so very brave with their assumptions, fabrications, and blatantly obvious disinformation.
"The dipswitch" was falsifying certifications? How interesting. 4 people were arrested, and one of the charges was racketeering. Guess you didn't read the counts very carefully. Or, you're only personally interested in one particular of the various witch hunts. Wonder if it was one of the cases that was bolstered by a bunch of hearsay from some very questionable witnesses, who now get to look forward to being deposed by skilled criminal defense attorneys. A very different thing from flapping your gums at will in front of an investigator.
Janice Gilley lied to me on numerous occasions, the worst of which was when she assured me that she was looking into the illegal denial of due process on the original 5 complaints, and then afterwards lied to the commissioners and told them I hadn't provided the names.
She just brazenly lied from the dais at the last BOCC meeting about those complaints getting due process, and a person with any shame at all wouldn't have been able to continue to face the room after everyone in it recognized that her answer to Commissioner Bender's question laid bare that (1) they didn't get due process; and (2) she was happy to continue to keep uttering the most ridiculous falsehoods about it.
She and Jerry Maygarden (in addition to Underhill) were so intent on "helping" Edler along on her lawsuit against me that they overshot the mark on what they were feeding her, and made her look foolish in her unsubstantiated claims against me.
But that's precious little in comparison with what County staff has to suffer under her reign of terror, day in and day out. She is corrupt ten ways til Sunday and just cashing it in at this point, driving her High Five up to feather her retirement nest and sending the County down the crapper at lightning speed in the process.
It will be amusing to me to compare the results of tomorrow's election with the delusion that "everybody knows" the recognition that Trump is a homicidal maniac discredits a person. Hardly. By this point, a huge percentage of the country recognizes he is that and much, much worse.
The problems in EMS are toxic workplace, sexual harassment, rampant violations of due process, and gross fraternization, all of which are out of control under Dr. Edler's and Chief Maddrey's tenures. Janice Gilley, Alison Rogers, and Jana Still are well aware of it and have been actively working to cover it up, and continue to do so.
It must be nice to live in a fantasy world. What's happening in the County right now is so awful under Gilley's administration, I often wish I could succumb to the numbing euphoria of fantasy myself.
What's a "tar baby" It was on the social media string WEAR posted of the IAFF post.
As far as Escambia Public safety:
The Bonoyer case is on the clerk site and he is the main one in the charges. All the counts are there in black and white. The RICA charges have to do with fraud at the state level. One can look at the case and see the multitude of the employees affected by falsifying records. (Innocent until proven guily of corse..by LAW)
It put the county in a very bad position by basically practicing medicine without the proper credentials. Of course it was CE that is done over and over again.. They still probably had their license but you do not falsify the CEU with the state, as a heath care provider. I think many of the higher up resigned because they could have been held accountable for not over seeing their charges, although how would they have known? The medical direct had exposed it. I'm sure they would have rather she keep quiet and they handle it internally, like GOBs. I see others are non disgruntled and position are removed. I sure it was tumultuous to have to be there. That what one weak link and incompetence can do to an organization.
May be a hard pill to swallow but do your job and do it well or get replaced.
The employees also failed to competently bill and that was brought to light.
The ones their now are trying to overcome that and hold it together.
That's the dose of reality. I bet being out 200K to attempt to be right is a hit but it shows the High conflict.
Brer rabbit finally untangles himself...
The fire union President Gradia using social media to cast blame is unprofessional and against policy.
Mrs. Gilley can fire them too. They open the county up to lawsuits getting in the blame game.
Trump is going to win tonight.
There is a dose of reality.
Trump won-- he said so.
This whole media blitz is so disappointing from a group that are supposed to be public servants. They have a very important role in our community and we need them. Greed and the belief that anything they want, need, or request should be immediately acted upon.
It’s horrible that every tragic loss is used as an opportunity for attention. Would they be willing to say this family would not be suffering this loss if they weren’t on another call? And saying they would have had a better chance at a rescue if they hadn’t isn’t an answer.
I guess adding the paid crew at the Ferry Pass station, which had an impressive response time, a few years ago with an MSBU increase is already forgotten.
It’s time for this union to stop villanizing the BCC and administration and be a part of the organization and the citizens it serves. I’m sure if this were used we’d see better results. However they blasted that idea from a member of the City fire’s union.
Listen to the recording from this week’s negotiations on the County’s website. You will hear threats of law suits and even more greed. Listen till the end. One keeps asking for explanations and can’t believe no one researched as much as he has and doesn’t get why they don’t see it like he does. It’s because he has a self interest for more $$$$. I ask did any of them not know what the salary was, or overtime rate before they applied?
The County is going to be struggling along with its citizens trying to navigate losses from COVID and now the mandate to increase minimum wage. You can’t give the community CARES Act grants to make ends meet and then give the an increase on their property tax notice.
Sorry for getting off the subject, but it’s relative to this poor decision to take a tragic situation and use it for self gain. I agree it’s the union leadership. The boastful President doesn’t even live in Escambia County. Nick and at least 4 of the six Battalion Chiefs either live in Santa Rosa County or the City and won’t be effected by any increase.
Let’s get this group back to being the people we all admire, respect and want our children to become.
This may not be the correct forum, but it is my little sister of whom you speak and she is not "a tragic situation" for anyone to use for self gain or any other reason. I will say that our mother is becoming quite desperate to find out what happened and we have been unsuccessful. How is it that others seem to know so much and we can't even get a return phone call?
Anonymous 8:47 AM, you've expressed beautifully what so many people feel about the union's campaign. I wasn't attempting in any way to absolve them for the responsibility of what they are sewing, and have thrown down pretty hard in the past against the scare tactics, as have others.
It achieved nothing, and they have obviously decided this is their path and they're sticking to it. That's really sad, because it hasn't worked in the past, and it won't work any better now. And it impacts the firefighters who don't want the drama and feel that they aren't being properly represented. They don't speak out for fear of retaliation, and recognize that there is no recourse—none whatsoever—and zero leadership interest in County Administration and HR to put a priority on cultivating and rewarding good employees and effectively managing turmoil. Not to mention addressing the vacuum of effective and ethical leadership in Fire.
That’s why I see this through a wider lens of management dysfunction. Would it be good if the union heads recognized this is harmful and won’t work? Of course. But taken from a leadership perspective, we shouldn’t even still be talking about this. Any administrator coming into the County had one screaming priority from the first day on the job (which wasn’t soon enough after she was awarded the position, BTW), and that was to put our Public Safety right. It has been an epic and catastrophic fail by any industry standards.
While Fire may be the most public of the County’s meltdowns, and has dangerous implications for human safety and life, it is still part and parcel of the screaming dysfunction across the County right now. Our Engineering department being down almost thirty people because of a horrible division lead that Janice gladly lets run amok may not be the stuff of headlines, but it’s a grave issue. As is the fact that the County has suffered an enormous brain drain since Gilley came to her position. Right now, this County has two kinds of employees: stuck and more stuck. I hear every day that morale is the worst it has ever been at the County, and that nobody has ever seen this level of dysfunction. For a very visible manifestation, look at the debris removal. Chaos and contractors gaming the system under people who don’t have the experience, the wherewithal, or the skill set to do the jobs they have been hired to do.
Beating down the fear mongering of the Fire Union, however necessary, won’t solve what ails this County. And the BOCC won’t and can’t get anything fixed if they don’t face the more difficult, but far more necessary, action of finding and Administrator and Attorney who put their own self-interest aside to work for the greater good of staff, the citizens, and the Board they are supposed to serve.
Anonymous 1:56 PM, these two statements are mutually exclusive:
“Innocent until proven guily [sic] of corse [sic]..by LAW,” and the very next sentence that follows, “It put the county in a very bad position by basically practicing medicine without the proper credentials.”
Which is it? This is reckless click-bait with four people facing very serious charges, when you obviously don’t have the first knowledge of what has actually been happening in that department. Either that, or you’re willing to lie about it. One of the two.
I have never said that everybody was innocent of all charges. Nor have I claimed to have intimate knowledge of every aspect of their job performance, or the charges at hand. But this I do know: there was shaky memory and downright false testimony provided to FDLE. And which hopefully will come out in the depositions, once people realize that providing hazy hearsay as fact and outright lying under oath is a very serious matter.
There was and is a hell of a lot more going on in that EMS leadership than is represented on that docket, with Janice Gilley, Alison Rogers, and Jana Still apparently desperate to keep it from surfacing, from the lengths they have been willing to go to cover it up.
Since you’ve been following the cases so closely, I’m sure you saw that Jack Brown was on the list of initial depositions on one of them. Since this whole EMS mess was of his making, I really hope his better angels guide him. I’m willing to bet he is horrified by what happened after he left. It’s one thing to violate SERA to hire her to begin with, and then tank a bunch of harassment complaints in the background to cover up the initial mistake. It’s quite another to brazenly violate people’s due process in Sunshine emails, repeatedly, as Janice, Jana, and Alison have orchestrated. If they’d do that, what else wouldn’t they do?
The medical billing is a distinct issue, as I suspect you are well aware and are merely trying to muddy the waters for people who don’t know any better. It does connect with this other mess, however, as one of those harassment complaints that administration and HR shoved under the rug provided a red flag that the person who was supposed to be testing that software for compatibility was yanked off the job by Edler to be some mix of personal assistant and tech support.
It has never really been clear what the job description is when Edler adopts a pet friend in the department. What is crystal is that it usually doesn't end well for the people she manipulates in this fashion. Some of them have now found themselves on the wrong end her stick, and they have all my empathy, regardless of what has gone before, for being the victims of a predatory narcissist. Her “leadership” is a hot mess in a dumpster fire on a train wreck. And every citizen of Escambia should be asking why she is being paid as Medical Director of the jail, and where in the hell she has been as a voice in the middle of a pandemic.
Think about that. She’s such a liability nobody will let her speak, and yet we are still paying her the second highest salary at the County. (She used to be first, until Alison figured out she was getting paid more as a result of our discovery and, well, we can’t have that, can we.)
As for the results of the election, I’ll be the last person to gloat about it, as I was dead level wrong on the amount of support Trump still had. Biden will win the election, but many people including myself are absolutely demoralized to find that nearly half the voters in this country were willing to compromise themselves to ask for a continuance of hate, lies, corruption, and national security risk. Our standing in the world has already fallen so much during the last four years, it will be tough to get the respect back after this vote, and we might not ever accomplish it. So if you gauge victory by people being on the ground about the results of the election even though Biden will be our next president, congrats: you win.
--Melissa Pino (this post and the previous)
Ms. Martin-
First, my condolences to you and your family on the loss of your sister in this fire. I have prayed for your family in this time of grief--and I continue to do so. I am sorry you are not getting information as quickly as you would like. I will return your call, I'll take your call if you call me. I'll tell you what I know. But I do not yet have all the facts and will have to wait until the State Fire Marshall's report is finalized to know all the specifics. My personal cell phone number is 850-293-1459.
I typically do not dig into these investigations; I usually wait until I receive all the facts to comment or act, because I know there are multiple aspects to a fire like the one that occurred--many of which are beyond the control of the fire department to prevent.
Sadly-- I was alerted to a social media post on the fire union's page where I felt they were, very unprofessionally, attempting to utilize this tragic event to further their labor negotiations and blame the county for your sister's death. I found this to be reprehensible, disgusting, and uncalled for. When confronted on who it was that made the post, none of the three union firemen who have access to publishing rights on this site would fess up. That is being investigated, and I'm told there will be discipline handed down as a result of this reckless, thoughtless act on the part of these union employees.
But if you call me, I'll tell you all that I know. Subsequent to this post being put up, the president of the fire union has come out and said that he did not feel a lack of resources contributed to this tragedy. (paraphrased). I'm glad he said that because I know there were 70 firemen and a half-dozen trucks on the scene and they tried desperately to save your sister.
Ms. Martin, I'm so very sorry about your sister's passing. Your comment wasn't posted yet when I put in my follow-up, and I certainly wouldn't have plowed through all of that as if my perspective was more important than your words and loss if it had seen yours first. --Melissa Pino
Thank you.
Commision Bergosh. Do you agree with Pino's tort to fire the county attorney, the county administrator, the county medical director as well as the human resources director? It sounds absurd to keep reading that across many public forums.
I doubt we will be seeing false arrest claims from the employees arrested at the county after the FDLE investigation. I think someone else is living in an alternate reality.
Tar baby is a great metaphor. Do not engage.
Anonymous 7:12 PM, do you understand that citizens of this county and country have a right to redress their government? Dr. Edler didn't have any right to be suing me to begin with, per state statute, and if she had had any good advice on that to begin with from any corner of the County, it probably would have saved her a lot of grief and money.
Let's see. The County Administrator has lied on the dais about Matt Selover getting his due process. The County Attorney has participated in the illegal process of being completely non responsive on public records requests, and backed up Jana Still's due process fiasco per the Selover complaint with bad legal opinion. The HR Director has broken people's due process 10 ways til Sunday, and continues to cultivate an atmosphere where directors manage their subordinates with intimidation tactics and harassment.
What do you think that deserves, a bonus?
Do you have any idea where the morale of County staff is under this "leadership"? The worst it has ever been and getting worse every day.
If you can read that email string I posted on my Facebook page and not see what's going on, then that's your problem. I'll continue to call it like I see it. And like County staff who have to submit to this crap every day sees it. The situation at this point can't be rectified without a deep and wide housecleaning initiated by the BOCC's management of their direct reports. And if it doesn't happen, things are going to get much worse.
Anonymous 3:07 AM, you do realize that FDLE conducts the investigation but the SAO decides on the charges, right? Moreover, I never said anything about false arrests, although I suppose that could be on the table. I'm not an attorney, but I would imagine you can't have false arrests when some of the evidence might have come from mistaken or mendacious testimony.
--Melissa Pino
It should also be noted that the accused haven’t spoken with FDLE since the investigators didn’t want to with the individual’s lawyer present.
Redressing the government and interfering with employment are two separate things.
Happiness and morale is a choice that takes effort sometimes. It comes from with in. The only influence and change begins with oneself.
Just wondering: In this position I hold--I get lots of input from a variety of sources. Much is self interested rhetoric, much is slanted at achieving a certain outcome, some ridiculous, delusional fodder, and some (very little) is simply citizen concern for local government. My job is to research ALL the information, from a variety of sources including staff and independent sources like other similar governments, and line that up with policy that makes the most sense to the majority of citizens. We're supposed to be the legislative, policy side of the house, by the way. Legislative and oversight--NOT day to day operational management. But we as commissioners have, locally, crossed and blurred the line on this in a number of ways by directing staff and inserting ourselves into day to day management where we shouldn't---- and this makes it incredibly difficult to keep a solid leader at the helm. (Think Jerry Jones style "ownership" where he "hires" a coach yet stands on the sidelines during the game, telling the coach what to do, what plays to run, which players to bench, etc.... Yeah, it doesn't work well, and Jones doesn't keep coaches long, they hand him the clipboard, headphones and walk. And his team loses.....) I'm trying to change that with a non-interference ordinance but there's no appetite for that at the moment. Which says a lot in and of itself.... With respect to Melissa Pino--I have found her information to be reliable and valid on a number of issues---most notably the Paramedic case where we totally, 100% and completely violated due process; conversely, I have disagreed with and do not support some of what she espouses. Lots of it actually. Nobody is 100% right all the time--not me, not Melissa Pino, not anyone. With this said, I believe having more watchdogs rather than less is a GOOD thing.
Might want to be careful with that. The commies on What's happening P'cola hunted down the VP of the Republican Trump campaign and filed a police report then went to his profile.
He may have been a target for provocation. They use facial recognition software fake profiles and facebook and organize
The coup de etat has been in play since 2016.
Life Liberty and Levin last night was a much watch.
In case anybody is interested, JJ deposed Edler today.
All day.
Given that the woman is the female version of Underhill on lying when her lips move, this should be good.
JJ is my attorney, he is such a good man, and LAWD I would not want to be on the other side of an all day deposition when he is on fire about wrongdoings that have occurred and driving to the truth. Damn if I had lied about a bunch of stuff and was trying to keep my lies straight JJ is the last person on earth I would want to have to keep track of my lies for in an all day deposition.
Good luck, Alison Rogers. Good luck, Janice Gilley. Good luck, Jana Still.
There's a man comin round takin names.
-Melissa Pino
In case anybody is interested, JJ deposed Edler today.
All day.
Given that the woman is the female version of Underhill on lying when her lips move, this should be good.
JJ is my attorney, he is such a good man, and LAWD I would not want to be on the other side of an all day deposition when he is on fire about wrongdoings that have occurred and driving to the truth. Damn if I had lied about a bunch of stuff and was trying to keep my lies straight JJ is the last person on earth I would want to have to keep track of my lies for in an all day deposition.
Good luck, Alison Rogers. Good luck, Janice Gilley. Good luck, Jana Still.
There's a man comin round takin names.
-Melissa Pino
Do you agree with the depo on Edler and the missing text messages. Drama in real life.
Anonymous 11:37 PM,
Just to be clear, there are no "missing" text messages. The County is playing games by pretending that a public records request for text messages off County phones has to do with whatever phones they have been "monitoring" via Smarsh.
We didn't ask for what phones they are monitoring. (And the list they provided was ridiculous...employees who have been gone for years on it.)
We asked for the PUBLIC RECORD ON TEXT MESSAGES SENT ON COUNTY CELL PHONES, and the head of County IT department put up a red herring on "monitoring" text messages instead, and furthermore actually stated--I mean, for all you tech folks, he *actually* SAID this, in Sunshine email--that Smarsh couldn't capture Iphone messaging.
Seriously, it has come to that.
What anybody with a brain in their head understands is that the County owns the IP addresses on the Apple Iphones the issue to County workers, and it's as simple as contacting Verizon (who is the County's carrier) and asking them for the messages.
I've done this for myself on my ATT account to make sure I was compliant with turning over evidence. I've also pulled text messages from the County in this way, before Janice Gilley came in with her Escambia CYA Tour and took over all public records so she survey them and decide what was going to get fulfilled and what wouldn't. Which is, by the way, criminal. Let me repeat that, criminal.
--Melissa Pino
Anonymous 11:37 PM, just a bit of a clarification. The text messages aren't missing. The County Attorney's Office and the Administrator's Office are failing to comply with state law by not providing them, and pretending they can't get them from Verizon for Iphones the County has id's for. (Of course, they've got the Head of IT on the hot seat having to try to orchestrate it.)
Instead, they provided a red herring response to my request for the text messages stating that they only "monitor" certain County phones, and that Mr. Maddrey's phone wasn't one that was being "monitored." When we asked how many phones at the County aren't being monitored, they gave us a list of the phones that *are* being monitored. With a third of the list long gone from the County.
Back in the day before Gilley's administration when the County still complied with the law and produced public record, I have requested text messages (when I was tracking the activity for the day Underhill had the trees out in front of my house cut down). I had zero issue getting them, and they were provided in an Excel spreadsheet. The phone they were associated with could have been at the bottom of a Louisiana bayou. Doesn't matter--the County, as the owner of the phone, can get the texts from the service provider. Just like any owner can.
--Melissa Pino
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