Inside the Sausage Grinder: Part II

Documents linked within this blog post pertaining to a recent legal settlement with a former employee illustrate how contentious some personnel issues can become when board policy is not followed with fidelity--and the expensive outcomes.

"Alison,

 I received three transcripts related to our settlement with Matt Selover late this afternoon from Kimberly Chappel.

 If these are a public record and do not require redaction, I intend to release them on my blog first thing tomorrow morning.

 Please advise if there are any legal or ethical prohibitions on me making these documents public unredacted, in the same form as I have just received them and in the same form the CoC has apparently received them.

 Please advise soonest.

 Thanks,

 Jeff Bergosh

Vice-Chairman and District 1 Commissioner,

Escambia Board of County Commissioners"

FROM Alison Rogers:

"Jeff, pursuant to state statute, I am of the opinion that all of the transcripts are public record and we are obligated to make all of the transcripts available."

Some of what we do in government is not pleasant-including contentious shade meetings to deal with pending litigation.  This is why there is a term related to the work of governing--"making sausage."  Making sausage is not pretty, it is downright nasty;  stuff goes in, and sausage comes out.  Most like sausage but not the process. 

As it pertains to this issue and the transcript I am going to link below from June 3rd of this year--Once the litigation with a government entity is completed, the transcripts of the shade meetings associated with the litigation become a public record.  We recently settled this particular lawsuit, and a number of individuals and media outlets have requested these transcripts already.  So they will be coming out and therefore I am posting them here also.  They are an interesting read and view into what are typically confidential discussions.

Read BCC Shade Session 6-3-2021