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| Commissioners that attempt to influence staffing decisions via unlawfully directing staff can face SIGNIFICANT punishments |
Grady Albritton was a county commissioner in Escambia County when I was in High School. I remember reading about him in the early 1980s as a youth growing up in Escambia County.
I remember he was a real character, really outspoken and strident.
Lots of folks don't remember how his career came to an end, though---but it had a lot to do with
improperly utilizing his position as a County Commissioner do direct staff and make the staff his proxy in employment and employee discipline matters.
But employment decisions are outside the scope of a County Commissioner's duties and responsibilities. This is an axiom of local governance that many citizens do not realize---but that every elected Board Member ought to know: Commissioners legislate, but administrators operate and execute.
With Albritton, the lines became blurry and folks started resigning.
So upon re-reading that
case and seeing as it seems eerily, uncannily similar to some things happening right now in the county--I felt like pulling it off the shelf, dusting it off, and publishing it. This might enlighten some folks about what our jobs are as commissioners, and what are jobs are not.
And this is a good thing.
Because
"those that do not know their history are destined to repeat it"--as philosopher George Santayana aptly noted.
So I would encourage readers to take a look at the first District Court of Appeals case
Albritton v Gandy. The commissioner lost the case and was hit with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and penalties------a lot of money in today's dollars but a HUGE amount 30+ years ago.
Then I'd recommend interested persons read the
Florida Division of Ethics file on the same matter. This one is very interesting--- as it finds that a commissioner directing staff and intimidating staff to make employment decisions on behalf of said commissioner puts such a commissioner in violation of 112.313 (6) Florida Statutes. From that order:
"The Respondent "used or attempted to use his official position" as a County Commissioner for Escambia County by using and attempting to use his influence over County employees to have Louise Gandy terminated from her employment at University Hospital and no longer used as a part-time relief EMT for the County.
4. The Respondent was acting to secure a special benefit for himself through exacting retribution against Louis Gandy for her failure to support him during the 1983 runoff election for the Board of County Commissioners and for supporting his political opponent. In a prior complaint, In re Clyde J. (Buddy) Wise, 6 FALR 6366 (1984), the Commission found that a county commissioner had violated Section 112.313(6), Florida Statutes, by using his influence over county employees to have adverse personnel action taken against the complainants, who were county EMT's who had supported the commissioner's opponent in an election. In that order, the Commission stated:
The use of one's office for retribution in this fashion constitutes a 'special benefit' for oneself, as the natural result of such an act is to increase a public official's power and influence through intimidating the political actions of employees who otherwise might support an opposing candidate.
Similarly, here, the Respondent's actions constituted and were intended to result in a "special benefit" for himself."
