The Chairman of the Tallahassee Independent Ethics Board, Richard Herring, opened the February 19th Board meeting by saying “we are in a procedural quagmire.”
Mr. Herring was referring to the fact that he had recently learned that current Board member, Lee Bushong, was not a resident of the City of Tallahassee, and therefore, his appointment by the Public Defender was not valid.
Mr. Bushong was appointed in December, 2018.
Mr. Herring indicated that any decisions made at the last meeting were potentially invalid.
This is important because at the last meeting the Board voted to hire a new Board Counsel, John Reid
Also, at the last meeting the Board voted to interview a select number of applicants in an effort to settle on a candidate to fill a vacant position on the Ethics Board. The interviews, which were scheduled to take place today, were put on hold.
You say Attack - we say ‘statement of Fact’.
You say Bully - we say ‘accountability’.
City of Tallahassee Career Wrong-Doers - which does include Meadows-Keefe - more Indictments are forth coming.
Sad? - no - simply LONG overdue.
Attempts at changing the conversation away from JMK’s culpability in the City’s numerous illegal issues has failed. Move on.
See the matters as they are; keep informed. Use facts, and don’t weigh in with mis-information to try and protect wrong doings. Other than that; you could call it pretty well.
Sad ... bullies and misogynists just digging themselves in deeper ... keep digging and let me know how the weather is on the other side.
It's exhausting watching you expend energy that gets you nowhere.
Don't you get a headache beating your head against the wall?
Hope-lessly Hoping,
Preston Scott, Steve Stewart, Erwin Jackson as well as you have a voice in this forum; just stay focused. Preston will hold his own.
Just look at Meadows-Keefe posting on facebook during City work hours saying she’s not representing the City. Really - Hope? MEADOWS-KEEFE IS ALWAYS REPRESENTING THE CITY. 24-7. WHAT A BUFFOON! FBI - a little help? Maybe she could perform an Ethics Investigation on herself. Yes - that will solve everything!
Your attacks on her are just sad, misogynistic, and being big bullies.
After all hope is in my name hopeless is in your name ... you said it not me.
Hope - this article is about the Ethics Board not the Sheriff; which Keefe is the lead of the Ethics Board. That’s why.
Mark - why don’t you take your Rocky comments to the appropriate forum; as in elsewhere?
This article had a commenter named Preston Scott who ignored corruption under Sheriff Larry Campbell and is being a misogynistic complainer and bullying O'Keefe. Yes, bullying!
You are being a parameter police and that is not what freedom of speech is all about. Please go re-read the Constitution.
Don't know why P S is so critical of the ethics board officer and not the sheriff who was the worst sheriff in the United States and a local buffoon. The sheriff did nothing regarding the murder of Mike Williams, botched the Cheryl Dunlap case, made a fiasco out of the disjointed Dispatch Center, to name a few of the many many many ways the sheriff caused great harm to this county, yet Preston Scott was always a Defender and looked the other way.
Just another misogynistic windbag that needs to shut the heck up.
With all due respect to the good intentions of, perhaps, some of the members...how about a refresher course on building on a faulty foundation? 1) The City, knowing the Independent Ethics Officer/Board referendum was going to pass by a huge margin hired the least qualified applicant to be "its" Ethics Officer first. It did this knowing this person could, with help, get shoehorned into the actual job when passed by voters. 2) Then, the City put Lila Jaber onto the board and she was allowed to become Chair. 3) At that moment the fix was in and the Ethics Board was, effectively neutralized. By hiring the City Ethics Officer as the "independent" Ethics Officer the board created an ethics process few take seriously. This is an ugly, painful truth for members of the board who want to do the right things. The reality is there is no way the actual Ethics Officer can be expected to hold accountable and investigate the very body who gave her the job at the beginning. It is laughable to think otherwise. Until the Ethics Officer is dismissed or resigns this entire "Ethics Board" will garner little respect in the community.
Meadows-Keefe = high dollar joke and has absolutely nothing to show for 5+ years. Do a public Record Request for each/every complaint forwarded to her. You will be amazed! It’s a shame because she was actually in a position to do something good for our City. FBI - just add her to your list.
Really? It is a joke the way people pick on her when we have sat here for years and watched public officials, District attorneys, sheriffs, judges, mayors, supervisor of elections, editorial board editors, publishers, City- County Commissioners, Etc participate in corruption and or look the other way, etcetera.
I am sick and tired of this whining, carrying on, and misogynistic behavior.
Leave her alone and clean-up your own backyards!
Meadows-Keefe’s job WAS to cleanup the City’s Landfill of a Backyard. She became part of the institutional problem and worked in Lock-Step With Lew Shelley (former City Attorney) & Bert Fletcher (former City Auditor). She now answers to Cassandra Jackson (wrongly appointed City Attorney) and works with Human Resources Ellen Blair to toss out legitimate City of Tallahassee Employee AND Citizen’s complaints and reports of ethics violations. Meadows-Keefe and this bizarrely set up dysfunctional COT ‘Ethics Commission’ (independent? NOT!) is also part of this problem; AND Most Certainly - is not any part of a meaningful solution of exposing massive misspending, wrongful promotions, lame and costly programs and perpetuating entitlement of the COT 20 top few...FBI can you say smoke screen?
Amazing that for the 2-3 complaints that office actually receives they never seem to have jurisdiction and they turn it over to someone else to look into the matter...like the football tickets.How much does this clown make probably 6 figures. What does she do all day since she does not have jurisdiction to look into anything? she obviously isn't looking into where the board members live.
With all due respect and the greatest respect to readers UNTIL the school board holds Rocky Hanna accountable for falsifying information to the FBI, having his brother hire a private investigator then doctoring photos after trespassing, using a false witness at the school board meeting, hiring hand pick political appointments at $100,000 each while our teachers are the 48th lowest paid in the state nobody will take our school system seriously. The board and Hanna lack any ethics! Any man that did not pay child support for 10 long years should not be a leader of any educational program!! Those that serve with Hanna have empowered a bully.
Chairman Richard Herring should have been honest and opened the meeting with a true statement.
Such as:
"We are a bunch of Duffases"
or
"We are a bunch of Dum@sses"
or
"We have Smelly Brown For Brains"
or
Well you guys are smart enough to know I could continue with this all day.
Everyone have a good day!!
Is everyone in Tallahassee hopelessly incompetent and or corrupt?
They seem pretty shameless too!
Very valid question! Have never seen such an incompetent and dishonest city government!
Its seems like everyone in and around the city of Tallahassee government is either incompetent or corrupt.
And none of them seem to be embarrssed by it in the least.
I hope they all get run over by an electric bus!
Every time I say Tallahassee is a laughing stock and can’t top their latest embarrassment they do it about a month later!! SMH..I’m keeping quiet now as I’ve learned my lesson this time.Clearly vetting to The PD Office and Ethics Board is something you do to your Cats and Dogs twice a year..
Simple solution:
Just change your name from Lee Bushong to Bill Proctor.
Any other quagmires, let me know!
I volunteer for the job! Oh darn, after 40 years of living in Tallahassee, I moved to Havana, Florida. So I guess I'm out.
Was The Ethics staff sleeping? Don’t they have an investigator?
Even if the PD appointed him, it was sloppy work by the board staff to not do at least basic due diligence. It also brings into question the awareness, alertness, and general comprehension of Dr. Bushong. Who accepts an appointment to a position they don’t know the qualifications for?
"due diligence"??? That would be too ethical.
How about this;
mr, bushnong welcome;
Are you a current resident of the city of tallahassee? No? Your not qualified to be here. Have a nice day.
Dr.Bushong is former law enforcement and his address is not a matter of public record. He is a new resident of Tallahassee and unaware of the board requirements. He was appointed by the public defender. The ethics board has nothing to do with this appointment.
You would think the PD would know. But, that's the norm for Tallahassee and Leon County for elected public officials to not live in their District and skirt the rules and laws.
There is a long way to go into cleaning up the malfeasance, incompetency and Corruption.
They can start by having Curtis Richardson divulge the content of the text between himself and the newest commissioner. If there is nothing to hide why not divulge it?
Good Grief (as Charlie Brown would say)...it doesnt project any confidence in the board when they dont even bother to vett a new candidate...Dont tell me vetting is not a requirement.. was he even qualified? or did they just take the word of the public defender? If this board is going to be effective, they're going to have to be self reliant and independant of anyone else in local government, even for investigative work. I hope they can pull it out...Tallahassee needs it!
Maybe, just maybe someone should have reviewed this fact before his appointment.....