It's late, and I just finished a very unpleasant task. VERY unpleasant!
For those of you who don't know, the State of Florida has a law called the "Sunshine Law." It was passed years ago in an attempt to circumvent the dirty, underhanded dealings between large land development corporations and the local government officials, who were inevitably "purchased" by those corporations.
The Sunshine Law dictates that anyone in public office must make full and continual disclosure each and every time they discuss anything relating to public business, whether they are talking to a staffer, another elected official, or a member of the public.
Of course, the people who were/are doing the dirty, underhanded business did not, and are not, disclosing anything. But, this law has made things very awkward for those who are honest.
Recently, our city had the bad luck to appoint a real jackass to a position on one of our advisory boards. I wish someone had asked me about that guy. He lives across the street from me, and I know him all too well. I would have begged them not to give him any quarter. But, that is "water under the bridge" now.
This guy created such a mess of the advisory board that it became nonfunctional. He was confrontational in every discussion. Nothing was ever resolved or concluded in the board's meetings because this guy was bent and bound to make the board a soapbox for his incoherent ramblings. He had everyone scratching their heads and ducking for cover. When the city manager's office and a number of other staffers had their fill of the nonsense, they advised the city council members of the situation. Eventually, a few "showdowns" in council meetings convinced the council members that this guy was bad news. He was asked to step down from his position and when he refused, council voted to disband that advisory board, just to get rid of him. A real shame, to be forced into such a rash action because of one, idiotic "loose cannon."
That was just the BEGINNING!!!!!
This guy got so mad about being dissed by council and vilified by the advisory board members that he has gone off on a vicious vendetta. He has filed formal complaints with the State Attorney's office, and is forcing the city to hire an outside attorney to defend its actions and the actions of certain individuals. He is targeting staff and council members, one at a time, to turn over all their email records relating to city business. Technically, he has the right to do this, but it is utterly ridiculous. He doesn't need to present any valid reason for it, he can just do it, because of the Sunshine Law.
This man has lived right across the street from me for ten years, and I know him all too well. He is infamous in this neighbourhood for his craziness. We all avoid contact with him, to the point of taking alternative roads out of the neighbourhood just to avoid him. His girlfriend, when she is not taking her meds, goes nuts and stands in the middle of the street in her nightgown with a baseball bat, blocking traffic and swinging it at any car that tries to pass. We have had her hauled in by the sheriff's office so many times, we've lost track. He got her a position on another city board, but she got thrown off that quickly. When she gets taken into custody, he runs over to the jail and bails her out, then stays in a hotel while she rages around for a while. After a week or so, he comes back and makes her take her meds again, and peace returns to the neighbourhood.
Anyway ........ back to my story .... this afternoon, my representative on city council called me, quite distraught. This nut case is now demanding all of her email records, and that includes anything on her personal, home computer that relates to city business. When I talked to her today, she was almost in tears. She has taken her computer to a tech who says he just can't retrieve those records for her. Seems her hard drive crashed a while ago and the data is not retrievable. So, she is asking everyone who has her personal email address to send her any emails we have exchanged with her regarding city business.
UNFORTUNATELY ...... I save everything - every email I send or receive - every last, blessed one of them - as a matter of course. I know, it's an anal-retentive sort of thing to do, but I do it. I save them in organized files, sorted by the person I communicated with. So, I have a record of every email she and I have ever exchanged. I have spent the last two hours sifting through her file and forwarding all the old stuff back to her. Anything related to city business. I want to be honest, but some of those emails are intensely personal, because she is also a close friend of mine, and I am not sharing those emails. I will NOT publish personal stuff. I sorted out 60 emails that talk about city business, and forwarded them back to her.
Curses on the Sunshine Law. It did absolutely no good at curbing government officials from doing wrong. They continued their "influence peddling" unabated. But in this obscure case, it has caused no end of grief for decent, honest officials and innocent citizens like myself.
I feel personally violated, now. I want to CHOKE that stupid, narcissistic, angry neighbour of mine. I want him and his woman to leave town, for good. I want this all to be over. Next thing, I will be one of the people called in to some sort of kangaroo court, with my personal emails published in the local paper. It's not like I ever wrote anything nasty, or improper, (I didn't) but when I sent those emails, I felt that my privacy was going to be honoured. Now, my crazy neighbour is going to read my emails.
For those of you who don't know, the State of Florida has a law called the "Sunshine Law." It was passed years ago in an attempt to circumvent the dirty, underhanded dealings between large land development corporations and the local government officials, who were inevitably "purchased" by those corporations.
The Sunshine Law dictates that anyone in public office must make full and continual disclosure each and every time they discuss anything relating to public business, whether they are talking to a staffer, another elected official, or a member of the public.
Of course, the people who were/are doing the dirty, underhanded business did not, and are not, disclosing anything. But, this law has made things very awkward for those who are honest.
Recently, our city had the bad luck to appoint a real jackass to a position on one of our advisory boards. I wish someone had asked me about that guy. He lives across the street from me, and I know him all too well. I would have begged them not to give him any quarter. But, that is "water under the bridge" now.
This guy created such a mess of the advisory board that it became nonfunctional. He was confrontational in every discussion. Nothing was ever resolved or concluded in the board's meetings because this guy was bent and bound to make the board a soapbox for his incoherent ramblings. He had everyone scratching their heads and ducking for cover. When the city manager's office and a number of other staffers had their fill of the nonsense, they advised the city council members of the situation. Eventually, a few "showdowns" in council meetings convinced the council members that this guy was bad news. He was asked to step down from his position and when he refused, council voted to disband that advisory board, just to get rid of him. A real shame, to be forced into such a rash action because of one, idiotic "loose cannon."
That was just the BEGINNING!!!!!
This guy got so mad about being dissed by council and vilified by the advisory board members that he has gone off on a vicious vendetta. He has filed formal complaints with the State Attorney's office, and is forcing the city to hire an outside attorney to defend its actions and the actions of certain individuals. He is targeting staff and council members, one at a time, to turn over all their email records relating to city business. Technically, he has the right to do this, but it is utterly ridiculous. He doesn't need to present any valid reason for it, he can just do it, because of the Sunshine Law.
This man has lived right across the street from me for ten years, and I know him all too well. He is infamous in this neighbourhood for his craziness. We all avoid contact with him, to the point of taking alternative roads out of the neighbourhood just to avoid him. His girlfriend, when she is not taking her meds, goes nuts and stands in the middle of the street in her nightgown with a baseball bat, blocking traffic and swinging it at any car that tries to pass. We have had her hauled in by the sheriff's office so many times, we've lost track. He got her a position on another city board, but she got thrown off that quickly. When she gets taken into custody, he runs over to the jail and bails her out, then stays in a hotel while she rages around for a while. After a week or so, he comes back and makes her take her meds again, and peace returns to the neighbourhood.
Anyway ........ back to my story .... this afternoon, my representative on city council called me, quite distraught. This nut case is now demanding all of her email records, and that includes anything on her personal, home computer that relates to city business. When I talked to her today, she was almost in tears. She has taken her computer to a tech who says he just can't retrieve those records for her. Seems her hard drive crashed a while ago and the data is not retrievable. So, she is asking everyone who has her personal email address to send her any emails we have exchanged with her regarding city business.
UNFORTUNATELY ...... I save everything - every email I send or receive - every last, blessed one of them - as a matter of course. I know, it's an anal-retentive sort of thing to do, but I do it. I save them in organized files, sorted by the person I communicated with. So, I have a record of every email she and I have ever exchanged. I have spent the last two hours sifting through her file and forwarding all the old stuff back to her. Anything related to city business. I want to be honest, but some of those emails are intensely personal, because she is also a close friend of mine, and I am not sharing those emails. I will NOT publish personal stuff. I sorted out 60 emails that talk about city business, and forwarded them back to her.
Curses on the Sunshine Law. It did absolutely no good at curbing government officials from doing wrong. They continued their "influence peddling" unabated. But in this obscure case, it has caused no end of grief for decent, honest officials and innocent citizens like myself.
I feel personally violated, now. I want to CHOKE that stupid, narcissistic, angry neighbour of mine. I want him and his woman to leave town, for good. I want this all to be over. Next thing, I will be one of the people called in to some sort of kangaroo court, with my personal emails published in the local paper. It's not like I ever wrote anything nasty, or improper, (I didn't) but when I sent those emails, I felt that my privacy was going to be honoured. Now, my crazy neighbour is going to read my emails.
posted by Me | 8:08 PM
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