Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
May 24, 2016 3:36 p.m.
District 3 Nassau County Commissioner Pat Edwards took the unusual step of addressing his fellow commissioners from the public podium at the May 23, 2016 Nassau County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) Regular Meeting. Before a packed audience, Edwards expressed his frustrations in trying to counter arguments of Nassau County Clerk of Courts and county chief financial officer John Crawford when Crawford does not attend BOCC meetings on county finances. Yet, according to Edwards, Crawford disseminates information and his opinions via Commissioner Steve Kelley and “a paid blogger.”
Edwards’ full statement is provided below:
“Good evening chairman, my fellow commissioners, ladies and gentlemen.
“I am a homeowner, I am a rental owner, I am a timberland owner, and I own a small business in Nassau County and have for the last 43 years. I felt strongly that I needed to come to you tonight after Wednesday’s meeting and tell the truth about what is going on in Nassau County and why things are going on.
“After Wednesday’s meeting where we were given a sheet of paper by Commissioner Kelley a GFOA Best Practice sheet that was distributed to everyone including the media, we were led to believe that Mr. Kelley found this and brought this to us on his own without any help.
“Later on Wednesday afternoon, I started getting phone calls. Several people called and wanted to know why the clerk, the CFO, the Ex Officio of the Board of County Commissioners, wasn’t at the meeting Wednesday to discuss the finances of Nassau County but he found time to write to a paid blogger late Tuesday evening.
“I believe after a little information from a couple of people who saw Commissioner Kelley in the past few days entering the courthouse that it could have been a private meeting because they were certainly on the same page. Again, we are doing business behind closed doors at the courthouse, not in this room where it is recorded and televised.
“I think that anything we do should be in front of the taxpayers where we can all be judged. I think it is high time that the clerk of courts begin coming to the meetings and was able to answer questions by us during meetings not through news media and paid bloggers.
“So I ask that the board take under advisement that we should (1) possibly seek an attorney’s opinion on whether this is ethically responsible. I think we should also ask the people of Nassau County is this the way they want this politics done behind closed doors for the purely political looking for an edge in an upcoming election by Mr. Kelley.
“So I ask the people of Nassau County look and read and understand that it is not what it seems. We try to do the best we can for Nassau County not politically but for the business and the individual taxpayer.”
Commissioners did not respond to Edwards’ comments. However, Edwards renewed his insistence that Crawford be asked to attend all BOCC meetings dealing with economic development as part of his motion acceding to Kelley’s request for a cost benefit analysis on the proposed incentive package for Ligno Tech. That motion passed unanimously.
As Edwards noted, several key county positions are being contested this year, including three county commission seats (Districts 1,3 and 5) and the Clerk of Courts.
Editor’s Note: Suanne Z. Thamm is a native of Chautauqua County, NY, who moved to Fernandina Beach from Alexandria,VA, in 1994. As a long time city resident and city watcher, she provides interesting insight into the many issues that impact our city. We are grateful for Suanne’s many contributions to the Fernandina Observer.
FO, can you provide a link to the Crawford/Kelley taxpayer-exempt “paid blogger” website?
PS: Commissioner Edwards, if you’re reading here: PLEASE FILE AND RUN FOR CRAWFORD’S CLERK SEAT.
Edwards did not provide a website or name the blogger. Rest assured that it was not the Fernandina Observer, since none of our writers are paid.
Why don’t you just tell the truth and pull the financial donors of the candidates FO? The money trail shows you who is leading the charge… The “lap dogs” of politics are as fat as ever and if we as citizens don’t stand up against “gambling” with the tax payers money they are going to push us right over with a Catapillar D10. Why don’t we go ahead and rename the county “Wildlight”? We demand transparency in government spending. By the commission voting 5-0 to use the same auditing company that Citizens for a bigger bank account used to tell us we are on the “fiscal cliff” (which was bogus) to conduct the Lignotech incentives package is a huge conflict of interest. Let’s study the facts for the hard working taxpayers instead of giving away our money to a foreign company for some jobs they can’t even promise our residents… Ridiculous.
This is exactly right. These “incentives” don’t pass the smell test.