Thank you for clarifying. With everything going on with the commissioners, it’s hard to not question everything they say and do.
I'd be questioning allot too.
Imma tell you a story.
There was an ex county commissioner from Gulf County who had some shady dealings in regard to BP monies along with his girlfriend at the time (now his wife) who opened up a public relations firm a few weeks after the spill and soon landed more than $14,000 of the tiny county's $236,000 cut of BP cash for a month's work.
Amber Davis, who lived with Gulf County, Fla., Commissioner Bill Williams, incorporated Statecraft LLC less than a month after oil began streaming into the Gulf. Three months later, Statecraft won a month long, $14,468 contract to perform public information and government liaison work for the county of about 15,000 people.
Davis, who has worked in marketing and community relations, said she had planned to form her company before the spill. She also had volunteered for the county's emergency operations center for three months before she was given the contract.
"There is a perception of a conflict of interest in just about anything that anybody does," Davis said. "I guess my statement to that was that I volunteered anywhere from 15 to 18 hours a day for three months and never received a penny."
Williams said he consulted the county attorney and an ethics commission, and neither saw a problem with awarding the contract to Davis.
Link to that story here:
www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/04/bp_buys_gulf_coast_millions_in.html
Gulf County awarded an identical one-month, $14,468 contract -- this one for monitoring beach pollution -- to Florida Eco Services, a company founded days after the rig explosion by Patrick Farrell, whose wife is on the board of the local Chamber of Commerce.
Then there was that pesky “extortion” investigation by the FDLE, which I have tried to post here in PDF Format but the file is to large. There is a link;
http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/02/84/19/03873/12-27-2012.pdf which I hope works.
Then there was his testimony before the House Oversight Government Reform Committee in regard to BP monies that he and his current wife personally benefited from;
www.c-span.org/video/?299845-2/gulf-coast-recovery-bp-oil-spill-panel-2
And there was also that pesky Ethics Complaint that was filed against him that he was
FOUND GUILTY of as a first time Commissioner in Gulf County (he lost re-election) that he never even bothered to respond to;
www.fec.state.fl.us/FECWebFi.nsf/0/37C21D92F7F891B285257B41005EE934/$file/017.pdf
At some point he married his current wife and by their own admission adopted two down syndrome boys from the Ukraine (a very costly endeavor) and bought a 1/2 million dollar, 2 story home in Jan of this year after an accident (in Nov last year) that left his wife in a wheelchair with paraplegia. Seriously? 3 down syndrome children, a mother in a wheelchair and you buy a 1/2 million dollar 2 story home in Defuniak (the Biddle House, google it) and then our Sheriff sponsors a fish fry fundraiser to raise money for a $25k wheelchair? Tickets were being sold from the Courthouse Annex for the fish fry. The Florida Georgia Line band happened to be in the annex for a beach permit, saw the posters and generously donated the wheelchair. In addition the fish fry ran out of fish (at $10.00 per plate) before noon and the fundraiser then became about a $60K handicapped van and the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical expenses they had incurred. There was also 2 or 3 different gofund me type accounts which raised money that paid for the $60K handicapped van in addition to the fish fry.
I also learned via a public information request that the taxpayers foot the bill for Mr. Williams penchant for expensive cigars which he used the county credit card to purchase and there was approximately about $1000. dollars worth of other purchases at Wal Mart that included Christmas decorations but when we requested those receipts, was told they may not have been purchases actually made by Bill Williams which begs the question...who else has access to that credit card? The County Administrator did request that the funds for the cigar purchases be repaid and cautioned him not to use the county credit card anymore for personal purchases.
A few days ago I learned that his wife is is now a consultant in the Owls Head project and if things go according to plan she stands to become a very rich woman from Triumph funds. No conflict of interest here folks...nothing to see. It's my understanding that those on the Committee who ranked these projects are fans of the current BCC including C. Jones and Tony Anderson.
