The Grand Jury for Walton County issued a Report this afternoon regarding, among other issues, the Walton County Planning Department, Recreation Fees, a Clerk's Audit of the Planning Department and the actions of County Administrator Larry Jones and Commissioner Cindy Meadows.
Replies
164
Beach Fanatic
Seems it wasn't that long ago that supposedly a federal investigation was occurring within Walton County Government, curious whatever happened with that?
Banned
We can only hope that higher authorities, including some with FBI attached to their paychecks, will be going where the State Attorney did not tread in this report. Justice has not been served yet. To date, it appears to have been mocked as part of a political agenda. Whose remains to be seen.
I'm not sure who you are referencing in regard to the FBI comment but (if) your comment is directed at Imfeld who came to this county as a "former" FBI Special Agent and a Certified CPA in charge of how County money was spent, one has to ask themselves why his only actions to date have only been to contact Carr Riggs & Ingram (the Counties) accounting firm who has been paid the big bucks since Moses was a kid, to find and report susceptibility to occupational fraud and help incorporate policies to improve collections and increases cash flow? Where were the policies? If the accounting firm tried to incorporate those polices why weren't the followed?
The county has had the same collection procedures and/or software for years even though according to the Grand Jury report the County brought in EXPERTS including Dr. Beeman who made numerous recommendations to improve County operations. I'm also sure that Dr. Beeman's expert opinions didn't come CHEAP! The taxpayers paid a substantial amount of money for those recommendations to be ignored!!
There were ALLOT of County Commissioners who ignored the experts including Larry Jones and whoever was a sitting Commissioner when that money went missing and it continued until the Grand Jury report was released. That's a problem!
I personally think that Dr. Don and Miller were far too kind in their assessment of Larry Jones' actions in the overall scheme of things and IMHO he is as guilty of ignoring expert advice as any other sitting Commissioner from that time period until now.
Should this go further and higher in law enforcement circles, and it should, one wonders if this might become a federal criminal case.
Who ya gonna call? Do you think the Gov. will intervene or Pam Bondi? If you believe that I'm going to become a real estate agent and sell swamp land in Idaho because what your comments suggest is that the Gov. and the State Attorney General actually do something decent for the taxpayers in this State which, begs the question...When has that EVER happened?
Edited
Banned
Seems it wasn't that long ago that supposedly a federal investigation was occurring within Walton County Government, curious whatever happened with that?
The last time I heard hints the Feds were here it involved Suzanne Harris which involved the same power-brokers I have alluded to here.
Federal Investigation In Walton County ?
Beach Fanatic
Should this go further and higher in law enforcement circles, and it should, on wonders if this might become a federal criminal case. to wit,
"Misprision of felony" is still an offense under United States federal law after being codified in 1909 under 18 U.S.C. § 4
Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This offense, however, requires active concealment of a known felony rather than merely failing to report it.[7]
If one knows that one is a target of an Federal investigation, it is illegal under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to erase one's browser history intentionally. Khairullozhan Matanov was prosecuted for erasing computer records about his friends, Dhzokar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev; he pleaded guilty to a lesser included offense in 2015.[8][9]
The Federal misprision of felony statute is usually only used in prosecutions against defendants who have a special duty to report a crime, such as a government official.[10]
Misfeasance or malfeasance are considerations in the alternative at the state level, I believe. Justice was not served well by the Grand Jury report as released. My criticism is reserved for the State Attorney's Office if this is indeed all there is to come from the public time and money invested in this so-called investigation. The Grand Jury itself is not the subject of my doubts as I know it can only consider that presented to them by the State Attorney, and it is entirely his captive creature, producing just the results he may want. That the State Attorney explicitly did not ever look at this as a criminal matter defies credulity. The amounts in question are much too large to just write off as simple clerical errors. Too many checks and balances should have one into play, This reeks of cover-up and misdirection. One might wonder about the other cases apparently dismissed by the State Attorney as part of his "investigation".
We can only hope that higher authorities, including some with FBI attached to their paychecks, will be going where the State Attorney did not tread in this report. Justice has not been served yet. To date, it appears to have been mocked as part of a political agenda. Whose remains to be seen.
It seems this term "Misprison of a Felony" has been heard or seen somewhere before...
Maybe on an old post or perhaps on that "other" site (which no longer exists)...
Either way, I like your thinking lazin.
Banned
Judges here would only recuse themselves from a local effort to have this thoroughly investigated. Moving it to another County, it could actually disappear altogether as other cases have done with the players involved.
Bringing in the feds is almost like an act of Congress.
Bringing in the feds is almost like an act of Congress.
Beach Lover
I wonder why Mrs. Harris wasn't called in front of the grand jury. She seems to know what the county is doing wrong.
SWGB
I wonder why Mrs. Harris wasn't called in front of the grand jury. She seems to know what the county is doing wrong.
They went through enough, being forced to listen to that voice violates the Geneva Treaty.
Beach Fanatic
Or could be they did not want to know what all Scott told me.
Banned
Or could be they did not want to know what all Scott told me.I don't think the Grand Jury would have ignored what all Scott told you...I think... had the Grand Jury not been a personal witch hunt perpetrated by Bill Eddins or that if he was really willing to get to the bottom of all the dirty politics that have transpired in this County, the Grand Jury would have heard MUCH MUCH more than the directives they were given.
Beach Fanatic
Greatest thread ever, so dang informative I wish it'd never end. And no way can I believe that only 1 accounting error has occurred. Bet a whole bunch of these parcels have "Special Tax Rates" and just a little loose change can affect the keyboard strokes. No sane or lawful person catches that mistake and then fails to act on it unless it benefits them directly and more than once. Smells more like SOP and if the info in these previous pages are to be believed, then only the FEDS can right the ship. The inside network has it covered, they got a majority on BOCC, inside people in planning and code and WCSO, Media and a tax funded legal Team. Even the New England Patriots are jealous and taking notes of the cheating in this County.
Banned
Today is the day!
Tuesday, October 13th at the South Walton Annex Boardroom the County will take up the issue of the Grand Jury report.
Rumor has it this is going to be the "hottest" BCC meeting in the history of Walton County!
Tuesday, October 13th at the South Walton Annex Boardroom the County will take up the issue of the Grand Jury report.
Rumor has it this is going to be the "hottest" BCC meeting in the history of Walton County!
SWGB
Well?
Banned
Well?
Waiting on more info regarding the bomb Hudson dropped tonight...that's going to be interesting.
The jest of the meeting was the BCC didn't see it as their job to reprimand Meadows and Larry, they agreed to address the findings of the GJ in regard to improving the planning dept and looks like they are not opposed to the Auditor General coming in. Chapman sorta kinda voiced his opinion that the GJ report was a "witch hunt" without using those specific terms and C. Jones actually attended the meeting albeit she sat there with her mouth closed for the most part looking like the proverbial child caught with her hands in the cookie jar. It wasn't even brought up that she had done the same thing in regard to Catalano being hired (opportunity lost to point the finger in the direction it deserved to be pointed in) and your friend (lol) had a few choice outbursts for Imfeld.
Meadows held her composure and the meeting didn't denigrate anyone too unfairly.
Beach Fanatic
I thought Imfeld did a good job as chair to explain and outline what they are going to do and it is definitely a positive development that they are going to finally try and fix the LDC and the comp Plan. Meadows showed a lot of class and Chapman and Commander explained reality to everyone. We elect commissioners and when we have a problem we want action not "call staff." Some of those who complain the most about "commissioner interference" are the ones who call them the most demanding some sort of action. I thought I would fall out of my chair when Chapman said you could get a grand jury to indict a monkey, but he is absolutely right. Everyone skirted all around saying the GJ was a witchhunt and C Jones tried to defend it to no effect. And no one wanted to get into the DFS payments.
Banned
It was also said by the BCC that there would be some effort to collect the $800,000. What that effort will be remains to be seen.
The expired Letters of Credit were also mentioned, as was the Beeman Study. I'm not clear on what the plans are in regard to the Letters of Credit and it seemed to me that the BCC had a cursory/superficial response to them. Danny may have a different take on that.
The BCC also said there would be a Request For Proposals on new software to address rec fees and to better track monies collected in the planning dept.
The expired Letters of Credit were also mentioned, as was the Beeman Study. I'm not clear on what the plans are in regard to the Letters of Credit and it seemed to me that the BCC had a cursory/superficial response to them. Danny may have a different take on that.
The BCC also said there would be a Request For Proposals on new software to address rec fees and to better track monies collected in the planning dept.
Beach Fanatic
Sounds like we need to look for a new State Attorney (Eddins).
They've said there staff (state) is not very fimilar with complex financial matters.
Did they think a bunch of citizens would be?
Kudos to Com. Chapman! His comments are 100% correct.
This whole thing has backfired.
They've said there staff (state) is not very fimilar with complex financial matters.
Did they think a bunch of citizens would be?
Kudos to Com. Chapman! His comments are 100% correct.
This whole thing has backfired.
Beach Fanatic
No one really wanted to talk about the letters of credit although there was mention made of looking at the policy later. Maybe in 2115.
Beach Lover
What's horrible is how Bill Emfeld shut down the poor woman who was trying to speak on the Gulf Place project and called for the baliff to remove her. He evidently doesn't understand free speech.
SWGB
What's horrible is how Bill Emfeld shut down the poor woman who was trying to speak on the Gulf Place project and called for the baliff to remove her. He evidently doesn't understand free speech.
Your free speech lasts 3-5 minutes unless you've sued the county 3 times in which case you just screech whenever you damn well please.
Beach Comber
#1461
ShallowsNole wrote: How do you reprimand an elected official? Isn't that a function of the governor's office?
You know, I wondered the same thing. My research showed that when county commissioners are reprimanded in Florida, it is in a county that has a Commission on Ethics, an entity we don't have. I guess the Walton County Commission could pass a resolution condemning Meadows.
Since Larry Jones is an employee, I think a reprimand is one of the "progressive disciplinary procedures" the Report says he and Meadows should have utilized in dealing with the Planning Department employee that they summarily fired.
Does anyone know the identity of the woman consultant (the report uses feminine pronouns in describing her) that was getting $8,000/month and acting like the Planning Director? It apparently would have been in 2009 or 2010. Is this the woman who has already been indicted on perjury charges?
Beach Fanatic
View attachment 57388
It looks like "we" paid $8000 per month to "hire" a fox to "guard" the hen house.
Was this consulting or inner office spying?
Beach Fanatic
#1481
Read this transcript to see how this occurred.
Only in Walton County !
Only in Walton County !
Beach Fanatic
Read this transcript to see how this occurred.
Only in Walton County !
Absolutely disgusting!!!
What an embarrassment that Anchor's and his "investigators" allowed this Grand Jury to become a hunt against Com. Meadows, when they have testimony from a past County Administrator as to who really ran / runs Walton County...
I'm sure the other testimony will support this as well.
This Grand Jury presentation was a fraud and embarrassment.
See highlight on pages 11, 12, 21, 22, 25, 28, 29, 30, 32, 35, 51, 59, 60 and 62 for the Cliff Notes Version.
Beach Fanatic
#1501
Kendal Marse Transcript (appeared under subpoena with immunity)
Beach Fanatic
#1511
Jason Bryan Transcript
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