Commissioner Brannon in hot water over email (DOCUMENT)
April 02, 2012 8:59 PM
TOM McLAUGHLIN / Daily News
Another email from Walton County Commission chairman Scott Brannon has found its way into the hands of his critics.
This one — which contains the comment “Help a n-word out!” — has sparked calls for Brannon to resign.
Brannon, however, said the controversy “has been blown completely out of context and proportion.” He said he was quoting Tupac, a music artist he listens to.
The email, which discusses county business, also violates a judge’s order stating Walton County commissioners cannot send such emails from private email accounts, attorney Matt Gaetz said.
It provides further proof that Brannon should be held in contempt of the order, issued in 2009, the first time county officials got caught violating the Sunshine Law, Gaetz said.
“I have seen the email. It is contemptuous,” Gaetz said.
Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach state representative and public records attorney, is suing Walton County on behalf of condominium association head Suzanne Harris.
A hearing is scheduled today to discuss Gaetz’s call for commissioners to be held in contempt for using private email accounts to discuss county business, something Gaetz argues the 2009 judge’s order expressly prohibits.
The latest email in question, from a stack of Brannon emails obtained through public records requests, is a message sent out after 3 a.m. on Nov. 28, 2011.
The email, sent to Walton County Tourist Development Council executive director Dawn Moliterno, states in the subject line “Prepare a memo/email the same.”
It asked Moliterno to add information from a “GM” to the body of another email that would go out to other county officials.
Brannon typed in the salutation “Dawn” and the request, “Can you finish this with the text if semt u from GM. Help a n-word out!”
After seeing Brannon’s email, community activist Mary Nielson on Saturday emailed Brannon’s fellow commissioners, County Administrator Greg Kisela and County Attorney Toni Craig, notifying them that she was offended by much of Brannon’s email.
“But the final straw for me is the racial slur in this email from a sitting commissioner and from the Chairman of the TDC Advisory Board,” Nielson said in her email.
“[T]his email is an affront to all of us, as citizens, tax payers, bed tax collectors and hosts in our tourism industry, not to mention our visitors and guests, many of whom are people of color,” Nielson said in her email.
Brannon, who declined to answer questions, responded to the controversy via a faxed statement.
“The slang phrase referred to is a line from a song by Tupac, an artist that I listen to,” the faxed message said. “I quoted it like I also quoted Ben Franklin in the same email.”
That quote — “Well Done is Better than well said……Benjamin Franklin” — appears to be part of Brannon’s automatic email signature.
“Working at 3:15 a.m. in the morning it was at worst a poor choice of a quote,” Brannon’s faxed message continues. “Even though it was directed at myself and was not for publication, I apologize if I have offended anyone which was certainly not my intent.”
Nielson demanded in her email that Brannon resign his seat on the TDC Advisory Council and that he “immediately resign from the county commission.”
“Do the good people of Walton County deserve to have any negative branding fall upon us by commissioner Brannon’s racial slur and the publicity it may provoke?” Nielson said in her email.
Harris also said Brannon should resign, but only after acknowledging that his actions have embarrassed fellow commissioners and county residents.
Efforts to reach individual county commissioners were mostly unsuccessful Monday.
Commissioner Sara Comander did return a call to her office, but only to dispel Nielson’s assertion that she was working to convince Brannon to resign.
“I would never ask another seated commissioner to resign his commission,” Comander said.
Asked about Brannon’s email, Comander said, “I can’t comment in light of everything going on right now.”
April 02, 2012 8:59 PM
TOM McLAUGHLIN / Daily News
Another email from Walton County Commission chairman Scott Brannon has found its way into the hands of his critics.
This one — which contains the comment “Help a n-word out!” — has sparked calls for Brannon to resign.
Brannon, however, said the controversy “has been blown completely out of context and proportion.” He said he was quoting Tupac, a music artist he listens to.
The email, which discusses county business, also violates a judge’s order stating Walton County commissioners cannot send such emails from private email accounts, attorney Matt Gaetz said.
It provides further proof that Brannon should be held in contempt of the order, issued in 2009, the first time county officials got caught violating the Sunshine Law, Gaetz said.
“I have seen the email. It is contemptuous,” Gaetz said.
Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach state representative and public records attorney, is suing Walton County on behalf of condominium association head Suzanne Harris.
A hearing is scheduled today to discuss Gaetz’s call for commissioners to be held in contempt for using private email accounts to discuss county business, something Gaetz argues the 2009 judge’s order expressly prohibits.
The latest email in question, from a stack of Brannon emails obtained through public records requests, is a message sent out after 3 a.m. on Nov. 28, 2011.
The email, sent to Walton County Tourist Development Council executive director Dawn Moliterno, states in the subject line “Prepare a memo/email the same.”
It asked Moliterno to add information from a “GM” to the body of another email that would go out to other county officials.
Brannon typed in the salutation “Dawn” and the request, “Can you finish this with the text if semt u from GM. Help a n-word out!”
After seeing Brannon’s email, community activist Mary Nielson on Saturday emailed Brannon’s fellow commissioners, County Administrator Greg Kisela and County Attorney Toni Craig, notifying them that she was offended by much of Brannon’s email.
“But the final straw for me is the racial slur in this email from a sitting commissioner and from the Chairman of the TDC Advisory Board,” Nielson said in her email.
“[T]his email is an affront to all of us, as citizens, tax payers, bed tax collectors and hosts in our tourism industry, not to mention our visitors and guests, many of whom are people of color,” Nielson said in her email.
Brannon, who declined to answer questions, responded to the controversy via a faxed statement.
“The slang phrase referred to is a line from a song by Tupac, an artist that I listen to,” the faxed message said. “I quoted it like I also quoted Ben Franklin in the same email.”
That quote — “Well Done is Better than well said……Benjamin Franklin” — appears to be part of Brannon’s automatic email signature.
“Working at 3:15 a.m. in the morning it was at worst a poor choice of a quote,” Brannon’s faxed message continues. “Even though it was directed at myself and was not for publication, I apologize if I have offended anyone which was certainly not my intent.”
Nielson demanded in her email that Brannon resign his seat on the TDC Advisory Council and that he “immediately resign from the county commission.”
“Do the good people of Walton County deserve to have any negative branding fall upon us by commissioner Brannon’s racial slur and the publicity it may provoke?” Nielson said in her email.
Harris also said Brannon should resign, but only after acknowledging that his actions have embarrassed fellow commissioners and county residents.
Efforts to reach individual county commissioners were mostly unsuccessful Monday.
Commissioner Sara Comander did return a call to her office, but only to dispel Nielson’s assertion that she was working to convince Brannon to resign.
“I would never ask another seated commissioner to resign his commission,” Comander said.
Asked about Brannon’s email, Comander said, “I can’t comment in light of everything going on right now.”
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