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Bell Email: Consolidation Committee Dumping Records On County
January 15, 2010
Because the Escambia County Commission refused to provide assistance to the consolidation committee, Chairman Ken Bell is passing the responsibility of maintaining public records and public records request to Escambia County.
In an email to County Attorney Allison Rodgers, Bell said he intends to see the Escambia County Consolidation Committee dissolved, and, per the legislation that created the commission, all of its property and records transfer to Escambia County. The legislation did not specify on which date the committee would be dissolved, other than it must take place by July, 2010.
Shortly after its creation, the consolidation committee asked Escambia County for clerical and legal assistance, but the county denied the request.
“As the County is well aware, from the outset of our work as a public commission, we asked for clerical help (which would include Public Records), Law compliance assistance and legal guidance. The BOCC refused to provide this assistance. With no public funding, this Commission has had to operate on an entirely voluntary basis,” Bell wrote in his email. “Unfortunately, any difficulty caused by the transfer of property on Friday is a direct result of the BOCC’s decision not to provide the assistance requested. As I have stated before, I sincerely regret this fact. The ECCSC has done everything we can to overcome this BOCC’s decisions not to assist.”
Bell said the commission would be willing to index the records if the county provided assistance by Friday, otherwise the commission will just turn everything over as-is. Escambia County will be responsible for fulfilling any current or future public records requests.
Click here to read Bell’s email.
Comments
17 Responses to “Bell Email: Consolidation Committee Dumping Records On County”
Does Judge Bell, Greg Evers, work for Escambia County CITIZENS??
I understand that Escambia County CITIZENS has voted “”"NO”"” concerning the Consolidation several times.
WHY is it “”"SO IMPORTANT”"” to Mr. Bell and Mr. Evers for Escambia County to be Consolidated???
Consolidated government would be no better than this committe. It cost all taxpayers money for something only the special interests are pushing. Hopefully we can go a couple more years without hearing this mess again.
Good for the Judge. It’s time for a change in Escambia County Government. Consolidation IS the answer. The commission knows it’s the answer. That why they don’t want it to come to a vote. They would all be voted out!!!
How do you get so far along with the mission of a committee such as this without having those services in place??
Looks to me like the good Judge could have better kept organization of the documents as to minimize the confusion. If the county wasn’t required or obligated to provide the assistance to the group, then fine. It’d be a different story if the county was supposed to and didn’t.
I appears from the ’sound’ of the e-mail they just decided if the county wasn’t going to help, they’d just box it up and drop it off when they were done.
Sorry. Sounds a bit like spite, to me.
SW, I don’t know. But if they didn’t have any clerical help, and the statute says the records are the property of BOCC and must be returned to BOCC when the commission is dissolved, what is the commission supposed to do?
Was the BOCC required or obligated to provide such a service?
Cheryl, the way I’m reading it is that BOCC refused to provide any clerical assistance to the commission.
Southernlady,
I think what this creates is a logistical paperwork nightmare for the County. It’s an un-indexed pile of papers and every time someone asks for a record search, County staff has to find it in the pile. It could be construed as a “Back Atcha” from Mr. Bell and his posse for not getting clerical help from the County in the first place. Just shows how spiteful the Big Boys (and Girls) can get and enjoy throwing their political weight around. My question is: How come the City didn’t inherit this task?
Somebody give Judge Bell a cookie and some milk! That normally works for that age group.
Maybe he’ll shut up and go home!
The commission isn’t “dumping” the records on the county. They are turning over BOCC property per the statute. Did anyone read the email??
I doubt that “all” the records will be turned over to the BOCC. Remember the Sunshine Law violations that involved e-mails and behind the scene meetings which included the retired judge? I’m sure those items won’t make it into the record.
Glad to hear that we didn’t fund this debacle.
I amazes me what an arrogant, vindictive, crook Judge Bell has become. I only wish I had the knowledge to sue him and his whole entourage of shysters. If only just to make his life miserable for a few days.
Sounds like my four year old. If you want play my way, I ain’t playin’ at all!
Grow up!
Sounds like sour grapes to me.
We’ll take the ball, if they’ll go home.
And what is the cost of this small oversight by the state legislative delegation??? Let the people of the county pay. And pay. And pay.