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Century Board Members Plead Not Guilty To Sunshine Law Violation
September 8, 2016
The first scheduled court hearing for four Century volunteer task force members charged with noncriminal violations of the Florida Government in the Sunshine Law was Wednesday.
The four — Alfonzie Cottrell, Helen Mincy, Sylvia Godwin, and Robert Mitchell — were not present at the arraignment hearing and entered written not guilty pleas through attorney Kim Skievaski. They were charged by the State Attorney’s Office with having a public meeting that was not properly advertised. On July 26, a meeting was advertised to begin at 4:00 p.m. The meeting was actually held at 2:00 p.m., preventing the public from attending.
Skievaski was hired at $300 per hour by the town council to represented that task force members.
Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille said the four will be offered pre-trial diversion if they take a Sunshine Law course, or if they resign from the task force and never serve on another body that falls under the Sunshine Law. Otherwise, they will face a judge trial and, if found guilty, a fine of up to $500.
If pre-trail diversion is accepted by any of the defendants, the charge against them will be dismissed if they successful meet the terms set forth.
The next court date for Cottrell, Mincy, Godwin and Mitchell is set for late October.
Pictured top: Volunteer task force members Helen Mincy, Robert Mitchell and Sylvia Godwin during a meeting on Thursday, July 28. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
15 Responses to “Century Board Members Plead Not Guilty To Sunshine Law Violation”
phil Always looking for help at the meetings.. Chamber too! Come on out help everyone with this poor little wart town…
It’s time for this wanton wastefulness to stop, the citizens of Century deserve better. DISSOLVE THE CENTURY TOWN GOVERNMENT NOW!!
The Mayor and city council have been either hoodwinked into hiring an attorney.
Or maybe the attorney is now going to run p thousands in legal fees and there will be kickbacks paid to those that voted to hire him.
Clearly, Century cannot run its own town, as small as it is. Dissolve the town. Escambia County can run the town and actually be able to use their muscle to bring jobs to the north end. ECUA, which does an excellent job, can pick up the utilities. How long must we be held back?
As they say in elementary school. Ignorance is no excuse. Take diversion agreement.
Atty Kim Skievaski is a man.
The four volunteers received no Sunshine law training. That’s on the Century Town Council, as they set up the task force.
The volunteers, even without Sunshine law knowledge, had to know meeting was advertised at 4PM but CHOSE to meet at 2PM as they had planned. Common sense says that’s on the Task Force.
The Century Town Council decided to hire the Task Force an independent attorney. Why wasn’t the attorney retained by the Town Council utilized? That waste of taxpayer funds is on the Town Council.
The attorney hired advised the Task Force to plead Not Guilty, when they obviously are guilty. Facts are facts. This is only to run up the fees she can bill the taxpayers. This is on BOTH Town Council and Task Force.
This could all “go away” if the Task Force accepted pre-trial diversion of training. Instead they chose to go to trial. Why? They will be found guilty. They will have the taxpayers pay their $2,000 in fines. They will each have a record. It is their choice. So this is on the Task Force.
Then, the attorney hired, will collect thousands of dollars, in fees for representation, depositions, court trial & paperwork. This is on the Century Town Council for hiring her.
The whole kit and caboodle of Century government should be fired or recalled. No wonder, the city is the poorest town in Escambia County.
One of the woman on that panel knew what she was doing if not all, many dealings with her. She has many attorneys to deal with all her law suits against her neighbors. She could pay for one herself. So now it’s a blame game, it’s William Reynolds fault because he showed up for the meeting and they changed the time. It’s Robin and Debbie’s fault because they put the wrong time in the paper ( do they say). The paper came out the week prior to the meeting with the time of 4:00, so why didn’t they stick with that time. Take some responsibility. It really looks like your up to no good.
Century is a wart on the face of escambia county!
I would resign my high paying position and go home.
Why is the Town of Century paying for an Attorney? Do they not pay a General Counsel?
The way I read the article is: If they take the Sunshine Law course or get out of the volunteer task force no fine would be imposed. Why are thousands of dollars paid for attorney’s fees?
We could organize and get this town’s charter cancelled, except we’d miss the clown show.
Someone is going to make a lot of money for doing nothing. The task force clearly broke the law by changing the meeting time and keeping it a “secret”. Who does the mayor and city council thing they are fooling? Pay your fines and move on. LOL
Is $300 for each one??? Of course not guilty so the attorney can keep charging for his hourly paperwork. OBVIOUS GUILTY. Was at 4and did it at 2. DUH, a caveman can see this was wrong