Tag: budget

2018: A Reflection

I am highly disappointed in myself for the lack of postings I made on this blog. So many things happened last year.

– The CFO of the ECSO was MIA for months and no one could ask about him.

-Morgan publicly showed his ass regarding pay for the deputies that his agency kept.

-Scott Trotter, a Democrat, united many Republicans & Democrats in an effort to overthrow the ineffectual, pathological liar, Doug Underhill. This was unprecedented in this political climate in the Panhandle. While the media perpetuates the flames of division in partisan politics, in Escambia County, the opposite was happening. People with differences put them aside to make the community better. Despite having lost, Trotter brought about a way of cooperation that could be longstanding in the community. That is huge.

-Morgan was slapped on his hand regarding LET money but with the incoming BOCC Chairman, Lumon May, this may have only been a temporary measure. Lumon backslid after the election. His flip-flopping view on Underhill and his ways of deceiving the BOCC have all been forgotten by May and Underhill and Morgan are his BFF’s again. A step backwards for the county, indeed.

-The continuation of convicting people, who are likely not guilty of the crimes they are convicted, continued. Robert Howard, the man arrested for murdering Naomi Jones, is possibly being wrongly convicted. In looking at her autopsy, it is impossible to call her death murder. Her hyoid bone is in tact…due to marine predation (animal feeding) there is no evidence of sexual assault either. This guy may be guilty but her autopsy does not support that. Yet he will likely be convicted due the media and law enforcement comments to the public.

Mary Rice is another one that is probably not guilty of the murders for which she was convicted of. Most certainly, according to deputies, Morgan is responsible for Kayla Crocker’s murder. Morgan ineptness as an LEO led to not searching woods close to Crocker’s home that Boyette and Rice were indeed hiding in. Morgan was convinced the ditched car next to woods was a result of Boyette ditching the car to get on the adjacent interstate. He refused to use resources made available to him to search the woods. Deputies frustrated by this decision called me from the location. They thought it was worth investigating and Morgan said to stand down. This decision resulted into Crocker’s murder. Yet somehow Mary Rice is more culpable than Morgan.

-A good friend of mine, and a hell of a reporter, Hayley Minogue of WKRG was summarily fired after being transferred from Pensacola to Mobile coverage after she pissed off Sir David in a Naomi Jones press conference by asking him what he thought the motive of her motive was. Morgan’s classic response, “I am a law enforcement officer. I don’t care why…..I leave the whys to the psychologists and the script writers.”

The insane part of that statement is that motive is usually the one thing that leads to an arrest. Motive is stepping stone to catching the suspect. Was it a sexual predator? Was there a personal riff that ended in accidental death? was this a suicide? The “why” always factors in to the “who did it”. That is why mens rea (intent) is so important; it is one of the elements of a crime and successful prosecution. If you don’t have a why, then anyone in proximity could be arrested as a potential killer. It is the why that narrows and eliminates the field of persons of interest. Anybody that has ever watched “Law & Order”, “Matlock” or “Perry Mason” knows that..it isn’t rocket science, yet ye olde sheriff doesn’t care what the why is.

But I digress, Morgan felt humiliated by Minogue’s why question and blackballed WKRG from info from the ECSO. Minogue was re-assigned to Mobile and later fired. Ironically, as soon as she was fired, WKRG came off the blacklist at the ECSO. Funny how that works.

After all these things happened, the bumbling Sheriff still has pull in the county. I think the citizens should scrutinize that for themselves.


Big Fat Liar!

Eric Haines must have a bet with someone about how many lies he can cram into a certain time frame. Last weekend, I got a copy of an email from internally in the ECSO. It was sent 3/16/18 at 4:41 pm. Literally, the last minute of the business week. It reads:

Sat Mar 17 2018 18_45_31 GMT-0500Sat Mar 17 2018 18_44_42 GMT-0500

I received this and immediately asked Commissioner Jeff Bergosh what fell apart. He had no idea Haines had sent this email, nor was he ever contacted to say that something was wrong. The BOCC ratified and signed an agreement sent to them by Haines and Champagne. Nothing was changed after that. There is even proof in this PNJ article:

Escambia County and Sheriff David Morgan reach preliminary budget agreement

Jim Little, jwlittle@pnj.comPublished 9:57 a.m. CT March 15, 2018 | Updated 3:43 p.m. CT March 15, 2018
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Five months after Sheriff David Morgan appealed his budget to Gov. Rick Scott’s office, the Escambia County Commission has voted 3-2 on a preliminary budget settlement.

The budget settlement is a four-year agreement that will implement a pay plan for deputies that will increase the sheriff’s budget by $1 million this year and pay the Sheriff’s Office $2.6 million each year for the next two years. The final year of the agreement would provide the Sheriff’s Office with $2.9 million

Morgan filed an appeal in October to the governor’s office asking for more than $2 million in additional funds for the 2017-2018 fiscal year to address pay compression issues that he said are causing his office to lose deputies faster than they can be replaced.

Funding for the agreement will come from cuts to outside agencies. Funding for outside agencies, except for Pathways for Change and Community Health Northwest Florida, will be cut by 50 percent. An additional $125,000 will come each year from the commissioners’ discretionary fund, which represents a reduction of 50 percent to discretionary funds.

The commission voted on the mediation agreement after a closed-door, attorney-client session Thursday morning.

The agreement will still have to be ratified with an formal interlocal agreement between the Sheriff’s Office and the county. The changes to the budget will also have to be approved with budget amendment votes.

“We are encouraged by the progress to properly compensate our deputies,” ECSO Chief Deputy Eric Haines said to the News Journal in a written statement. “Until the final agreement is signed by the BOCC, we feel it is inappropriate to discuss the details of the settlement.”

Commissioner Lumon May wanted to postpone the vote until it was clear how much each outside agency would lose in funding. He added 30 minutes was not enough time to debate a measure that would commit millions of dollars.

A list of 16 outside agencies was attached to the mediation agreement. The list included groups from the Pensacola-Escambia Economic Development Commission to United Way. The agencies were allocated a total of $1.3 million from the county, but it was unclear how much funding, if any, each agency could lose.

According to the county’s adopted budget, the county allocated $1.68 million to outside agencies.

The agreement limits funding for outside agencies in future years to $734,374.

May asked County Attorney Alison Rogers if the attached list was the complete list of affected outside agencies, and she said she did not know.

“That’s valid enough to postpone this vote, Mr. Chairman,” May said. “For the record, your legal counsel has told you, she’s not clear on it, but you’re still going to vote on it.”

Commission Chairman Jeff Bergosh said the agreement is a step forward but will require tough decisions.

“None of this is easy, and there’s a give and a take,” Bergosh said.

Commissioner Steven Barry said the agreement removes the right of the board to set the county’s budget and he was concerned about the language dealing with the law enforcement trust fund.

“The language referencing the LETF funds says ‘if possible’ and ‘when feasible,'” Barry said. “That’s a win on a relatively small dollar amount per year. We’re giving somebody else the authority to not just fund them, but to have another constitutional (officer) to have direct control over the way that we prepare the budget.”

The law enforcement trust fund is made up of money seized by police from suspected criminal activity and can vary in amount from year to year. In the last three years, the balance has swung from $342,000 to $746,000.

Commissioner Grover Robinson said he would do everything he could to support continuing to fund outside agencies any way he could.

“This is an agreement that moves us forward,” Robinson said. “Nothing happens until we have a final document here. I think there is merit in us moving this forward and still evaluating where we go. I think the people want to see us trying to negotiate through this. I don’t disagree, gentleman, with what y’all have problems with in here.”

Commissioner Doug Underhill said the board showed leadership by cutting their discretionary funds, but said he expected commissioners to get calls from the outside agencies facing cuts.

“The only answer to that is, is your budget more important than public safety in Escambia County, and obviously the answer to that is going to be no,” Underhill said. “Most of them will recognize that these are tight times, and we’re tightening our belts.”

Underhill said the only other option was to raise taxes, which, he said, nobody wants.

“We are moving away from that kind of personality-based politics and more toward policy and procedure-based governance,” Underhill said. “It took a lot of courage. I’m in a campaign this year, and so is Grover. And both of us voted for something that’s going to be unpopular with a lot of people. I think that says a lot for the type of government we have now here in Escambia County.”

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

Even Underling leaves the table saying this is resolved to both sides satisfaction. Haines, Underhill, Champagne aka Team Morgan are all fine, but when it comes times for Hefe Morgan to sign on the dotted line after his representatives, Jack Brown, Alison Rogers and the commissioners, he refuses to sign.

An internal source at the ECSO claims Morgan never agreed to the 50% of the LET funds going towards SRO’s. That was the deal breaker. However, Haines goes to painstaking, agonizing levels to say that it was all these other issues in a video he does this past week full of charts. He goes on a 30 minute diatribe of how the county wants to “SCREW” the deputies. One absolutely false statement was that Henrique Dias was part of the negotiations leading up to the signing of the Interlocal Agreement. Henrique Dias has not been at work, or in Pensacola even for at least 6 weeks. Why would he chime in yet his name never appear anywhere at the 11th hour but not resume his duties as the CFO in this arrangement?  After all, Haines only took this position in negotiating because Dias was MIA.  He would be the one to argue the numbers being that he is the CFO and the Svengali of this chaos.

Putting aside the absolute ridiculousness & lies of this video, Rick Outzen even points out in an article titled “Is the BCC-ECSO Mediation Agreement Binding?”,

…However, the question is the mediation agreement binding. The mediation agreement only had one contingency -“3) This Agreement is contingent upon approval by the Board of County Commissioners.”

Outzen had another article in which he quoted Amber Southard as saying, “the mediation is a two-phase process that the ECSO considers the mediation agreement an ‘agreement in principal’ and  ‘then the Interlocal agreement is definitive.'”

This is the press release from Hefe Morgan on the 19th,

“The attempt to resolve the budget appeal through mediation appears to have been unsuccessful.

“Based on communication after the mediation, the BOCC staff wants to include any future contributions or cost increases to Worker’s Compensation, Unemployment Compensation, Florida Retirement System, and Health Care, as part of what was agreed to as a salary fix.

“The BOCC will be free to increase their own subsidies and the other constitutional officer’s subsidies over the next three years while keeping the Sheriff’s Office at current levels. There would be no way to project what an employee’s salary would be in three years if subsidy increases have to come out of the salary dollars.

“We cannot go into the details of the mediation per a confidentiality agreement. More work was to be done to flesh out the details of the Mediation Settlement as evidenced the BOCC’s County Attorney (who was present during the mediation) drafting a more detailed Interlocal Agreement that was sent to us last week for review and input. There now seems to be some internal conflict between the Commissioners concerning the agreement.

“In addition, the BOCC is now attempting to unilaterally define the Mediation Settlement by casting aside the more detailed draft Interlocal Agreement. We asked the BOCC to join a conference call with the mediator on Friday to clarify the issues. They declined.

“If the Commissioners are now being told that the mediation settlement was always meant to be the final language in the Interlocal Agreement, we would encourage them to individually and directly contact the mediator for clarification of that point.

“We will not accept any settlement that prevents the full implementation of the salary study or fails to correct the gross underfunding of ECSO salaries. We are fully confident that when the facts are presented to the Governor that he will decide in the ECSO’s favor.

“We are attaching the working copy of the Interlocal Agreement that was abandoned by the BOCC. Their initial draft is in black. Our additions and clarifications are in red.”

Everything points to everyone except Morgan on the same page until Friday afternoon. If the reasons they point out were not the REAL issues as all indicators suggest (no balking up until the last minute),  what could be the reason?  Again internally, it is said to be the LET caveat. Morgan doesn’t want his promised political money touched. That seems to be the best explanation offered.

On Friday,  Jeff Bergosh posted on his blog a story that illustrates the facts of what happened concisely. It reads (along with comments):

Haggling over that Brand New Truck…..

What would you think of a dealership that, after haggling back and forth over price with you and agreeing to a $50,000.00 “out the door” deal for your new truck–tried to change the price back to $54,999.99 at document signing???

The Dealership wants the absolute top-dollar for the shiny brand new truck.

The customer realizes the value of the truck, likes the product, does his research, does his homework, figures out what a fair price is, and he goes to the dealership–because he needs a new truck.

The buyer arrives on the lot and spots the brand-new, fire-engine red full-sized pickup he wants.  Shortly thereafter, a salesman arrives.

The buyer takes a test drive, looks the truck up and down, and looks at the sticker knowing he cannot and will not pay that full retail cost of $55,000.00–because that price is an inflated price and other dealerships have sold similar trucks for around $50,000.00.

“Are you willing to make a deal on this truck–are you the decider on the price?”  the buyer asks.

“Absolutely–make me an offer!”  says the salesman.

“I’ll give you $45,000.00  total today–in cash, out the door” says the buyer.

“Okay, I’ll see if I can go that low, I’ll go run some numbers with the sales manager” The salesman states.  A few minutes later, the salesman returns, and he looks the buyer in the eyes and says “We can’t go $45,000.00–but we can make a deal at $50,000.00.”

“Out the door?” asks the buyer

“Out the door” states the salesman

“You’ve got a deal–$50,000.00 out the door!” says the buyer.  As the salesman and the buyer exchange a firm handshake and look each other in the eye, the buyer says “I’m going home to get the cash, my wife will have to approve this but she wants this truck more than I do, so you have a deal!”  Excitedly the buyer heads home to get the $50K.  On the way out the door, he calls out to the salesman “Get it prepped and gassed I’ll be back in half an hour!”

Upon his return, with his wife and a shoebox full of $100.00 dollar bills totalling $50,000.00 in tow–the salesman ushers the couple into a cramped cubicle….

“Here’s the $50k, where do I sign?” asks the buyer.

“Okay, well about that deal………our finance guy has been out for awhile, and the manager has overruled my deal–you see, we need to charge you for tag, title, fees, underbody rust protection, gap insurance, roadside assistance and also the dealer prep fees”

“Okay–I get that” says the buyer–“Subtract that out of the total and balance the deal at $50,000.00–because we made a deal–$50,000.00 cash out the door—we shook on that!”

“I’m sorry sir, the manager told me to tell you NO” said the salesman looking down, not making eye-contact…. “but here is some good news–once we add in the items I’ve been told MUST be added back, your new total price is only…..$54,999.99″  Now, do you want to start re-negotiating, I can go get my manager, we can take all that cash and work out some new terms for the difference……”

“Wow–are you serious?!?”  Says the buyer.  “I don’t want to re-negotiate, I want this truck for the price you and I agreed on and shook on–because that is the honorable way to negotiate!”

“I’m sorry sir,  the manager won’t let me honor our deal” says the salesman looking straight down at the floor.  “I’m really sorry…”

“You ARE SORRY, and Your dealership IS SORRY!” says the buyer

Posted by at 4:38 AM  

8 comments:

Eric Haines said…

To continue the story, the salesman, who had been burned by this customer before, was smart enough to have had the conversation in front of an independent third party who could, through a phone call, confirm that the agreed upon price specifically didn’t include the tax, tag, title, and insurance and that those issues were to be worked out in the finance officer’s office. He also had another, more informed, more influential buyer in Tallahassee, that in a few short months would likely buy the truck for full price on a payment plan. In addition, the truck was necessary to provide vital services to the public and should have been purchased years ago. Only a year ago the buyer had said he had no money at all for a truck and would for 2 years, but now, 9 months later, he had $50k to buy a truck.

The buyer was pretty upset when he later found out that the salesman had in actuality only been looking at the floor in disappointment at the predictability of the customer. He immediately held his head high and called the customer in Tallahassee as he could care less what this local customer thought about him. He knew that the customer’s Yelp reviews were rarely looked at in high esteem as they were usually twisted and exaggerated.

March 21, 2018 at 8:00 AM

Jimmie Lee Staley said…

And that Chief Deputy Nonsense, is Nonsense. This stage is open for all to see. Your agency’s actions don’t jive with your words. You cannot change that. What was said and what was done are left to history. No spin from you or Hefe Morgan is going to make this look like anything but what it was….re-neg. Pure and simple…

March 21, 2018 at 6:54 PM

Anonymous said…

I love the stories. Why don’t you just go to the Governor anyway?

March 21, 2018 at 9:27 PM

Anonymous said…

I guess this is inside baseball. Though it is quite funny. My take on this is this, So there is a deal, but the owner (Mr. Dupe the Welsh) of the dealership had cold feet and the salesman really did not have authority to sign the contract, so Dupe the Welsh, well, Welshed. And Dupe the Welsh thinks his daddy, who owns another, bigger dealership in Tallahassee, is going to buy the truck at full retail with Uncle Sam III’s money. Unfortunately for Dupe the Welsh, everybody knows how much he hoodwinks and fleeces everyone as his dealership falls apart. Even Tallahassee daddy knows Dupe the Welsh is a con and refuses to reward Dupe the Welsh, well, for his welsh and doesn’t buy the truck. Tallahassee daddy tells Dupe the Welsh to keep the truck and try to sell it next year. Of course, everyone hates Dupe the Welsh, especially all of his beleaguered salesmen who missed out on additional salaries from the signed deal Dupe the Welsh, well, welshed. Dupe the Welsh, who is getting long in the tooth, retires and only one year later, no one remembers him, ever. A new owner comes to power, one who is reasonable, a former salesman and mentally stable who keeps his word. The dealership thrives, car sales increase, car salesmen make money and the world returns to normal.

March 21, 2018 at 10:42 PM

Anonymous said…

I don’t know why anyone is surprised about this at all. This is Haines and Morgan’s MO. They mislead the public with fake data and string along the employees with visions of grandeur that never happen. This moronic response from the Chief Deputy of a large law enforcement agency should enlighten the public to the toxic style of leadership running the Sheriff’s Office. I have tried to approach this with an open mind, but when one side sends in the incompetent second string to negotiate knowing it would be rejected, I can only shake my head in dismay. In a radio interview Haines said the county had duped them before, well I remember the jail negotiations so the Sheriff seems to be leading in that category now. The Sheriff needs to stop bullying his way to Tallahassee and grow a set. Negotiate in good faith and do the right thing for the deputies. If the Governor sides for the Sheriff now after receiving an offer of $9 Mil over three or four years, then we are all in trouble because Morgan is unstoppable. For God sake don’t let Haines talk for you. Oh yes and Jeff, you really need to tone it down. It is obvious that the issue you are most vocal about are personal and not for the good of the public.

March 22, 2018 at 7:52 AM

Anonymous said…

I have tried to have an open mind also. I think it boils down to most on the BCC think the sheriff could have given raises with his budget as it was. Perhaps, because the position of sheriff is a direct constitutional officer it is not good practice in Florida since there are really not the correct checks and balances of power like the board, although that is definitely a struggle for funds there also. I think with social media as it is, things have changed as far as the original intent of secret ballots, representative democracy and honoring the system. People always disagreed in the past and the vote was a balance of power with out all the haggling and discussion. The vote was done and it was over, end of deal. Perhaps the idea of a having the board go through a Public Information Officer and release things to a respected press would be better all in all for the board. Look at Facebook..What a disaster..politics and government all co mingled. Unsavory at times..

March 22, 2018 at 1:02 PM

Anonymous said…

Anonymous10:42 Hopefully the baseball fans of Dupe the Welsh are left standing there looking stupid and wondering why everybody else saw this and bet on the other teams and they were left holding the ball. But you are probably right the new former sales man will come along and soon most will all be eating peanuts and cracker jacks in the stands again. But some good may have come out of watching the game. Time wounds all heels.

March 22, 2018 at 1:41 PM

Anonymous said…

How were you duped? Sounds to me like you overloaded your arrogant backside. How can you and the Sheriffs Attorney sign the document after sitting through negotiates, leave the meeting and then cry that you were duped ? Appears to me you went back to your boss with the done deal and he didn’t like the deal you made. In order to save face with your boss and the employees you had to cry “they duped us” . You and the Attorney need to be replaced.

March 22, 2018 at 8:47 PM

I think that says it all.  Morgan backed out because his minions didn’t get it right.  What a good leader? Why wasn’t he involve in the drafting of the Interlocal Agreement? Arrogance? Or was he and he was asleep at the wheel?

Don’t Be a Jerk! It’s Christmas.

santa morganSo many things keep going on continually painting a picture of who the true Sheriff is. The man many of us have seen for years–pathological, irrational, sociopathic, vengeful, petty, and ridiculous to sum it up. His tyrannical tantrum in front of the Secret Service trying to carry his pearl handled pistol in to the Presidential rally, was unmentioned in the news, despite being news worthy.  He claimed to be the “fucking Sheriff of this fucking county” to which the Secret Service responded,  (I’m paraphrasing), “We don’t care who you are; you are not getting in to see the President with that gun”. Who does that? DUH!! Who thinks that would fly in this day and age?  This man is seriously disconnected from reality.

Much like this hissy fit is the crying wolf about pay compression to the Governor.  The most amazing thing is how viciously Eric Haines jumps to be nasty to Chairman Jeff Bergosh openly on social media. He sounds much like Underling speaking to his constituents. But the thing I love the most is that Haines talks a lot about the indiscretions of his subordinates that “break the chain of command”.  Being the ever diligent hypocrite, as a subordinate in ECSO which is equal with County Commission on the food chain of the county, he breaks the chain of command to attack anyone on behalf of the ECSO. He does not have the standing to make the assertions he does. The sheriff is the spokesman of the agency. It would be akin to having a little kid of one house screeching at the head of the household of his neighbor. Not only is it bad form, it has no authority. He just looks like a spoiled little kid, lashing out.

Besides his inappropriateness, his diatribe of “pay compression” is a fallacy.  If the average citizen had all the facts would be able to see right through. So in the spirit of keeping up the revolutionary act of putting the facts and truth out for the public to decide for themselves, I am going to release 2016’s W2’s numbers and a break down of what they mean.

 

The raw data with names:

2
3

6

5
6

2017-12-23 (12)

Dear Morgan Letter:

It has been a very long time since I sat down and dedicated a message just to you.  This last week has been an eventful week in Escambia County and there is no better time like the present.

First of all, let me address the misconception that I have “no interest in Escambia County”, the implied meaning is that I need to get my nose out of your county.  Your premise here is like most others is flawed and thereby your conclusions drawn from  them are just as flawed, if not, more so.

My current location is simply geography; Escambia County is my home, despite the fact my GPS coordinates differ. I first learned the meaning of normal there; I went on my first date there; my first hellion travails were on those roads,  in my first car; I got married and 2 of 3 of my kids took their first breath there; my first real dagger to my soul happened there with the loss of my father, my first parent to die. All my friends, alliances, allegiances and history reside in Escambia County.  You are located there; you lied your way into the hearts and minds  of the citizens and after you’re done fleecing the people, you, Underhill and Haines, will leave Escambia County because you have nothing that binds you to the people, the land or the legacy of this area when you don’t have your power to abuse. Your geography is not going to be the county’s degeneracy.

So having established my provenance, I will get back to the task at hand.

  1. The County Budget

Gleefully, I told Jeff Bergosh, personally, I was proud of him and his own personal integrity in telling you to be a good steward of the county funds, regardless of your posturing and PR attacks.  I know he didn’t do it alone but, in assessing the alpha-ness of the other members, Bergosh stands out, only to be outshined by your bitch, Underling. But Dougie’s pompous bravado on social media shows that in the heat of the fire (being critiqued or scrutinized), he’s reduced to a common schoolyard bully. Since he is ECUA’s favorite commissioner, he may outlast you by a minute but if he continues to hitch his politics to you, he may be out with you.

2. The Complaint about the Security at the Fair

I have been telling people for years what a narcissist you are, but your minions making an anonymous complaint at the fair was the first nail of the week in the cross the citizens are making to crucify you. You see, you looked petty, which you are. Plus by having those security guys leave, the guys working the fair, FDLE (the ones that will inevitably be investigating you) were left shorthanded. You burned another bridge, Dumbass.  Or either you allowed someone to burn it on behalf of your agency.  Either way, it was your guys, on your watch. Leadership is a role of responsibility, for the good and the bad. You are responsible for their actions, whether you did it or not.

3. The Deputy Sex Scandal

I categorically deny any personal relationship with any member of the Manning family. I apologize to the citizens for wasting taxpayers’s money in habitually being compelled to respond to frivolous and false claims and lawsuits fueled by nothing more than rumors, innuendo, Facebook and blog postings.

Riddle me this, then. If you didn’t have ANY relationship with the Manning family, how did I get your personal cell number from a member of the Manning family?  You see, the phones collected from the Mannings were new phones that they had less than 6 mos. The old cells, with their SIM cards, were never taken into custody. Plus, there is a cell carrier with a cloud drive that make access to this info readily available without those old phones.

Now granted you have that number registered under a bogus name but 2 different sources verified it’s authenticity but because I still wasn’t convinced, I called the number and heard: ….The two sources that verified it were other people you pissed off but would not turn over your number to me in spite of the fact they hate your guts. They did, however, corroborate they received calls and text messages from your number in the last few weeks.

How is that possible??  The phone number given to me over a year ago that is registered to:

4823624078065664

Why would a Sheriff lie about his association with this family publicly and then have the nerve to use a what I assume you meant to be a burner phone under an assumed name for personal, professional and very private affairs?? Are you trying to get caught or were you arrogant enough to think you only had to half-ass cover yourself?

That’s one for the people to understand. There are a great deal of secrets held by the Mannings (involving you) that would make Ron Jeremy cringe. While you can paint me as someone who is making shit up, the problem is the shit you say I make up, is factual, down to the dirty pics. Mark Smith has a personal stake in those photos too, but I will leave your deviant sexual tendencies and behavior to the speculation of the readers.

By the way, should you feel the need to “go after” me as you claim to the news, ( I am the only blogger who broke this story and your connection to the principals involved intimately), spell my name correctly, Bitch. I would love to turn over all the stuff I have to a judge. That’s my goal anyway. I have nothing to hide and there is nothing that I have asserted that could not be backed up with people, documents or both.

Plus in that statement of possible retaliation you claim to be considering, you show your true colors. Even if the girls are misguided as you claim, who SUES SEXUALLY ASSAULTED GIRLS for their story?? You jump to the defensive position without any understanding of other people. These are young girls who have been raped by the system, as well as their parents, and sexual predators. Do you really want to put YOUR reputation up against that? You love to victimize the victims. This is something most citizens won’t tolerate.

In closing, I just wanted to say I have enjoyed my phone blowing up because of your nonsense boiling over. You are so absorbed in your own shit that you can’t see the forest for the trees.

So I’ll wrap up this letter for now.

Signed,

The lady who promises to bring the karmic justice you deserve to your door.

 

Cognitive Dissonance & Fiscal Illiteracy

I know, I know—Big Words.  Cognitive dissonance is confusion resulting from dichotomous & opposing views about one principle.  Sir David is the personification of cognitive dissonance.  His latest publicly embarrassing rant is about deputy pay raises. Morgan fumes to WEAR:

“It’s nonnegotiable,” Sheriff Morgan exclaimed. “We’ll settle this in front of Governor Scott. We’re not going to negotiate this. This is nonsense, I’m done. I have a board of county commissioners unfortunately that appears to believe that they’re smarter than we are…..It’s OK for an officer to catch a bullet from a thug, but county commission won’t give them a pay raise.”

While these statements have a great deal of truth to them, the BOCC is smarter than any and all the admin at the ECSO & the officers that retired in 2009 had more longevity with greater performance based success that reflect in the crime numbers.  They also had higher standards to pass on a day to day basis. According to sources at the academy, as many as 65% don’t pass the full curriculum.  Of that remaining 35%, a high percentage  (what is estimated to be half) of them find their first couple of months in FTO, proves to them  that a place in this agency is not for them. Now that could be because the people being recruited come from PCC (sounds like a punchline but it is, unfortunately, true) or because the standards have been so low to populate approximately 2.5 times the number of classes churning through the academy than any other point in the last 15 years.

To get back to the cognitive dissonance of Morgan’s latest tantrum on the news lies in the fact that while he accuses the BOCC of letting his deputies “take a bullet for a thug” rather than get a raise, he fails to disclose the increase in the budget at the beginning of this year that he BLEW on hiring an “UnderSheriff” to soak up funds to populate 1 job position for 2 of his followers, Chip Simmons & Eric Haines. Two salaries for 1 job that has been parceled out to 2 people. A colossal waste of funds.  Not to mention the money, he gave Andy Hobbs, David Ingram and Amber Southard that makes every raise in the ECSO look like chump change; his fiscal illiteracy provides the cognitive dissonance we see today.  Yet his strategy is to bitch about and shame the BOCC members when he, not them, wasted approximately $200K in these horrible decisions to stack the top of his agency rather than put the money towards the rebuilding of the agency he single-handedly dismantled by forcing out 62 deputies last year.

Now let’s talk about that number, 62. Of those 62 who left the agency last year, at least a third have entered into civil suits for discrimination, civil rights violations and sexual harassment against Morgan personally and professionally. That is a skyrocketing number of suits against any ONE Sheriff. Another meritorious distinction this non LEO sheriff claims.

To simplify this for some of the current admin at the ECSO and the Honorable Sheriff, you can’t bitch about how the BOCC regards your deputies’ pocket book when you already stole from them too. That is cognitive dissonance–berating someone for something they shouldn’t do when you did it as well but don’t think you should be berated or judged. Hypocritical is another term in this case that would apply.  The money in the budget he gave to Chip Simmons, Amber Southard, David Ingram & Andy Hobbs. They got the money that deputies deserved. Morgan mismanaged that money by rewarding his favorites in a grandiose fashion, leaving the rest in the cold.

That brings us to the fiscal illiteracy. The fiscal illiteracy refers to his failing to manage the agency in the way it should be, despite the fact the Honorable Sheriff claims he can. I don’t know, maybe Webster University’s graduate level business classes,  37+ years ago, didn’t prepare Morgan to actually use numbers as high as the Honorable Sheriff has to work with today. Maybe there are too many big numbers for him to understand in one budget. I don’t know.

Let’s look at the over all money issues historically Morgan has had:

*in the military, he allegedly was skimming government money via credit cards, resulting in his early retirement

*the mishandling of the budget regarding the jail that resulted in him losing the oversight of that jail

*the employee that embezzled $150K from the LET fund for years without anyone knowing and his CFO keeping his job even though he facilitated larceny

*the citizens’ complaints on how LET money is spent resulting in an investigation by the State Attorney.

There is a pattern of misappropriation.  It seems very clear to those of us who pay attention.

The conclusion, based on the past history of this Honorable Sheriff leads to the reasonable assessment that, either he is criminally responsible for misappropriation of taxpayer funds as well as mismanaging criminal justice principles and personnel necessary for a LEO agency in the 21st century,

OR

He has been given too much responsibility for his capability.  He cannot seem to handle doing the duties of his post, which is to maintain law and order while sustaining the county’s fiscal well being and safety.

You decide.

I almost forgot to give a shout out to Gerry Champagne for trolling and liking my FB page for Florida Open Gov. Initiative.

CORRECTION:

I mistakenly said that 65% failed the academy. That is incorrect. The cadets go through the academy fine; it is 65% failing out of FTO or discovering this job is not for them.  My Bad.

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