Rancor and hostility have become hallmarks of the deeply riven St. Johns County Board of Commissioners.
But Tuesday’s episode of what sometimes resembles a municipal telenovela delved into recrimination and argument in record time.
Board chair Krista Joseph opened the proceeding by noting the absence of her colleague Sarah Arnold, who called into the meeting and planned to participate remotely.
Unless she was in the throes of an emergency, Joseph argued, Arnold could not vote on the day’s matters.
“I’m here,” Arnold said over speakers in St. Augustine’s St. Johns County Auditorium.
“Do you have an emergency, ma’am?” Joseph asked Arnold in phrasing reminiscent of a 911 call.
“No, Commissioner Joseph,” Arnold replied from parts unknown.
“If you don’t have an emergency you can’t vote,” Joseph said. “But if you’d like to partake in the meeting that would be fine.”
Arnold quickly requested an opinion from Interim Town Attorney Rich Komando.
“Does Commissioner Joseph have the legal authority to prevent me from voting?” she asked. “I believe that’s my constitutional right as granted to me by the voters.”
Komando rappelled into the fray, telling Joseph that state law doesn’t bar an elected official from remotely casting votes as long as a physical quorum is present.
Joseph returned fire, asserting that Arnold was setting a dangerous precedent.
“i just don’t want to start something where we’ve never had someone who can go on vacation and call into this meeting,” she said. “Because the constituents deserve to have their person here.”
Board member Clay Murphy — a retired state trooper turned successful restaurateur — waxed unintentionally philosophical.
“Mr. Komando, what does ‘present’ mean?” he asked at one point.
Despite the county lawyer’s protests, Joseph tried to bring the matter to a board vote — but insisted that Arnold could not vote in the vote about her ability to vote.
Komando dove back into the crossfire, alleging that Joseph was flouting rules.
“You don’t have the legitimate authority to infringe upon the constitutional rights afforded to each commissioner,” he said. “Just like she couldn’t do it to you. Just like you can’t tell the sheriff who to arrest.”
Since the matter was broached publicly, Joseph opened up the discussion to civilian meeting attendees, who were largely split on the issue.
Board meeting fixture Charlie Hunt offered a succinct appraisal of Arnold’s absence during the spring break meeting.
“You volunteered to be elected,” he said. “Do your job.”
Speaker Kerri Gustavson echoed that opinion, telling the board that commissioners should not enjoy privileges unavailable to the public.
“I’ve lived in this county for ten years,” she said. “I’ve never been able to call in to even give a comment. To see that we might be changing things up today because somebody went on vacation — I don’t think that’s fair.”
Public speaker Jackie LeBlanc said commissioners should be required to attend meetings in the flesh.
“These people didn’t show up to see empty chairs,” she said. “We show up here to see you, and hear you and look at you.”
Speaker Travis Minch backed Arnold’s right to vote, arguing that Joseph was motivated by political animus rather than procedural principle.
“We’ve got a county commissioner who is doing what she can to participate,” he said. “I would question whether her political beliefs are being measured on whether or not she should be able to participate. If you don’t like her vote that doesn’t mean she that she should be denied the right to vote.”
Helen Breeding told the board that it should have never scheduled a meeting during spring break to begin with.
“I think this meeting should have been delayed knowing that it was spring break,” she said. “We know that some of the commissioners — and staff as well — have children and they are having to not go on vacation with their children to be here.”
Breeding urged the board to adopt a less acrimonious tone overall.
“This hate and divisiveness we have going on here is so unprofessional,” she said. “It’s so undignified. And so unnecessary.”
Joseph eventually relented, saying she would defer to Komando’s counsel.
With that, she called for Pastor Jason Cullum of Christ Church to perform the invocation that is normally given at the start of the meeting.
Having waited for the unexpected 40-minute debate to finally conclude, he walked to the podium.
“Let us pray,” he said with a smile.
5 Responses
I like accountability and think board members should be present in person at meetings, but I also recognize people have lives and families. This is Florida’s family county after all due to the top-rated schools, and Spring Break is a big deal for many of these families.
The meeting could have been held next week. It seems personal to not have moved the meeting a week forward or backward.
Legal notice was given for the meeting, and it was scheduled a year ago. You can’t just move BOCC meetings around at the last minute to suit the whim of one commissioner. If Arnold wants to get rid of BOCC meetings on Spring Break week, she’s had 3 years to make that proposal to the board, and could suggest trading it for the January time off they are given. There are reasonable solutions.
“Commissioners must be present and cast their own vote.” Rule 4.505 of Rules & Policies, St. Johns Board of County Commissioners. Attorney General Ashley Moody says you must be “present” meaning in the room unless it is declared by Statute or a state of emergency. Commissioner Arnold was by no means “present” and there was no emergency.
This is a no-brainer. School board and Airport board members have attended their SJC meetings remotely, without voting. Why is Arnold afforded this privilege?
Commissioner Arnold has known for a YEAR that a BOCC meeting was planned for March 18. Arnold made her vacation plans with the obvious plan of skipping the meeting. Perhaps when she found out so many agenda items were important to the developers who fund her, she demanded to attend and vote without being present which is clearly against board rules. Did Komando define “present” as being virtually present? Ridiculous.
Meanwhile, Joseph has never missed a meeting, despite having a sick and dying husband at home, and this article depicts Joseph as somehow unfair for performing her duty as chair. Komando was made interim attorney by developer-funded commissioners to further their agenda, and so far, he’s doing a great job of it. No thanks to the St. Johns Citizen for trying to turn this into a headline-grabbing cat fight when it was simply one woman behaving responsibly and welcoming her colleague to attend the meeting, but informing her of the board rule that EXISTS.
In other news yesterday, Joseph performed a miracle by leading the effort to kick off the first tree ordinance in 25 years to protect our rapidly disappearing trees. There was a 3-2 vote in favor of the trees. She is keeping her campaign promise. But sympathy is being generated for the commissioner whose seat was paid for by developer dollars, and who voted against saving trees.
The constant acrimony on this Board is disheartening. I sure wish these people could find something to like about each other and stop attacking each other personally, even if their ideologies and political goals differ. It wastes time, energy, and resources and creates a lot of unnecessary drama. It makes our county look ridiculous.
I did not hear any “personal attacks” in this discussion. If you watch it, you’ll see that it was a debate about rules and laws. Disagreements on a public board are nothing new and not unique to our county. The article was written to emphasize “rancor” rather than issues.