The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the leak of sensitive emails to a local news outlet, County Administrator Joy Andrews revealed this week.
At a Feb. 4 meeting, board commissioners Ann Taylor and Krista Joseph broached an email they received regarding sexual harassment allegations against a county employee.
Taylor and Joseph asserted that Andrews had not been sufficiently rigorous in addressing the complainant’s claims, a charge she rejected.
One or more of the emails were later obtained by a local television station, which published portions of their contents.
“Commissioner Taylor and Commissioner Joseph brought to the public a letter related to a personnel issue that was inappropriate to be discussed in public,” Andrews said at the conclusion of Tuesday’s board meeting.
Andrews said an investigation into the harassment allegations is ongoing.
After the Feb. 4 meeting, she said the correspondence was revealed on a news site.
“I truly believe that is a violation of the protective rights of our employees,” Andrews said. “As a result, we have employees who are in distress.”
Andrews said she has enlisted the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office to help find the source of the leak to “ensure that these types of breaches do not happen again.”
Joseph denied any involvement.
“I think that’s excellent because my name was on it and I had nothing to do with it,” she responded. “So I think that’s a great idea.”
Recent clashes between Joseph and Andrews continued to reverberate on Tuesday, with commissioners Sarah Arnold and Christian Whitehurst both addressing the exchanges.
“We are here to do the business of the county,” Whitehurst said. “I am hopeful that we will not be subjected to vicious political attacks on our county staff who do a great job.”
Arnold named Andrews personally while echoing those remarks.
“I would also hope that there would be no more vicious attacks on our county administrator,” she said.
Joseph did not addressed those comments.
She previously proposed a no-confidence vote in Andrews, primarily citing her absence during last year’s garbage collection crisis. That bid failed by a 3-2 vote.
