First, an email from Sandra Downs describing her dream last night, which I read as Heaven’s view of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office’s record keeping practices, and, let us hope, Heaven’s intent to bring the truth into the light of day. Then follows an email exchange yesterday with someone on my Keys email list, about my running for the County Commission.
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“I had a dream that professional people were going through MCSO paperwork. There were discrepancies everywhere in their reports vs. what actually they had to back up what they said. The more the investigators dug through the papers, the more astonished they were how words did not match any data. I was watching them go through the papers, and standing back satisfied they were finally looking.”
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“I wish you would run against anyone else besides George N as HE IS NOT ONE OF THE THREE and if you win we still be 3 against 2.”
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“Oh, my. Seems you opened a, hmmm, can of worms?”
“??? I ran against George in 2006, when I lived on Little Torch Key, which lies in his County Commission District. His 4-year term has two more years to go. In March last year, I moved back to Key West, Sonny McCoy’s District. His term in office is ending and I’m running for his seat. Sylvia Murphy’s and Dixie Spehar’s terms also are ending. County commissioners are voted on at large/county wide by all registered voters. Candidates for the County Commission, however, can only run for the county commission seat in the district where they live. My recent tryst with George viz a vie Sandy Downs/the Goodmans was not about his seat. It was about something very serious and hurtful that happened in his District that he, as a county commissioner, could have jumped on when he learned of it. At least, that’s what I would have done, if I wuz in his shoes. Instead, George attacked Sandy and Jerry Coleman, and me, and blindly defended his friends, the Goodmans. When Sandy offered again to sit down with him and show him the evidence she has, he first said okay, then he said he preferred not to get involved. I’d not seen this side of George before, and was left not feeling much better about him than I feel about the Gang of Three. I’ve been a cautious about Sylvia Murphy since the day she took office and did not participate in Mario Di Gennaro being selected Mayor, while she was off in a corner of the room enjoying her coronation party arranged by Kay Thacker and others. I had gotten onto Kay about that party ahead of time. I told her Sylvia would have a hell of a lot more important things to be doing at that county commission meeting, her first one, than attending a coronation party. Later, Sylvia told me she was glad she wasn’t involved in Mario becoming Mayor, because she wanted him as an ally on the county commission. Kay didn’t seem fazed, either, by Mario becoming Mayor, but she probably got sort of fazed when he had her ejected by a deputy sheriff from a county commission meeting for simply given a thumbs down response to something the county commission decided to do. And Sylvia and George just sat there saying nothing, like the First Amendment really hadn’t been trampled to death right their under their very noses by Mayor Di Gennaro. I’d have I hard time, were I in Kay’s shoes, feeling too chummy with Sylvia and George after that, but I wasn’t in her shoes and she stayed chummy with them. As I wrote maybe ten days ago now, Sylvia got Mario appointed Mayor, by not being there to vote against it with George, creating a 2-2 tie, which Mario could not break, as he was the candidate. George was in on it too, for not going and getting Sylvia out of her coronation, to vote with him. Instead, he went along with Dixie and Sonny. Don’t see how either George or Sylvia, or Kay, later had any standing to complain about Mario’s ensuing behavior as Mayor, separate and apart from his actions as a county commissioner, another wee concern. The other day, I read in Key West Citizen where Sylvia had lectured the public audience at the last county commission meeting, who opposed Frank Rego going on the Tourist Development Council, about there only being two things to consider: (1) Was Rego’s appointment properly before the County Commission? (2) Did the County Attorney say Rego met the legal requirements to be on the TDC? If so, that’s all there was to it. What? How about the fact that most of the information Rego provided about his work history apparently was not able to be confirmed with prior/current employers, so maybe he didn’t exactly tell the truth about it? How about the fact that Rego was Mario’s candidate, and who can trust Mario about much of anything, thus trust Mario’s candidate? Sylvia doesn’t go about things that way. She seems to live by a set of narrow rules that have no room for common sense and street smarts. Who would vote for any person Mario wants on the TDC, or anywhere, who’s been around the Keys for the past two years?, is what I’m driving at. Yet George also voted for Rego, even after I tried to talk him out of it. He told me ahead of the vote that he voted for political appointees of other commissioners, even though he did not like them, unless they were clearly unqualified. It was a tradition to do that, he said. Didn’t I agree with that protocol? Gosh, tradition is more important than what is good for the TDC and the Keys? Gosh, George complains a lot about the Gang of Three, yet he rolled over when Rego was chosen by Mario, he rolled over when Mario was made mayor, and he rolled over when the County Commission decided to stick with Jerry Coleman before the end of last year, even though George had publicly said he didn’t want to do it. After he had gone along with it [keeping Jerry], George told me he hadn’t “wanted to make a frontal assault.” So he went down quietly, instead of voting No for the record. Same with Mario becoming Mayor and Rego going onto the TDC. Maybe we all should take a break to throw up in respect to trying to all get along and keep our dear sacred traditions alive? Maybe this is why I find myself feeling like if I end up on the County Commission, it will be a 4-year war — 1 against 4 — because I don’t see me getting along too well with George and Sylvia, either. But then, maybe Sylvia and Dixie could be replaced by people I can get along with better? Or maybe I’ll be kidnapped by a school of alien mermaids and hauled in their swimship off to Neptuna to live happily ever after, or whatever happens when you are abducted by mermaids? Or maybe I’ll just be bumped off. Now that’s a thought. Instead of trying to figure out how to get it on with mermaids, I’d be outta here. Whew! Just joking. Well, sort of.”
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“So glad to hear you are running against McCoy — good luck.”
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Well, so much for garnering sympathy. Maybe this pen pal should run for the County Commission? How easy it is to speak from the audience. How truly different it is to be on stage. How truly different. SB