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Well, that bureaucrat watch is still on for embattled County Administrator Pat Bean but she is managing to stay afloat despite some very questionable activities. Since my last update on this even more issues have come to light: 1. She has a driver in spite of taking a car allowance  2. There seems to be no documentation of how her self given raise came to be (how convenient) and 3. Her former top aide, Wally Hill, has thrown her under the bus and said she gave herself the raise (recall she said she didn't know who submitted her name for the raise award.) Uh-huh.

The Trib editorial board has called for an investigation and the Times has been calling for her head all along. Only Commissioners can clean this mess up (since Bean is not elected she is hired by the County Commission.) She is rapidly becoming the poster child for an elected County Mayor though. I was undecided on this issue or as Wayne Garcia once posed the question Seven knuckleheads or one? But at this point I am now in favor of an elected county Mayor or elected County Administrator whatever you want to call it.

Recall it was Commissioner Rose Ferlita who was the hardest on Bean during the first scandal on raises that Bean passed out to some of her faves without the board's knowledge but this time around it was Commissioners Mark Sharpe (who put the discussion on the board's agenda) and Commissioner Kevin Beckner who asked the FDLE to investigate this debacle over the latest raises. It was Beckner that had this information uncovered in the first place when he asked for the investigation after the first round of raises was exposed.

At Wednesday's meeting Sharpe wanted an outside attorney to investigate but he couldn't get enough support. Beckner wanted a report on past activities regarding awards and he couldn't garner the votes either (start working on your sales pitches boys.......don't just state your positions .........make your neighbors look bad for not voting with you or try sucking up to them with compliments and then ask them nicely for their votes.........it's the power of persuasion boys..........without it your votes don't count)

Norman, on the other hand, thought they should suspend the offending employees without pay for a few days and move on............what is this high school? The bigger concern is what the hell else have they done that has yet to be uncovered?

The meeting itself ended with Commissioners voting to look at their current policies and the mountain of paperwork that Bean evidently just provided them with. Several of them also made comments regarding the ethics complaint filed by a citizen (who happens to be our very own CL contributor and community activist George Niemann). They thought the process of that investigation should play out. That sounds good on its face but getting even the most blatant ethical violation to stick is nearly impossible and it is time consuming.  The Ethics Commission themselves are known as the toothless tiger so there is a good chance they won't stick and most politicians probably know this. Niemann does his homework though so if anybody can get one to stick it is him. Sadly, by the time they actually investigate it Bean will probably be retired anyway.

I was thinking..............since Ferlita only got the support of two other Commissioners to sue Kevin White for the taxpayer's money back ($500,000 or 9.1 hookers) and they were Norman and Higginbotham. And since Beckner and Sharpe didn't have Ferlita's vote on this one (although it looks like they did have the support of Mr. Ethical himself the Pimpin Commish, Kevin White) but again three votes doesn't get it...... I was thinking.........how about a little team effort here the next time around huh good Commissioners? Support each other on these two issues and everybody wins something...........we get a new County Administrator and some money back to taxpayers from the Pimpin Commish, Kevin White and you guys look good to the general voting public who seem to be outraged at both issues. Just a thought.

Also on the hot seat is County Attorney Renee Lee. She too got the award raise and gave Bean the ok to take hers. According to their contracts the board is supposed to approve this kind of stuff. No worries though, Niemann also filed ethics complaints on Lee and even the Pimpin Commish, Kevin White. Thanks for your endless supply of guts Niemann!

Oh and I almost forgot, after watching the end of the meeting I have to give the best public comment award to Janet Kovach who presented Bean with a book on ethics. Many times I have fought against Kovach regarding the Bypass/Beltway/Green Swath of Death issue but this time I have to give it to her for a great speech. Unfortunately, it was at the end of the day after the discussion on the issue had already taken place.

Stay tuned there is sure to be more discussion on Bean, Lee, and White. The good news is that if these scandals keep taking up most of the Commission's time during meetings it doesn't leave them much time to do things like approve more sprawl or name awards after their shuga-daddies or even figure out a way to preserve publicly owned land by entertaining the offer of selling it to private investors (also known as campaign donors). Maybe these discussions are not such a waste of time after all.