By DOTTY NIST
In the wake of an investigation that began in January 2015, State Attorney Bill Eddins announced on Sept. 24 that he did not find sufficient evidence to warrant prosecution as a criminal offense what he termed a “mistake” by the Walton County Planning Department. This was an incident that had occurred a decade earlier
Eddins’ announcement was made at a press conference hosted jointly by Eddins’ office and Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson at the Walton County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) administration building north of DeFuniak Springs.
Eddins discussed plans to prosecute former Walton County Planning Director Pat Blackshear for two counts of perjury in connection with testimony she had provided under oath on the matter before the State Attorney’s Office and during grand jury proceedings conducted in late August and early September. He discussed, as well, a recommendation by the grand jury for reprimand of a Walton County Administrator Larry Jones and Walton County Commissioner Cindy Meadows for their alleged failure to adhere to Walton County Human Resources policies with regard to hiring and termination of employees.
Near the outset of the Sept. 24 press conference, Eddins told the media representatives that upon receiving information that Walton County had failed to collect approximately $600,000 in recreational plat fees in 2005, he had initiated an investigation which had included examination of additional information and documents and conducting interviews.
The undercollection of fees had come to light in early 2015 when a memo bearing a 2008 date from Melissa Ward, then a county planning department staff member, surfaced in the planning department. The memo indicated that Ward accepted responsibility for a 2005 error in calculating the recreational plat fee for the Lakeside at Blue Mountain Beach development application. The recreational plat fee requirement calls for developers to provide a percentage of subdivision property for recreation or, alternatively, provide a buy-out fee for that percentage of the gross value of the subdivision, the percentage being five percent for the instance in question. According to the memo, the figure of $12,285 had been transposed for the correct gross value of the subdivision, $12.285 million, resulting in an undercharge of over $600,000.
Eddins indicated that his examination of the matter had resulted in the determination that that criminal prosecution was not warranted in connection with the error. He then decided, he said, to empanel a grand jury. Grand juries, he explained, may be used for the function of investigating whether local governments are operating properly and efficiently and of making recommendations to local governments.
During the two-week grand jury proceedings, over 100 documents were reviewed, and an indictment was returned against Blackshear, Eddins commented. According to an indictment document released by Eddins’ office, the charges were related to testimony by Blackshear “that she was unaware of any miscalculation involving recreation fees and/or that she had no knowledge of Walton County not collecting approximately $600,000 in recreation fees and/or that she did not require Melissa Ward to prepare a memorandum taking responsibility for a miscalculation regarding recreation fees, knowing said statements not to be true….”
Blackshear is to have her day in court. Eddins revealed that she would be arraigned in connection with the indictment on Oct. 20.
Media representatives at the Sept. 24 press conference were provided with hard copies of a number of documents related to the grand jury proceedings and Blackshear’s indictment. Also in press packets were copies of the grand jury’s eight-page report.
Eddins went over the grand jury report in detail. He highlighted the juror’s “criticism” of Jones and Meadows, who, he charged, “became directly involved in the hiring and firing of county employees,” outside the county’s chain of command.
The report cites two specific instances of such alleged involvement, although few specifics, including the names of the employees in question, are provided. In the first, there is said to be evidence that an applicant “with a connection to Meadows” was hired with little input from the department supervisor.
“Despite having no experience in this position, the employee was hired at a higher salary than others who were already working in the identical position,” the reports reads.
The second instance deals with the termination of a planning department employee allegedly “with little or no input from the department director and without following the County’s progressive disciplinary procedures.”
“Evidence indicates that Commissioner Meadows wanted this employee terminated and that Larry Jones directly ordered the termination,” the report charges.
Eddins indicated that Jones and Meadows were provided with copies of the grand jury report prior to its release and were provided with a 15-day period in which to file, if desired, a motion in circuit court to suppress or expunge the report or portions of the report. They did not do so, he said, adding that Jones had in fact told his office that he did not object to the release of the report.
In discussing the first section of the grand jury report, which deals with recreational plat fee collection, Eddins noted that, in addition to the $600,000 fee undercollection, the grand jury had been presented with evidence of a second mistake involving almost identical circumstances and resulting in the failure to collect $185,000 in recreational plat fees. Reported to have occurred in 2006, the mistake involved the Endless Summer development. The report details an apparently-unsigned memo dated July 17, 2008 in the file documenting the mistake and notes that “no witness accepted responsibility for writing the memorandum.”
“We find the failure to collect almost $800,000.00 in recreation fees to be egregious and unacceptable,” the report reads.
Grand jury recommendation associated with recreational plat fees include continuation of peer review process recently put in place by the planning department, use of new software to track fee payment, and establishment of “various levels of review” to prevent errors.
Eddins’ remarks covered other areas of information review dealt with by the grand jury, among those letters of credit, proportionate fair share, the Walton County Land Development Code (LDC) and Comprehensive Plan.
Letters of credit are provided by developers in lieu of infrastructure completion to ensure such completion. Grand jury recommendations were for a formal method of tracking letters of credit and review by a committee of whether allowing letters of credit is in the best interest of the county.
Review of the county’s proportionate share program is recommended, as well, to research possible ways to provide greater predictability and fairness with these fees and to evaluate whether impact fees would be a better means of providing funds for improvements on roads that are over capacity.
Another recommendation was for the enlistment of outside consultant to review and propose changes to the CP and LDC, due to vagueness and ambiguity of the documents, internal inconsistencies, and inconsistencies between the two documents.
Forensic and operational audits of the planning department by the State Auditor General were recommended, along with an evaluation of whether the number of auditors employed by Walton County is “consistent with industry standards” or should be increased.
“County commissioners should not be involved in the day to day operations of the County,” was an additional recommendation.
“I hope this report signals a new day for Walton County,” Eddins stated at the conclusion of his discussion of the report.” He added that he hoped that the recommendations provided by the grand jury would be implemented.
He also credited the grand jury for serving as the “conscience of the community,” and stressed that there should be no retaliation against hard-working county employees who had participated in the proceedings.
Contacted on Sept. 29, Walton County Public Information Manager Louis Svehla provided the following statement in connection with the grand jury report:
“Walton County is in receipt of the Grand Jury Report recently released by the State Attorney’s Office. The County appreciates the work and effort that has (gone) into this report and understands the Grand Jury’s desire to assist the County in making operational improvements. Some of the recommendations are already being implemented and those efforts will continue. Others will be reviewed by the Board for further action. We all strive to make Walton County Government the best it can be and we look forward to utilizing this report to enhance those efforts.” “The board will take up the discussion of this item during their regularly scheduled board meeting on Tuesday, October 13th in the South Walton Annex Boardroom,” Svehla concluded
Hard copy versions of the grand jury report and accompanying documents are available to citizens upon request from the WCSO. Email copies may be requested from the State Attorney’s Office.
Eddins’ announcement was made at a press conference hosted jointly by Eddins’ office and Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson at the Walton County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) administration building north of DeFuniak Springs.
Eddins discussed plans to prosecute former Walton County Planning Director Pat Blackshear for two counts of perjury in connection with testimony she had provided under oath on the matter before the State Attorney’s Office and during grand jury proceedings conducted in late August and early September. He discussed, as well, a recommendation by the grand jury for reprimand of a Walton County Administrator Larry Jones and Walton County Commissioner Cindy Meadows for their alleged failure to adhere to Walton County Human Resources policies with regard to hiring and termination of employees.
Near the outset of the Sept. 24 press conference, Eddins told the media representatives that upon receiving information that Walton County had failed to collect approximately $600,000 in recreational plat fees in 2005, he had initiated an investigation which had included examination of additional information and documents and conducting interviews.
The undercollection of fees had come to light in early 2015 when a memo bearing a 2008 date from Melissa Ward, then a county planning department staff member, surfaced in the planning department. The memo indicated that Ward accepted responsibility for a 2005 error in calculating the recreational plat fee for the Lakeside at Blue Mountain Beach development application. The recreational plat fee requirement calls for developers to provide a percentage of subdivision property for recreation or, alternatively, provide a buy-out fee for that percentage of the gross value of the subdivision, the percentage being five percent for the instance in question. According to the memo, the figure of $12,285 had been transposed for the correct gross value of the subdivision, $12.285 million, resulting in an undercharge of over $600,000.
Eddins indicated that his examination of the matter had resulted in the determination that that criminal prosecution was not warranted in connection with the error. He then decided, he said, to empanel a grand jury. Grand juries, he explained, may be used for the function of investigating whether local governments are operating properly and efficiently and of making recommendations to local governments.
During the two-week grand jury proceedings, over 100 documents were reviewed, and an indictment was returned against Blackshear, Eddins commented. According to an indictment document released by Eddins’ office, the charges were related to testimony by Blackshear “that she was unaware of any miscalculation involving recreation fees and/or that she had no knowledge of Walton County not collecting approximately $600,000 in recreation fees and/or that she did not require Melissa Ward to prepare a memorandum taking responsibility for a miscalculation regarding recreation fees, knowing said statements not to be true….”
Blackshear is to have her day in court. Eddins revealed that she would be arraigned in connection with the indictment on Oct. 20.
Media representatives at the Sept. 24 press conference were provided with hard copies of a number of documents related to the grand jury proceedings and Blackshear’s indictment. Also in press packets were copies of the grand jury’s eight-page report.
Eddins went over the grand jury report in detail. He highlighted the juror’s “criticism” of Jones and Meadows, who, he charged, “became directly involved in the hiring and firing of county employees,” outside the county’s chain of command.
The report cites two specific instances of such alleged involvement, although few specifics, including the names of the employees in question, are provided. In the first, there is said to be evidence that an applicant “with a connection to Meadows” was hired with little input from the department supervisor.
“Despite having no experience in this position, the employee was hired at a higher salary than others who were already working in the identical position,” the reports reads.
The second instance deals with the termination of a planning department employee allegedly “with little or no input from the department director and without following the County’s progressive disciplinary procedures.”
“Evidence indicates that Commissioner Meadows wanted this employee terminated and that Larry Jones directly ordered the termination,” the report charges.
Eddins indicated that Jones and Meadows were provided with copies of the grand jury report prior to its release and were provided with a 15-day period in which to file, if desired, a motion in circuit court to suppress or expunge the report or portions of the report. They did not do so, he said, adding that Jones had in fact told his office that he did not object to the release of the report.
In discussing the first section of the grand jury report, which deals with recreational plat fee collection, Eddins noted that, in addition to the $600,000 fee undercollection, the grand jury had been presented with evidence of a second mistake involving almost identical circumstances and resulting in the failure to collect $185,000 in recreational plat fees. Reported to have occurred in 2006, the mistake involved the Endless Summer development. The report details an apparently-unsigned memo dated July 17, 2008 in the file documenting the mistake and notes that “no witness accepted responsibility for writing the memorandum.”
“We find the failure to collect almost $800,000.00 in recreation fees to be egregious and unacceptable,” the report reads.
Grand jury recommendation associated with recreational plat fees include continuation of peer review process recently put in place by the planning department, use of new software to track fee payment, and establishment of “various levels of review” to prevent errors.
Eddins’ remarks covered other areas of information review dealt with by the grand jury, among those letters of credit, proportionate fair share, the Walton County Land Development Code (LDC) and Comprehensive Plan.
Letters of credit are provided by developers in lieu of infrastructure completion to ensure such completion. Grand jury recommendations were for a formal method of tracking letters of credit and review by a committee of whether allowing letters of credit is in the best interest of the county.
Review of the county’s proportionate share program is recommended, as well, to research possible ways to provide greater predictability and fairness with these fees and to evaluate whether impact fees would be a better means of providing funds for improvements on roads that are over capacity.
Another recommendation was for the enlistment of outside consultant to review and propose changes to the CP and LDC, due to vagueness and ambiguity of the documents, internal inconsistencies, and inconsistencies between the two documents.
Forensic and operational audits of the planning department by the State Auditor General were recommended, along with an evaluation of whether the number of auditors employed by Walton County is “consistent with industry standards” or should be increased.
“County commissioners should not be involved in the day to day operations of the County,” was an additional recommendation.
“I hope this report signals a new day for Walton County,” Eddins stated at the conclusion of his discussion of the report.” He added that he hoped that the recommendations provided by the grand jury would be implemented.
He also credited the grand jury for serving as the “conscience of the community,” and stressed that there should be no retaliation against hard-working county employees who had participated in the proceedings.
Contacted on Sept. 29, Walton County Public Information Manager Louis Svehla provided the following statement in connection with the grand jury report:
“Walton County is in receipt of the Grand Jury Report recently released by the State Attorney’s Office. The County appreciates the work and effort that has (gone) into this report and understands the Grand Jury’s desire to assist the County in making operational improvements. Some of the recommendations are already being implemented and those efforts will continue. Others will be reviewed by the Board for further action. We all strive to make Walton County Government the best it can be and we look forward to utilizing this report to enhance those efforts.” “The board will take up the discussion of this item during their regularly scheduled board meeting on Tuesday, October 13th in the South Walton Annex Boardroom,” Svehla concluded
Hard copy versions of the grand jury report and accompanying documents are available to citizens upon request from the WCSO. Email copies may be requested from the State Attorney’s Office.
