?We still have just under 2 years until the next regular Mayoral election and we feel we cannot wait until then to vote her out.? With those words in late June a new Safety Harbor-based political action group called Concerned Safety Harbor Citizens For Integrity Within Our Government announced a petition drive to recall Safety Harbor Mayor Pam Corbino. Citing personal attacks by Corbino against fellow city commissioners and the city manager, ?increasingly vicious and unethical tactics? and behavior ?casting a negative light on Safety Harbor,? the group is launching an effort to collect 1,210 Safety Harbor voter signatures to force her from office.
The recall drive comes at a time of nearly unprecedented turmoil in city hall. A complaint has been filed with the Florida Commission on Ethics, accusing Corbino of attempting to persuade a city employee to give her the Social Security number of newly elected Commissioner Kathleen Earle. That bombshell landed shortly after commissioners accepted the resignation of City Manager Wayne Logan after he waited nearly a month to inform them of a unionization effort among city employees. Since that time, Assistant City Manager and Planning Director Ron Pianta also resigned to take a position in Hernando County and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that racial harassment has occurred in the city?s Public Works Department.
Furthermore, these major conflicts have arisen at a time when residents are pressuring the commission to put new height and density restrictions on development, funds are needed for a major expansion of the city?s library and the commission is questioning its funding of the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce.The recall may not happen at all. State law specifies that at least 10% of the city?s eligible voters must sign the petition within a 30-day period, the signatures must be verified by the county Supervisor of Elections, then Corbino would have the opportunity to issue a 200-word defensive statement. At that point, recall petitioners would have to collect an additional 605 signatures within 60 days. Only after a verified total of 15% of the city?s voters had signed the petitions could a special election be scheduled by the chief circuit judge.
Fabian Bloom, a Safety Harbor resident who is chairing the recall committee, said the group recognizes the formidable effort required to conduct a successful recall. A total of 1,815 voters would represent more votes than were received by two of the three winning candidates in the most recent election, when 22.16% of voters turned out. To gauge the level of dissatisfaction in the community, the group has launched a website, RecallCorbino.com, Bloom said.
The petition drive will not begin before mid-July, he said, noting that the 30-day time period begins when the first signatures officially are collected.
Corbino could make the effort moot simply by not showing up at the only commission meeting scheduled for July. She has been absent for nearly a month since the ethics complaint was filed. Corbino skipped a commission workshop in June, saying she had decided to take some vacation time. Then she sent City Manager Logan an email stating could not attend the June 19 regular commission meeting because of back pain. Fellow commissioners declined to excuse her absence. Two consecutive unexcused absences results in automatic disqualification from office.
Because of the Fourth of July holiday and lengthy budget workshops scheduled during the month, the only full commission meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 17. If Corbino does make her first appearance in more than a month, she will face serious questioning. In an email sent to City Manager Wayne Logan, Corbino said there was a misunderstanding about the Social Security number. Her concern was about the security of information in commissioners? personnel files, she said. She attributed her concern to a conversation with the city?s outside auditor, Gil Hernandez.
However, while giving a report on the city?s audit at the June 19 meeting, Hernandez was questioned by Commissioner Kara Bauer about the conversation with Corbino. He denied having had any discussion with the mayor concerning commissioners? personnel records. Furthermore, Corbino said in her email to Logan that she had tried to direct her question about the personnel records to him, but that he was on the telephone. Logan was not in city hall that day. He had taken a personal leave day. His resignation occurred at the meeting the following Monday. He told Earle about the incident on Tuesday.
?I can see no benevolent reason that a person would try to obtain this confidential and protected information and thu s regard Mayor Corbino?s clandestine request for my Social Security number as an action with malicious intent,? Earle said in her complaint to the ethics commission. The complaint detailed the sequence of e vents as beginning on Friday, June 2 when Corbino approached Julie Yaeger, the city?s public information officer and formerly secretary to the personnel director, Bill Cropsey. Yaeger said that Corbino told her ?she was the only person in city hall that she (Corbino) could trust? and then asked her to obtain Earle?s Social Security number. Corbino did not deny talking to Yaeger, but offered a different version in an email to Logan, which has been the only public comment she has made on the matter.
?Let me assure you that I did not request the Social Security number of anyone, but did want to see if my own number was in my personnel file for everyone to see,? Corbino wrote June 8. ?Now that I have more free time to devote to city business, I did come to the office last Friday. You were on the phone and Mr. Cropsey was in a closed door meeting. Julie was the only person available at that end of the office? Julie didn?t know where the files were, so I told her I would wait and ask Mr. Cropsey another day when things weren?t so hectic in the office. I don?t know how that could get construed into me asking for someone else?s Social Security number.?
In addition to Logan and Hernandez?s later contradictions of Corbino?s explanation, Yaeger and her boss Cropsey also do not seem to support Corbino?s version. According to Logan, Yaeger immediately reported Corbino?s request for Earle?s Social Security number to Cropsey. He phoned Logan at home that evening and reported what had transpired. Ironically, Corbino?s June 8 email also fires another accusation at Logan. She wrote that she has ?known for over a year that you have instructed our staff to let you know immediately if I should make any inquiries are (sic) requests for information. Knowing that, I would never put a staff member at risk. This level of paranoia that you have created at city hall is the worst that I have ever seen.? Corbino apparently is referring to last July when she called for Logan to be fired for what she said was inappropriately authorizing a $45,000 payment on his own behalf to his state retirement account. Even after the city attorney detailed that the payment was in fact specifically authorized by Logan?s employment contract, which Corbino had approved, she said, ?I?m not going to apologize for asking questions.? However, she did later make a public apology.
In August of last year, Corbino also became involved in a dispute between Commissioner Kara Bauer and her next door neighbor in the Rainbow Farms subdivision. Bauer disclosed emails Corbino apparently sent from her classroom at Safety Harbor Middle School, where she is a computer instructor, advising the neighbor on how to pursue an appeal before the city code enforcement board.
Bauer accused Corbino of coaching the neighbor to attack her and the code enforcement board, in part by urging the neighbor to take the dispute to a local daily newspaper. Corbino said she had discussed the matter ?just like I?d discuss information with other residents,? then refused to make additional comment.
The same incident led to the Pinellas County School Board?s Office of Professional Standards issuing a ?letter of counsel,? a form of reprimand, for misusing office equipment ? conducting city business through her school email accounts.
All of these incidents are detailed at RecallCorbino.com.
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