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Editor’s Note: Safety Harbor City
Commissioner Kathleen Earle’s departing remarks at her final
commission meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 22, included her disclosure
that she had been the subject of a state investigation of alleged
election fraud and the finding that the allegation was unfounded.
The following excerpt is a verbatim transcript. Streaming video of
the meeting is available through the city’s website:
www.cityofsafetyharbor.com
by Kathleen Earle
Safety Harbor City Commissioner
Finally, on the brink of a new commission
being elected, both for their benefit and because I have been
haunted, a bit haunted by it, I’d like to address an
editorial I read in the Times some time back. I can’t recall
exactly when, but it has been since my election. It was an
editorial that lamented the dearth of individuals willing to run
for public office at the local level. And the editorial, as I
recollect, pondered why so few people want to serve. I think I
might have an answer to that question and in response I’d
like to share a few of my experiences.
The vast majority of my experiences in
Safety Harbor dealing with residents have been wonderful. While the
vast majority of Safety Harbor residents, the people who live and
work here, are honest and decent and forthright, there is a
virulent, cowardly and ethically bankrupt faction of individuals in
this city, who are willing to do, say and write anything
irrespective of the truth to ensure they get their own way. And I
am going to give you some examples because it has been something
that has been covered up, I think, for years.
The worst part of these people’s
actions and the part that rightly characterizes them as cowards is
that the vast majority of their actions are performed anonymously.
For example I recall Kara Bauer telling me that she would walk out
of the city commission many, many nights to find that her tires
were flattened.
From the time I first filed to run as
commissioner, I have been harassed and attacked anonymously and
repeatedly. Numerous anonymous faxes, letters, emails and phone
calls have been sent and made to local papers, city employees, city
department heads, city managers and unknown others in an attempt to
assassinate my character. However, these anonymous assaults never
did end with that initial anonymous attack because they are always
then followed up by reporters. And while anonymous people never
have to answer for any claims they make, public officials certainly
do as well as anyone else who does not hide behind lies or in the
shadows.
When I was forced to file an ethics
complaint against a former commissioner for harassing a city
employee to obtain my Social Security number, I did so in
self-defense and I did not do so anonymously. I emailed that person
to inform her of what I was doing and why I was outraged by her
behavior. The latest assault and one I must talk about publicly
because it is so serious, involves a most serious charge against
me. It is a claim that I did not live in Safety Harbor for at least
one year prior to my election on March 14, 2006. And that I
therefore committed perjury when I took office.
This claim is spurious. It is an outright
lie. And like the attempted misuse of a city employee to obtain my
protected information, it is an action that I can not ignore. The
individual who filed this complaint, which is an allegation of
election fraud against me, did not bother to notify me that the
complaint was being made or ask me if the allegations were true. In
fact, a reporter from the St. Petersburg Times asked me a long time
ago if they were true and I said no and gave her the documentation,
which was a city hall water bill, I believe, showing my residency
and we were done with it. So indeed, although I have never met this
individual, I along with every sitting member of the commission at
that time did have to remove him from a citizen advisory committee
for attempting to coerce our firefighters during an inspection.
In fact I only found out I was being
investigated when I was contacted by a special agent for the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which although I am not
familiar with criminal law, sounds like the state FBI to me. That
wasn’t a very nice surprise. It took me four months to obtain
this report. And because it has happened to commissioners before
me, I want to tell you what it says. We need to make this stop.
This needs to go away in Safety Harbor.
On August 14, 2007, the Florida Department
of Law Enforcement office of executive investigations received
elections fraud complaint #720 from the Florida Department of
State, Division of Elections. The complaint was filed by Mr. Gary
C. Jones against Kathleen Sue Earle, an elected official in the
City of Safety Harbor and was forwarded to the FDLE for
investigation. In summary, Gary Charles Jones, a resident of the
City of Safety Harbor, alleged that Kathleen Sue Earle, a member of
the city commission, City of Safety Harbor, falsely swore in a
written affidavit signed before the City Clerk of Safety Harbor
attesting to the fact that she met all the qualifications to hold
office in their city. This alleged false swearing is related to
Jones’ allegation that Ms. Earle failed to meet a one-year
residency requirement prior to election day.
Mr. Jones had no first hand knowledge of
any allegations that he made. He instead referred to an anonymous
source as “a city resident” in the report. This
anonymous person’s concerns were provided by Pam Corbino. I
quote, “Mr. Jones’ allegation is derived from
information he gained from other individuals or sources and is not
information he possesses as first hand direct knowledge.
Complainant Jones also reported that Pam Corbino was a longtime
Mayor of the City of Safety Harbor. In his complaint, Jones alleges
that Pam Corbino had been given most of the information I have
written in this report by a city resident.”
In sum, this is what happened.
On December 15, Attorney John Finch
representing Pam Corbino, met with the painter Joe Such, who works
for Pat Daily of The Daily Group here in town. Mr. Daily, Mr.
Such’s employer, apparently sent Mr. Such over to Mr.
Finch’s office to give a statement regarding when I moved
back to Safety Harbor. Please note that no one has yet asked me.
Since Mr. Such, who is also my neighbor, painted my house when I
moved back from Maryland, it was apparently thought that the date
he painted my house would establish once and for all whether in
fact I lived in Safety Harbor for at least a year preceding the
election. He was asked to sign an affidavit. He did so, and then
reported the affidavit was false.
A variety of things happened after that.
Mr. Daily made some statements. They were then sent to the hardware
store where Bob and Grace Steele were then involved, trying to look
up painting records to see if there were painting records for any
of my parents’ properties in 2005. And of course there
were.
All sorts of things happened. The bottom
line is this. The end of the report states that — and this is
after I had to come into city hall on very busy days and give sworn
statements that I did in fact live here and go through all my very
disorderly filing cabinets and pull out things for a year, from
years ago.
“During the course of this
investigation, Kathleen Earle produced a signed, sworn affidavit
she filed with the City Clerk of the City of Safety Harbor that
stated she met the general requirements to be elected and testified
under oath a second time as to meeting the one-year residency
requirement. Moreover, to bolster her claim, Earle then produced a
substantial number of documents that meet the factual evidence
criteria recommended by the Division of Elections to support the
concept of residency.
“It is therefore Inspector
Berlinger’s opinion that there is not sufficient factual
information or evidence to support the allegation that Ms. Earle
committed perjury by signing the affidavit before the City Clerk
and no legal basis to pursue this matter any further
exists.”
I returned from Maryland, for the record,
in November of 2004. As to my last statement, I have a sincere
request, a sincere request for those who would want to serve.
My sincere request for the welfare of the
City of Safety Harbor is that this kind of underhanded and cowardly
behavior stops. Two employees have been strong-armed by bullies
trying to attack me while I served as commissioner. One was
formerly employed by the City of Safety Harbor and one is currently
employed by Pat Daily. And for those who cannot or will not stand
and deliver in an honorable manner, please don’t enter the
public realm. Safety Harbor has hopefully outgrown that kind of
despicable politics. For the citizens of Safety Harbor, I wish you
forthright commissioners, commissioners who understand that their
job is to represent the will of the citizenry and who will fight
for you honorably in the sunshine and not attempt to coerce
subordinates or attack others clandestinely to further their
personal agendas.
And, that is it for me. I’m not
going anywhere. I live here. I’ll see you around.
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