Good Morning Florida Keys

Yesterday, U.S. Dristict Judge K. Michael Moore dismissed the Pro Se Petition for Amicus Curiae Intervention I filed in the Celeste Bruno vs. Monroe County case. I expected Judge Moore to dismiss the Petition, but perhaps what is in it will affect him as he presides over the trial. I don’t think I did him any great favor. An innocent before he read the Petition, Judge Moore is an innocent no more. He now is responsible not only to the parties and the Federal Judiciary for how he handles this case, but also to God. It won’t surprise me if the case now takes some interesting and perhaps unexpected twists and turns. Perhaps the meaning of “poltergeisting” and “ghost-busting” will be stretched to new and electrifying heights. If you wish to see the Petition, it is posted to the Amicus Curiae menu page of goodrmorningfloridakeys.com and goodmorningkeywest.com.

Related, I had a couple of talks yesterday with Todd German, who sits on Key West Citizen’s Editorial Board. I wrote yesterday about the Editorial Board’s unanimous endorsement of Heather Carruthers in the District 3 county commission race. I wrote that the Board dismissed me because I say I get instruction in my dreams and the Board felt we need a more reality-based candidate. I wrote that I indeed told the Board that I get instruction in my dreams — at the very end of the half-hour interview I told four them that. Four men. The other five Board members, including Todd, were not there. I was told by one of the four, Tom Tuell, Editor of the Citizen, that everything was being taped-recorded and the missing Board members would listen to the tape.

Todd told me yesterday that did not listen to the tape, even though he had told me he was going to listen to it. Nor, I wager, did the other missing Directors hear the tape. For if they had, they would have heard just how much reality I shoved down the Board’s throats during our half-hour together. As for Todd, I was not surprised that he did not listen to the tape, because he had told me on other occasions that he was going to do something, that he did his homework, but then he did not do it. He had also told me he was supporting Heather, and I had fully expected him to vote for her during the Editorial Board’s deliberations. It was something else that he told me yesterday that I had not expected.

Todd said he was present when the entire Editorial Board discussed the District 3 candidates. He said there was no mention of my getting instructions from dreams. He said he told them how important I had been to the race, that I had brought a lot of important stuff to the table. When I asked if he had read the Editorial, he said he had not. I suggested that he read it, and that he then take Board to task, in public. I said he would do that if he was my friend and if he was committed to the truth. For whoever wrote that the Board did not want a candidate who says he gets information in dreams knew he was not speaking for the entire Board, because what he wrote had not even been discussed by them.

I am quite aware that saying I get information in dreams discredits me in the eyes of some members of the public. It discredits me in Tom Tuell’s eyes. And it discredits me in Todd German’s eyes, which I find a bit odd, inasmuch as when he was first drawn to me when I was running for Mayor of Key West in 2003, he said it was because I talked at candidate forums about my relationship with God. But as time passed, Todd moved away from that, and moved toward advising me to leave the God talk out of my presentations and stick to the issues.

He told me to leave the God talk out of the Petition I gave to Judge Moore yesterday, but I had been told in a dream to put it in there. I do what I’m told, because not doing what I’m told is never a pretty sight or any fun for me. I learned to accept without argument that Jesus really meant it when he said, “Thy will, not mine, be done, O Lord.” When he said to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth  .  . .” That is why I wrote into the Petition that I was a priest attached to no religion or church of this world, because (I did not put this in the Petition) there is no religion or church on this world that lives as Jesus said to live. Well, as Jesus is reported in the Gospels to have said. Who knows what he really said? All we have is handed-down hearsay reports, not one of which would be admissible in a court of law.

No, I do not expect to see Todd take the Citizen to task for one person on the Editorial Board falsely claiming to speak for the entire Board when he wrote that the Board did not want a county commissioner who says he gets instruction in dreams. I do not expect Todd to do that, because by the time we were done talking yesterday, he was defending the Board. He explained that, while the Board is seldom unanimous, it always writes in the “we,” as if it speaks unanimously. Even when it is split 5-4 on an issue, it speaks in the “we,” Todd said. I think the Board really ought to tell the public about its divisions, which is what the appellate courts do. Their published decisions show which judges concur, or concur specially, and which judges dissent. The concurring and dissenting opinions are published with the majority opinion.

No, I don’t expect the Citizen’s Editorial Board to operate like appellate courts, or under the same sunshine standards the Board sometimes claims elected officials should operate under. I expect the Board to continue to give you the impression that it is telling you everything. Sort of like the Gang of Three, except there are nine.

I told Todd yesterday that I might be asked to write about this today, and, yep, I was told in dreams last night to do it, even though there was something else I had already written before turning it last night about Celeste Bruno’s case that I felt should be published. Something I still feel should be published. But then, I’m not on the Editorial Board that gives me my writing assignments. I’m just a draftsman.

Sloan Bashinsky, non-affiliated county commission candidate, District 3 seat

Yesterday’s Key West Citizen Editorial contained an unanimous Editorial Board recommendation of my opponent, Heather Carruthers, in the District 3 County Commission race.

Heather, who not once during any candidate forum, nor on her campaign website, came out against “The Gang of Three,” naming them for what they were and still are.

Heather, who, when recently asked by Richard Grussin on his Sunday morning US 1 Radio Show about corruption on the County Commission, said she was not sure she could use that word to describe some of the goings on with the County Commission.

Heather, who did not speak out against the rigged Cape Air deal, which I tried so hard to explain to the Editorial Board when they interviewed me, hoping the Citizen would write something real about it, instead of the fluff that ended up in a later Editorial.

Heather, who has yet to attack the way the County Commission has handled the lawsuit Celeste Bruno filed only against Monroe County over alleged sexual harassment by Gang of Three member Sonny McCoy.

Heather, whom the Editorial Board praised for her ability and desire to crunch numbers, and for her broad grasp of all issues facing Monroe County, and for her proven dedication to serve all Keys people.

In its endorsement of Heather, the Editorial Board said about me that I had told them, which I did, that I rely on information I receive in dreams. They said we need a county commissioner who is more based in reality. Meaning for them dreams are not based in reality? Meaning for them the dreamers in the Bible were not in touch with reality? Meaning for them God has nothing to do with reality?

One Editorial Board members is a good friend of mine. The Editorial was a hell of a way for me to learn that he doesn’t think I’m in touch enough with reality. Especially after he has praised me for digging into the Celeste Bruno lawsuit and airing out the allegations in her complaint and preparing court papers asking the trial judge to hold Sonny McCoy’s feet to the fire, so that he will not walk away free if the jury returns a verdict for Celeste against the County. My friend knows, because I told him, that dreams forced me to get involved in Celeste’s lawsuit and do all of the stuff he has praised me for doing. Someone from Big Pine Key advised me the other day in an email to keep my friends close and my enemies even closer. Amen.

The “Amicus Curiae” page of goodmorningfloridakeys.com and goodmorningkeywest.com features a copy of what I am going to file today in open court in Celeste Bruno’s lawsuit. As you read it, I hope you will ask yourself why Heather, who got plenty steamed up, as did I, over Sonny making mean sexual remarks in a county commission meeting about Heather’s gay friend, Diane Bureldsen, did not take out after Sonny over what Heather knows in her bones he did far worse to Celeste. The reality is, what Sonny did to Diane cost the County nothing in money terms, but what Sonny did to Celeste could end up costing the County plenty.

Sloan Bashinsky, non-affiliated county commission candidate, District 3

This appeared yesterday in bigpinekey.com’s Cococunt Telegraph gossip column, which receives over 60,000 hits a month.

[Sheriff Race] Let’s review the race for Sheriff again and include Sandy Downs, a citizen with a chip on her shoulder. I’m going to say she has no qualifications at all to run for Sheriff, no qualifications at all to manage a $50 million budget and no law enforcement credentials whatsoever. Thus, were she elected, she would have to go to the Academy, pass the test and get her credentials like a rookie deputy. That has to be an encouragement for the voters to support her wild card candidacy. Her supporter is a man with no visible means of support running endlessly for public office while informing us voters that he gets his instructions from dreams.

This post reminds me of many (not all) of the posts to the gossip column: the writer has plenty of criticism but offers no solutions; the writer does not indicate that he/she  is doing anything him/herself to try to make things better in the Keys (or anywhere); and the writer does not have the guts to identify him/herself. Of the three, failure to identify tells me more about the writer than anything the writer could say. To be perfectly blunt, I am fed up with people piping up about what they don’t like that’s going on in the Keys (or anywhere), who do not put their name on their piping. Fed up. I am not just speaking here of the Coconut Telegraph. I also am speaking of all the Blogs and of the people who bitch and moan to me but do not want their names appearing in what I use that they bitch and moan to me about. That upchuck out of the way, I will speak briefly to what this chicken shit with the chip on his/her shoulder posted to the Coconut Telegraph yesterday.

Are you aware, C.S., that David Rice, who had no law enforcement credentials whatsoever, was going to run for sheriff until he learned that Sandy Downs had entered the sheriff race?

Are you aware, C.S., that Bob Peryam is so over-qualified to be our next sheriff that he was demoted from Major to Captain because he was incompetent in the job he was given when he was a Major in our Sheriff Department?

Are you aware, C.S., that Bob Peryam had other people do his school work, so he could get his law enforcement degree?

Are you aware, C.S., that Bob Peryam never saw anything wrong with his own wife being head of Internal Affairs, until months after Sandy Downs started bitching about it?

Are you aware, C.S., that Bob Peryam thinks with his dick, which everyone in the Keys but you now seems to know?

Are you aware, C.S., that Ken Davis did not make any cases that stuck in the Keys, when he headed our local DEA unit?

Are you aware, C.S., that neither Ken Davis nor Bob Peryam saw any need for a Citizen Review Board when they announced their candidacies?

Are you aware, C.S., that Bob Peryam still sees no need for a CRB, and that Ken Davis doesn’t want one either. What Ken finally came around to saying he wanted, after he realized Sandy Downs was making points with advocating a CRB, was some sort of super duper Internal Affairs over which would preside someone Ken chose, who was ratified by the County Commission? On that super duper IA would only sit one civilian. Ergo, Ken Davis doesn’t want civilian oversight either, and to quote him, “A CRB is not needed.”

Are you aware, C.S., that Sandy Downs is the only sheriff candidate who has persistently and bravely gone after what is wrong in the Sheriff Department, from top to bottom, from the Jail to Headquarters, from the Sheriff Substations to the liason with DEA?

Are you aware, C.S., that Sandy Downs is the only sheriff candidate who has provided concrete proposals for the multitude of changes she will make in the Sheriff Department?

Yes, C.S., I could go on and on about Sandy Downs, and put you sound to sleep, no doubt. So I will simply end this tirade by saying Sandy is the only sheriff candidate who wants civilian oversight for the Sheriff Department, including civilian oversight of the Sheriff.

As for what you wrote about me . . . It is true I have no visible means of support, because God is invisible. And it is true I say I get instructions in dreams, because I do. Can you imagine, C.S., no, perhaps not, what it will be like if I am on the County Commission? Another commissioner brings up a pet project, or a lawyer or developer presents something to the Commission, and I say, “Hey, I dreamt about this just last night, and this ain’t exactly what you are saying it is. Here’s what is really is and we really don’t want it.” Can you imagine, C.S, no, perhaps not, my two opponents raising hell in their campaigns about all the things that are awry in this county? Can you imagine them, no perhaps not, taking on the powers that be, when what they want more than anything, God only knows why, is to be elected to this job from hell (county commissioner)? And, my dear C.S., can you imagine, I hope so because I can’t, where my two courageous opponents, who have visible means of support (secular jobs), and one has a family, are going to find the time to put in the the 60-80 hours a week being a county commissioner requires to do the job correctly, for the next four years?

Sloan Bashinsky, non-affiliated county commission candidate, District 3

 As far as I know, Monroe County does not challenge the truth of the factual allegations in Celeste Bruno’s lawsuit. The County’s defense seems based on legal technicalities and wishful thinking. So I’d like to talk about some not so obvious music being played under the covers and around the fringes.

When Celeste filed her lawsuit, the County’s insurance company assigned a private lawyer to defend the case. This lawyer, despite holding forth that he represented Monroe County, actually is the insurance company’s lawyer, which pays him to defend the case. Rest assured, if the insurance company’s attorney really did represent the County, he would have made Sonny McCoy a third-party defendant, trying to minimize the County’s exposure in the case.

Alas, when Celeste filed her lawsuit, the County Commission was controlled by Sonny McCoy, Dixie Spehar and Mario DiGennaro. It’s hard to imagine that The Gang of Three would have approved a third-party complaint against Sonny, which would admit the truth of Celeste’s allegations. I told a friend yesterday that, if I had been the County Attorney, I would have bypassed the insurance company’s lawyer and the County Commission, and filed the third-party action against Sonny, and if it cost me my job, then so be it. I said my lawyer-client duty first would be to the County, and not to one or more of the County Commissioners.

My friend was pretty riled up over the allegations in Celeste’s complaint, because the suit had been downplayed by the county government and its lawyers, and my publishing the actual allegations sort of came as a bombshell. He had heard letters had been written from within the county government, trying to reel Sonny in, to no avail. Letters he figured would end up in evidence during the trial. He was especially upset with the “I told you sos” Celeste received from county employees, after she decided she could not take any more. He said that would really hurt the County in the trial and was not hopeful for the County’s chances. I said it might be another Duck Tours case, but with a lot more teeth.

My friend said the general consensus in the county government was that Sonny was above being controlled. He lamented that the County has no power to reel in a wayward commissioner. I said there is a way:  take the commissioner to state court and ask for an injunction. If the County Commission won’t do it, then a private citizen has to do it. I said another way is to file a formal complaint with the state Ethics Commission, which might be about the same as asking the fox to guard the chickens. Even if the Ethics Commission does come down on a county commissioner, my understanding is that it takes the Governor to remove the commissioner from office. When I said we need the power to recall our elected officials, this person said I should push hard for voter recall in my campaign. In fact, I have pushed for it from time to time in my posts, but nobody ever seemed to get behind it. Maybe the atmosphere now is more favorable.

My friend also was upset that County Commissioners George Neugent and Sylvia Murphy had not raised a public stink after they were given copies of Celeste’s lawsuit papers. I agreed that George and Sylvia, above all others, should have raised bloody hell. By publishing Celeste’s allegations themselves, George and Sylvia could have brought tremendous public pressure on the County Commission to make Sonny a third-party defendant in the lawsuit. Instead, George and Sylvia became part of the conspiracy to protect Sonny and put the County and its residents and taxpayers in jeopardy. The other thing that left me really scratching my head, I said, was: “Why didn’t Celeste sue Sonny? Why did she only go after the County?”

Sloan Bashinsky, non-affiliated county commission candidate, District 3

Below are the factual allegations lifted verbatim out of the initial complaint filed by Celeste Bruno in the Monroe County Circuit Court against Monroe County. The case then was removed by Monroe County to the U.S. District Court, because part of the allegations concern violations of federal laws. The Complaint then was amended, dropping all but the first two counts. The factual allegations of misconduct by Sonny McCoy remained the same.
 
The alleged wrongdoing is set out in detail and minces no words. Because of the candor and detail, it’s hard for me to imagine the allegations are not true or mostly true. I cannot understand why Celeste only sued the County and left Sonny out of it. I also cannot understand why the County did not bring Sonny into the case as a third-party defendant, inasmuch as he is accused of misconduct that had nothing whatsoever to do with his duties and responsibilities as a county commmissioner and Mayor of Monroe County. Instead, the County seems to have protected Sonny at every turn, and in doing so has acted as if it has no exposure in this case. As the case now stands, if Celeste wins, Sonny gets off and Monroe County and its residents and taxpapers get tagged for everything.
 
I learned two days ago that the trial is set to begin this coming Monday at 1 p.m. in the Key West federal courthouse. I am working on something for the trial judge to consider.

Sloan

General Alleqations

9. The Mayor hired Bruno as his executive assistant February 9,

2005 following an interview during which he never asked about her

qualifications nor sought to see her resume, but commented, “Well, you’re

certainly pretty enough.”

10. The Mayor’s reputation at the time within Monroe County

government for inappropriately interacting with female employees was such

that when Bruno went to the county administrator’s office to complete the

paper work to accept the job, the county administrator’s administrative

assistant, Connie Cyr, stated that she had been approached to take the job,

but that she would not do so - “Not with his reputation” - and Debbie

Fredericks, then a Senior Administrative Assistant and subsequently Deputy

County Administrator, warned Bruno, ‘If he starts, you have to be really

stern.”

11. Although Bruno accepted the job, thinking that The Mayor could

not possibly behave as badly towards women as Cyr and Fredericks had

suggested, she immediately learned otherwise.

12. For example, The Mayor regularly told - and re-told - the

following stories, notwithstanding the fact that Bruno told him the first time

that either she did not need to hear such stories or that it was “more

information that I wanted,” and would tell him during beginning-to-end

encore recitations, “You’ve told me that this already. I don’t need to hear

this again”:

a. The Mayor had an older lover when he had studied in

Paris, France, who along with another woman treated The Mayor to a

menage a trois on the eve of his leaving, the frequency and intensity of the

sex that night being such that he suffered a “runny” penis and visited a

physician when he got back to the United States;

b. The Mayor - when he was in China on an architectural/

cultural trip with former President George H. W. Bush - had the sexual

services of a beautiful Chinese girl “Dah ling,” whose name he could

remember because it sounded just like “darling”;

c. The Mayor broke off an affair with a neighbor’s wife

because he had nightmares about looking up and seeing the man with a sad

look on his face as he watched The Mayor and his wife have sex;

d. When The Mayor made his, 90-mile, one-water-ski trip to

Cuba - a claim-to-fame he has memorialized with a wall of photographs in

his office - there were women on the ski boat whose sole function was to

“keep me up” by periodically appearing at the stern and removing an article

of clothing;

e. The Mayor developed an aversion to overweight women

while working as a cargo pilot when one such women initiated sex with him

after he had passed out drunk;

f. The Mayor officiated at a wedding as Key West mayor, and

then had sex with the bride after the groom got too drunk at the reception;

and

g. The Mayor had sex with Cuban prostitutes when doing

architectural work in Cuba.

13. Following virtually every one of the tellings (or re-tellings) of one

of these stories, The Mayor approached Bruno and said, essentially, “You’ll

tell me if I say something that bothers you, right?,” to which Bruno

inevitably responded, ‘I always have told you that I did not want to hear

your stories and I will keep on telling you,” to which The Mayor would

inevitably reply ‘I joke around more with you than with Kathy [Peters, his

former executive assistant], because you can take it.”

14. The stories and the subsequent exchange occurred virtually daily

throughout Bruno’s employment as The Mayor’s executive assistant.

15. The Mayor after four or five months escalated the unwelcome

sexual advances by asking Bruno on several occasions if she were attracted

to him. When she told him that his inquiry was inappropriate and refused to

answer it, he told her that he was attracted to her and asked again why she

would not answer his question.

16. The Mayor’s other sexually inappropriate remarks included, but

were not limited to, the following:

a, summoning Bruno from her desk to his office merely to tell

her, “You’re cute”;

b. frequently staring at her buttocks and commenting with a

mock Spanish accent, “Que fondillo!” - which translates to “nice bottom”;

c. telling her, as she stood next to where he was sitting

reviewing a document she had typed, ‘I want to slap your behind”;

d. asking her on another occasion what color underwear she

had on;

e. inquiring about her sex life with her husband;

f. telling her - after he returned from a visit to a urologist,

who, he shared, had “put his finger up my buttr’ - that it was amazing how

a man his age could have such a high semen count;

g. talking about how ‘Women shouldn’t have worries - it

ruins their looks.”

17. The Mayor affected inappropriately sexual body language with

Bruno, including learning over her desk, getting close to her and rubbing his

chest through his unbuttoned shirt - after ordering her to arrange the

furniture, including a printer and a scanner, in such a way as to allow him

easier access to the area behind Bruno’s desk than he had enjoyed after his

former assistant, Peters, arranged the furniture to effectively barricade

herself from him.

18. The Mayor also attempted to force upon Bruno inappropriately

large (and unwelcome) gifts. For example, he:

a. ordered her a refrigerator to be put on his bill when hers

broke - which she called and cancelled;

b. offered to have a friend paint her house - which she

declined; and

c. instructed his daughter to order Bruno an MP3 player -

which Bruno rejected by calling The Mayor’s daughter to stop the order.

19. The attempted giving of unwelcome gifts to Bruno was perceived

by Bruno at worst as a thinly disguised and unsuccessful attempt to get her

to prostitute herself or, at best, a “peace offering” indicating his

understanding of how offensive and troubling his sexually explicit conduct

was to her. Additionally, the attempted gift-giving was The Mayor’s modus

operandi, as demonstrated by the way he also treated his immediately

previous assistant, Kathy Peters:

a. whom he got onto a list for affordable housing at a

condominium of which he was the architect;

b. whose $200,000 mortgage he attempted to guarantee;

and

c. for whom he ordered a full set of dishes that Peters left

behind in the office when she transferred to the County Attorney’s office.

20. Following the receipt March 3, 2005 of an anonymous letter

suggesting that Peters had left The Mayor’s employ because she felt sexually

harassed, The Mayor told Bruno daily that “I don’t know what I did to her,”

that ‘I just tried to help her,” and that Peters had been “very emotional” and

would cry in the office.

21. The Mayor repeatedly told Bruno that he could not have sexually

harassed Peters - whom he called “my little Conch girl,” a reference to

natives of the Florida Keys, and whose sexual history he detailed to Bruno

without Bruno’s inquiring or inviting him to do so - because he had never

touched her.

22. Following Bruno’s repeated rejections of The Mayor’s advances,

The Mayor became hostile towards her, e.g.:

a. demeaning her work;

b. asking her repeatedly if she knew what various “big” words

(e.g., “tautologist”) meant and demanding that she tell him;

c. displaying anger when the office received an e-mail from

the Tourist Development Council and Chamber of Commerce congratulating

“whoever wrote” a letter to the governor about windstorm insurance that

Bruno had written but that had gone out over The Mayor’s signature;

d. refusing to listen to anything that she had to say about

windstorm insurance, even though Monroe County’s state representative had

suggested in a phone conference with The Mayor and Bruno that The Mayor

let Bruno brief him on the issue because The Mayor needed to know

something about it;

e. flying into a screaming rage at Bruno because she had

stapled a landscape-format attachment to a portrait-format letter differently

than The Mayor had thought it should be stapled; and

f. laughing at Bruno’s work product in front of County

Attorney Suzanne Hutton and telling her “You’re cute” as Bruno attempted

to present to him and explain a letter she had drafted about windstorm

insurance.

23. Bruno walked out of The Mayor’s office after the incident

described in 7 22(f), refusing to return.

24. She used vacation time and worked in the office of the County

Administrator for a while, seeking other employment with Monroe County.

25. The Mayor’s actions towards Bruno:

a. were based:

i. on Bruno’s gender; or

ii. on Bruno’s having opposed The Mayor’s unwelcome

sexual advances and constant, uninvited discussion of sexual matters by

repeatedly refusing those advances and telling him that she did not want to

hear those kinds of stories;

b. were so serious or pervasive as to permeate Bruno’s

workplace to the point that it altered the terms and conditions of her

employment by requiring her to work in a discriminatorily hostile or abusive

environment;

c, would have offended any reasonable woman;

d. did offend Bruno - to the point that it caused her to seek

professional help for the anxiety and depression The Mayor’s behavior

caused;

e. as to the actions more specifically alleged in 1 22, were the

type of actions that could well dissuade a reasonable worker from opposing

The Mayor’s sexual advances and sexual comments.

f. were, upon information and belief, similar to his actions

towards former assistants, which actions were known to Monroe County

officials to the extent that Tom Wille, the county administrator, told Bruno

when she said that she no longer wished to work for The Mayor that he was

surprised that she had lasted as long as she did in The Mayor’s office and

Debbie Fredericks, the deputy county administrator, asked “Was it hands or

words?,” adding, “We warned you.”

26. Monroe County at all times material failed to exercise reasonable

care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior by The

Mayor in that it:

a. knew of The Mayor’s sexual harassment of other women,

but had done nothing to stop it or to counsel The Mayor about repeating it;

b. had in place a sexual harassment policy that only forbade

harassment or retaliation by employees up through the level of division

director and department head, but did not forbid either harassment or

retaliation by members of the Board of County Commissioners; and

c, provided sexual harassment training to employees, but not

to members of the Board of County Commissioners.

27. Immediately upon leaving The Mayor’s employ, Bruno began

seeking treatment for depression and anxiety.

28. Soon thereafter, Bruno went to work as an assistant to

Commissioner Spehar, whose office was in the same Key West complex as

The Mayor’s.

29. Bruno’s job with Spehar paid 4 per cent less than her position as

executive assistant to the mayor pursuant to General Policy 4.13 of the

Monroe County Personnel Policies and Procedures.

30. Notwithstanding general knowledge of the popularity of The

Mayor - a third-generation “Conch” and former five-term mayor of the City

of Key West prior to being elected to the County Commission - Monroe

County leaked to the press on or about November 10, 2006 word that the

EEOC had notified Monroe County October 17 of Bruno’s sexual-harassment

and retaliation Charge of Discrimination.

31. Following the news leak and the ensuing November 11 coverage,

Milo John Reese, a mentally ill ex-convict, visited Spehar’s office November

13 to leave a handwritten note reading:

Sonny,

Regarding the person who says you harassed, I called my attorney.

She went on her computer. She’s got something on this guy. Cellest

(sic) Higgins, # 305-536-6900.

Thanks,

John Reese

32. Commissioner Spehar, meanwhile, told Bruno several times

subsequent to the news leak that the sentiment she was encountering

whenever she went to an official meeting was that, ‘We’ve got to protect

Sonny.”

33. Reese returned to Bruno’s office November 16, identifying

himself as a friend of The Mayor’s who wanted to help him with Bruno’s

complaint, at which point Bruno telephoned County Attorney Suzanne

Hutton and Bob Shillinger, an assistant county attorney, who spoke with

Reese after Bruno left the room.

34. When Bruno returned, Hutton and Shillinger told Bruno that each

desk had a panic button and told her that were Reese to return, she could

push it and sheriff’s deputies from the nearby courthouse would rush over.

35. Reese the following day left another note, this one on the back

of a blank restaurant check: “Perjury = 3 years in jail. How do you like me

now. Have a nice day. John Reese, FBI.”

36. City of Key West Police Department officers issued trespass

warnings to Reese November 17 for both Commissioner Spehar’s office and

Bruno’s home.

37. Reese nonetheless returned to Commissioner Spehar’s office

November 30, telling Bruno - who told Reese to leave as she pushed the

panic button and dialed 911 - that “I go next door to Sonny’s all the time

and he never told me I couldn’t come here.”

38. While the City of Key West police arrived in response to the 911

call, taking Reese into custody for trespass after warning, no sheriff’s deputy

responded to the panic button.

39. Bruno, fearing that Monroe County could not protect her, left

work that day and went to her psychotherapist, Marilyn E. Berner, a licensed

clinical social worker, who advised her not to return to work - as Spehar’s

assistant or in any capacity - because of the overwhelming fear Bruno had

developed concerning Monroe County’s failure to protect her.

40. Monroe County shortly thereafter terminated Bruno for job

abandonment.

Today’s Key West Citizen Editorial is about the Cape Air deal the County Commission approved at its last meeting. In return for Cape Air providing three 9-passenger Cessna 409 flights a day from Ft. Myers into Marathon and back to Ft. Meyers, Monroe County and Marathon private interests will go halves on a $250,000 guarantee to Cape Air, should it not fly at least six passengers per trip into and out of Marathon, per day, from mid-December 2008 through April 2009.

The editorial left me astounded. Astounded because it does not mention that it’s going to cost the county, through its airport’s funds, $100,000 to bring the Marathon airport’s security check-in up to Cape Air’s standards, so its passengers can deplane into a secure area in Ft. Myers and not have to go through security again. Astounded because I myself told the Citizen Editorial Board about the $100,000 security upgrade two days ago, when they interviewed me as a county commission candidate.

I told the Editorial Board everything that had happened around Cape Air at that county commission meeting. I described my doing royal battle with the commissioners over approving yet another speculative Marathon airline venture in a time of extreme county financial hardship. I said the commissioners’ decision was ridiculous and mismanagement. I said the same exact deal had been killed at the previous county commission meeting, after which our director of airports, Peter Horton, told the Marathon private interests that they were going have to put up the entire $250,000 guarantee if they wanted the Cape Air deal to fly. Peter told me this himself, I told the Editorial Board.

I told the Editorial Board that County Commissioner George Neguent, who had been strongly opposed to the Cape Air deal the first time, changed his mind after talking with David Rice, who, like George, lives in Marathon. I told The Editorial Board that I at least had expected Commissioner Sylvia Murphy to vote against the Cape Air deal, but after she learned from Peter Horton that the funding could come out of the airport’s unused security funds and not the County General Fund, she voted for it.

I told the Editorial Board that the commissioners never considered the $100,000 additional security upgrade, when they made their decision, and that I asked them to go back and deliberate all over again, and they looked at me like I was a toad. I told the Editorial Board that I told the commissioners two of them (Neugent and DiGennaro) lived in Marathon and had a conflict of interest and should not even have participated in the decision.

I told the Editorial Board that the $100,000 in the airport funds was the county’s money, and if the airport funds had more money than needed, the excess should be given back to the county. I told the Editorial Board that the books had been cooked. The Cape Air deal was rigged. The Sunshine Laws surely were violated. I said all five county commissioners needed to be replaced. And I said this was an example of what it would be like if I was on the county commission.

I then told the Editorial Board that the Citizen had reported nothing of what really had happened around the Cape Air deal at the last county commission meeting.

If you actually believe this “newspaper” gives a rat’s ass for accurate and tough journalism, or about what is best for this county, then you just fell off the conch truck.

Sloan Bashinsky, non-affiliated county commission candidate, District 3

Yesterday’s Coconut Telegraph page of bigpinekey.com contained an interesting lament about the Sheriff’s race. The lamenter wrote that, on the one hand, we have Capt. Bob Peryam as a choice for our next sheriff. Bob, who is married and talks a lot in his campaign about family values, who courted a young woman out of his sheriff cruiser and was caught having sex with her by her mother in her mother’s home, and then her mother and father were threatened by Bob and his sheriff cronies. Then the lamenter wrote that, on the other hand, we have former local DEA head Ken Davis as a choice for our next sheriff. Ken who made no drug cases, but he did not run around on his wife and maybe that qualifies him to be our next sheriff.

Now what is interesting about this lament are two things. The first thing is that the lamenter does not even mention Sandy Downs, who also is running for sheriff. Whether this is an indication of the lamenter’s ignorance, or whether it simply indicates the lamenter’s view that Sandy isn’t an option for our next sheriff, I do not know, because the lamenter left that for readers to speculate. I suppose it could go either way. The other interesting thing about the lament is that the lamenter apparently does not know, or forgot, or never paid attention to the fact that it was Sandy who, after speaking with the mother on the telephone and getting confirmation, blew the lid off Bob Peryam’s philandering, which eventually led to Key West the Newspaper getting a copy of the mother’s handwritten complaint against Bob Peryam filed with the Sheriff’s Office and giving it to Sandy, who gave it to me after she typed it up, and then I published it. And it was Sandy who dug around and discovered Ken Davis had not made any cases, and I reported that, too.

All the while, the Key West Citizen and the Keynoter were mum as church mice, except for the various times they did everything they could to malign Sandy. She was maligned plenty on the Coconut Telegraph page of bigpinekey.com, too. The maligning started shortly after her campaign website, sandyforsheriff.com, designed and brought online by the host of bigpinekey.com, was hacked the day it went online, and the “My experience with injustice” file that blew the lid off the Sheriff’s Office was destroyed. Same day, the Coconut Telegraph itself was hacked and utterly destroyed. When the host, who is a good friend of mine, put the Coconut Telegraph back together and online, people wrote in that Sandy, who knew nothing about websites, had hacked not only her own website but also the Coconut Telegraph, which was protected by serious firewalls, leaving its host bewildered about how it was even hacked to begin with. Whoever did it was a super hacker, the kind one might find in a sheriff department, or in the CIA. But not the kind one might find in the F.B.I., which only after serious arm-twisting by Sandy. put a couple of its own Internet sleuths on the case, who were unable to trace the threads of the crime back to the hacker. All cause for a tremendous sense of well-being for people who rely on the F.B.I. to track down terrorists who use the Internet.

Whatever, I found myself musing about what I figure Sandy will do if she is our sheriff.

She would dump Bob Peryam and his wife, Cindy, who heads up Internal Affairs at the Sheriff’s Office, an utterly ridiculous and unprofessional conflict-laced situation neither Key West Citizen nor the Keynoter, our two major newspapers, apparently have not seen anything wrong with because they have not jumped on it. The Citizen and Keynoter did not even jump on it after Ken Davis publicly started saying nowhere else in America does such a situation exist in a law enforcement agency. As I recall, Ken said that the first time at a candidate forum after I had bashed him good that morning for not saying anything about it already, and for not wanting a Citizens Review Board.

Here are some other things Sandy would do, which I am summarizing from memory. The details in her own words can be found in the “Changes I would make at MSCO” file of sandyforsheriff.com.

She would bring about a Citizen’s Review Board, overseeing all sheriff personnel, including herself, which Bob Peryam and Ken Davis have said they see no need for. Bob would oversee himself and everyone else in the Sheriff Office, including his wife. Ken has said he would create a new and independent Internal Affairs, headed by a person he chooses, who is approved by the County Commission, and staffed with outsiders with law enforcement experience and one civilian.

She would dump Major Mike Rice for letting out lucrative, cozy no-bid sheriff contracts to his father, David Rice, who himself (David) was going to run for sheriff until Sandy entered the race.

She would stop the loaning out of sheriff cruisers to non-sheriff employees, and she would stop the practice of non-road deputies taking their cruisers home and night, by taking away their cruisers altogether and making them use their own vehicles to get back and forth to work, using gas they pay for out of their own pockets.

She would get rid of a number of department head assistants, leaving each department head with one assistant.

She would get rid of the Trauma Star, which even Ken Davis says never should have been part of the Sheriff Operation, but should have been under Fire & Rescue.

She would stop the practice of sheriff personnel retiring, then being hired back on as sheriff personnel now drawing two salaries: their regular salary and their retirement.

She would get rid of the sheriff substation at Ocean Reef Club, and put those six-nine deputies stationed there (the exact number is hard to pin down) and their sergeant and their supervisor doing what deputies and sergeants and supervisors are supposed to do, instead of what they are doing now, which is sitting on their butts behind a gated community’s locked gate, into which nobody but members and their invited guests can go.

She would not sign another contract with the Police Benevolent Union that  prohibits the use of polygraph on law enforcement officers in Internal Affairs Investigations and otherwise, and she would rescind Sheriff Roth’s personal policy of not using polygraph on other sheriff personnel.

She would stop the practice of sheriff personnel operating private polygraph companies on the side.

She would put an end to intaking and housing juveniles in adult sections of the jail.

She would put an end to housing homeless people, arrested mainly by the City of Key West’s police for sleeping outside, in the jail.

She would put an end to housing minor, non-violent offenders in the jail.

She would require random drug testing of all Sheriff Office personnel, including herself.

She would ask all sheriff personnel who had anything to do with unsolved missing person cases to submit to polygraph on those cases.

She would take a cut in the Sheriff’s salary, from $119,000 to $90,000.

She would cut other top officers’ pay.

She would beef up the Arts Behind Bars program in the jail, because it has the lowest rate of recidivism of any inmate help/rehab program in the state.

She would increase the number of road deputies and give all road deputies a $10,000 raise.

She would keep law enforcement aides at schools, where they are needed more than they are needed at libraries.

And she would put an end to the practice of citizens being escorted by deputies out of county commission meetings at the whim of one county commissioner who should have been escorted out instead.

Such a sheriff as that I would have no trouble, were I on the County Commission, approving her annual budget. I would choke before I would approve a budget submitted by Bob Peryam, and would be hard-pressed, unless something radical occurs, to approve a budget presented by Ken Davis.

Having said all of that, I also will say that Sandy’s personal life has created serious disruptions in her campaign for sheriff. If she takes care of the personal stuff, she could make an excellent sheriff.

Lack of law enforcement experience in law enforcement did not stop David Rice from planning to run for sheriff. What stopped him was Sandy running, because David knew she would drag him and his son, Mike, over the coals. Just as she dragged the Sheriff Office, the State Attorney Office, the Department of Environmental Unprotection, and Carey Goodman, Chair of the local Republican Party, and her parents over the coals, all of which you can read about at sandyforsheriff.com.

In all events, Sandy has presented a stellar role model for what Ken Davis could do in office, should he win the sheriff’s race. There is no way in heaven or in hell that Bob Peryam would follow Sandy’s model, other than not allow his wife to be head of Internal Affairs. Even so, I sort of imagine that Bob would never have said he would put an end to that cozy arrangement, if Sandy and finally Ken had not drug him over the coals about it.

Prehaps most glaring of all, Bob has yet to tell us the real reason (the Peter Principle) he was demoted from Major to Captain , nor has Sheriff Roth told us, nor the Citizen or the Keynoter. If you vote for Bob, who has no idea, as far as I can tell, of what is meant by all playing by the same rules, you have my sincere condolences.

Sloan Bashinsky, non-affiliated county commission candidate, District 3 seat

This past Sunday I appeared on Richard Grusin’s US 1 Radio show with my opponents in the District 3 County Commission race, Heather Carruthers and Carlos Rojos. Early during the hour we spent together, the topic of corruption in our local government came up. I said if Keys people really wish to do something about it, they should elected Dennis Ward as their next State Attorney. I said Dennis was a cop for many years before he went to law school. After which he worked in the State Attorney Office, and then went to work for the Public Defender’s Office, where he still works and enjoys a 75 percent win ratio in cases he tries against the State Attorney’s Office. I said I did not think our present State Attorney, Mark Kohl, is up to the task of being tough on wayward important politicians, government leaders and their friends, and I felt Dennis Ward would be tough on them. I meant it.

Later, I read an article in Key West Citizen about a predator case in which Mark Kohl was involved. The young woman victim had tried to kill herself because she did not want to go through the ordeal of facing the man in court and telling the judge and jury what he did. As a result, Mark had offered the predator a deal that was much lighter and involved no prison time, even though the maximum sentence for such a case was life. Dennis Ward talking about the light settlement at a candidate forum blew the lid off the case and caused a great deal of uproar. It was a tough call by Dennis, and Mark defended himself by saying he was trying to protect the victim. Alas, Mark should have told the victim and her family up front what lay ahead, and better not to get him involved, than to do so and then get cold feet. Better to just be quiet about it, if they weren’t ready to go the lengths Celeste Bruno was willing to go to in her case against County Commission Sonny McCoy, was very hard on Celeste, but she has stuck with it. Here’s why.

When a woman who has been sexually assaulted by a man stands up to it by going to the authorities, it indeed does drag her back through the horror of the assault. It indeed is awful, terrifying. She very well could feel as if she is going insane. She very well could want to kill herself. She very well might even try to kill herself. And yet this is the only way for her to initiate a healing of what happened: it has to be relived, perhaps several times, to break it all up inside of her, so that it can start to release and start moving her away from the contracted hardened shell into which her soul has withdrawn because of the violation.

For this reason, it is very important for the authorities to encourage the woman to go forward. For this reason, it is very important for the authorities to advise the woman of the trauma she will face and feel. For this reason, is very important to put the woman with a counselor who specializes in working with women who have been sexually assaulted, at the State’s expense. Yes, at the State’s expense, because that is part of the cost of bringing the case: preparing the woman to testify, preparing her to cope, walking her through the trauma she will surely experience as she relives the assault, and relives it, and relives it. Either that, or do not bring the case at all, for to start something like this and then not carry it through can be just as injurious as the original assault.

Yes, this is a very tough approach. Yes, it is risky. And yes, it is the only approach that truly serves the woman and the public. Anything else is only half measure, at best. For it leaves the woman and the public in limbo, knowing the predator was cut a deal and is still on the loose and is a threat to the woman and other women. The public does not want and does not need a State Attorney who is not prepared to be this tough in predator cases. The public does not want and does not need a State Attorney who is not prepared at all times to go the distance. I believe Dennis Ward is prepared to go the distance. The question is: Do Keys people want a State Attorney who is willing to go the distance?

Therefore and perhaps to help some people make up their minds, I will tell you what this ex-lawyer observed about Dennis Ward and Mark Kohl at a few candidate forums. Dennis was centered, grounded, confident. He spoke straight. He said he does not like crime and will go after it across the board. He said he will enforce the Sunshine laws. He said will be hard on domestic abuse. Whereas Mark was scattered, nervous, defensive. He was not comfortable speaking on his feet. He caused me to wonder how he came across to juries. I have no doubt how Dennis comes across in court, which might have something to do with why he wins 75 percent of the cases he tries for the Public Defender against the State Attorney.

Sloan Bashinsky, non-affiliated county commission candidate, District 3 seat

Here are two email replies to yesterday’s Bruno.McCoy post, in which I said I will ask the federal court to hold Sonny McCoy responsible to Monroe County for any damages, attorney fees and court costs the County incurs as the result of anything wrong Sonny actually did toward Celeste Bruno. I ended that post wondering out loud if I also would ask that Sonny be required to reimburse me my own legal expenses, if Celeste wins.

Re: Bruno.McCoy?
From:	————-@aol.com
Sent:	Sun 9/21/08 9:13 PM
To:	sloanbashinsky@hotmail.com

Bravo for bringing this up.  How easily things are swept under the carpet by the powers in this county.

Regards,

 P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

RE: Bruno.McCoy?
From:	————- (@msn.com)
Sent:	Sun 9/21/08 12:37 PM
To:	sloan bashinsky (keysmyhome@hotmail.com)

I URGE YOU TO FOLLOW THIS COURSE OF ACTION

I had a rough night last night, and it mostly seemed to center around my wondering about trying to recoup my legal expenses.

Sometimes I’m a bit slow. I will not ask for reimbursement, because I do not want to be tied to Sonny in that way; I do not want to be trying to collect money from him. This approach is in keeping with what I was told in my sleep in early May 2001, as I was beginning my plunge into Keys politics: “You cannot do this work correctly if you are looking to get anything back from the people you are trying to help.” And it is in keeping with Jesus saying, “No man can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

What I will do if Celeste wins her case is I will stop pushing for Sonny, who is half Cuban, to be Key West’s and the Keys’ ambassador to Cuba, and I will ask the County Commission to remove Sonny’s name from the Key West airport.

Personally, I never felt the Key West airport should be named after Sonny. I always felt it should be the Key West Airport or the Key West International Airport. What travelers in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, India, Asia, Japan or Australia have not heard of Key West? A basic marketing/advertising principle is keep it simple and keep hammering it home.  

Along that line, today’s Key West Citizen features a front page article about the Marathon Chamber of Commerce seeking a new slogan for Marathon, to make that city more attractive to tourists than its present slogan: Marathon, the heart of the Keys.

The article also mentions other Keys area slogans: Key Largo, the diving capital of the world; Islamorada, the sports-fishing capital of the world; and Key West, is well, Key West.

I would use capitol instead of capital, but then, I suppose what we are really talking about here is money, isn’t it? So what I would call Marathon, if it were my call to make, is home of incredible world-famous 7 Mile Bridge.

Slown Bashinsky, non-affiliated county commission candidate, District 3 seat, now held by outgoing Commissioner Sonny McCoy

When I started feeling poisoned yesterday, it wasn’t too terribly difficult to guess that it had to do with what I read yesterday morning in the Keynoter about the federal sex-harassment lawsuit brought against County Commissioner Sonny McCoy by his former aide, Celeste Bruno. So far, this is the most troubling newspaper report of the case I have seen. Based on my recollection, the Keynoter article details what Celeste said Sonny did and outlines the County’s legal defense, which is two-fold: (1) Celeste did not go through the proper county complaint procedures; and (2) what Sonny did failed to rise to the level of sexual harassment, in any event. How the County Attorney told the federal judge that with a straight face is beyond my credulity, because the Keynoter article reports that County does not deny it happened.

According to the Keynoter, and my recollection, that the County had not denied Celeste’s allegations was one of reasons the federal judge ruled the case should be heard and decided by a jury. Another reason reported was the judge found the alleged misconduct could reasonably be viewed as sexual harassment. Yet another reason reported was the judge found there was sufficient evidence that Celeste feared retaliation, if she went through the County’s complaint reporting requirements. That article states that when Celeste did complain, she was transferred over to being County Commissioner Dixie Spehar’s aide. But that didn’t stop the alleged harassment, which was compounded by one of Sonny’s friends writing Celeste letters she viewed as threatening — as did the authorities, who put Sonny’s friend in prison over it.

I truly hope all Keys citizens will read the Keynoter’s report of this case, and as you read it, consider a few other details. Consider that not once, as far as I know, did any of the other county commissioners censure Sonny, or cry out in protest, or publicly come to Celeste’s aid. Consider that the County was sued by Celeste for what she says Sonny did, because it happened on the job: under the legal doctrine of respondeat superior, an employer is legally liable for an employee’s wrongful behavior committed in the line and scope of the employee’s employment. Consider that the County never mounted the defense that what Sonny is accused of doing was intentional and persistent wrongdoing, outside the line and scope of his employment, not reasonably foreseeable, and therefore Sonny and not the County should be held responsible. Consider that the County did not file a third-party action against Sonny, making him a defendant in the case and liable to the County for any damages, attorney fees and court costs the County has to pay Celeste as the result of what she accuses Sonny of doing. Consider that the County, from the County Commission and the County Attorney on down, has sided completely with Sonny in this case. And consider, based on what the Key West Citizen wrote about the case earlier in the week, that Sonny was not even sued by Celeste; he is not even a defendant and has nothing to lose in the case except his reputation.

I received an email after the Citizen piece came out asking me if I felt the Key West airport should have Sonny’s name removed from it, if the jury sides with Celeste Bruno. I wrote back that in the big scheme of things, compared to the way we are killing the ocean, Celeste’s lawsuit is not a really important issue facing the Keys. I agreed, however, that I felt Sonny’s name should be removed from the airport, if Celeste wins. And I added that the County probably will appeal, if it loses the case. An appeal would have to be approved by the County Commission.

 If I were on the Commission, I would vote against an appeal. If I were on the Commission, I would push the Commission to order the County Attorney to bring Sonny into the case as a third-party defendant, asking for full reimbursement of all damages, legal fees and court costs the county might incur in the case. If I were on the County Commission when Celeste filed her lawsuit, I would have pushed the County Commission to get Sonny to step down from the Commission until the case was over, because his being sued created an overriding and persistent conflict of interest between him and the County and County Commission, which reasonable minds could infer would taint all of his actions and decisions as a county commissioner.

But I am not on the county commission. I am just a private citizen, who has some experience in litigation, having once practiced law. Later today, I am going to call my Key West lawyer and friend, Sam Kaufman, who takes Saturdays off and works on Sundays because he is Jewish. I am going to ask Sam to help me draw up suit papers allowing me to intervene in Celeste Bruno’s lawsuit on behalf of Monroe County, as a County resident, property owner and voter, and as a friend of the court – amicus curiae such a third party intervention is called. In the suit papers, I will ask the Court to bring Sonny McCoy into the case as a third-party defendant, and ask that he be held responsible by the Court to Monroe County for any and all damages, legal fees and court costs the County incurs and/or has to pay in Celeste Bruno’s case. I also may ask for reimbursement of my own attorney fees, for bringing the third-part complaint on behalf of the County. I probably need to sleep on that part of it again, before making that decision.

Looks like the powers that be think this is a somewhat bigger deal than I told my email correspondent it is.

Sloan Bashinsky, non-affiliated county commission candidate, District 3 seat, same seat now held by outgoing County Commissioner Sonny McCoy