9:40 Moncier makes his interim comments placing the video in context and describing the plan for today. Stackhouse objects that his comments are too long. Moncier promises to be briefer, and asks for the video counter. Told it won't stay. Mentions that the agenda/minutes doesn't match the actual events. Moncier also mentions a tape recording of open mikes during breaks that aren't part of the video.
9:42 Courtroom has participants, plaintiffs, three citizens, j student, 2 reporters, and me.
9:44 Tape of meeting starts, skipping 8 minutes of dead air.
9:46 More people filing in after court starts. I thought they threw you in jail for that. I could have slept in another 20 minutes! By the way, this live blogging will also be the notes by which I write my story. Talk about transparency! We're sitting through the 5 minute delay while the commissioner who was late to the meeting gets there. We can't fast forward because this is a trial. There are no commissioners here at this point.
9:50 Sheriff nominations. Smith asks what are we doing here? Nominates J. J.Jones. Passes on the vote. NO public discussions at all.
9:55 Somewhat surreal seeing channel take video of a video of the County Commission meeting.
10:00 Is it contempt of court to be playing Tetris while nothing is happening? Just asking...
10:06 Griess nominates Commissioner Tindell for County Clerk. Smith, Harmon, Lambert and Schmidt vote for Stooksbury. NO public discussion at all. Mr. Hammond asks whether Tindell has a vote. Owings says no. Tindell doesn't like it, but will abide by it. Leuthold asks if a newly appointed commissioner can vote, the answer was yes. Chairman assumes that all the votes will be clear, and no ties. Asked if he knew something nobody else did.
10:15 Schmid and Harmon both suggest that outgoing commissioners should not be able to vote once they've been replaced. Owings decides that term limited commissioners vote until their successor is sworn in. Gries challenges and calls for role call. Harmon and Schmid are the only two to stand against term limited commissioners voting.
10:18 Mark Harmon nominates Scott Emge for Register of Deeds. Ballard nominates Sherry Witt. Witt wins 17-1. NO public discussion at all.
10:20 Leuthold nominates Fred Sisk. No other nominations. Sisk wins 18-0. NO public discussion.
10:22 Guthe wants 4th district to go first. Starting with seat a, Schmid says his candidate withdrew because of sunshine law. Nominates Scott Davis. Griess says he would nominate Fischer, Schmid's candidate, and passes. Lambert nominates Lee Tramel. Withdraws Elaine Davis. Gries adds Richard Cate after he passed his turn earlier. Cate wins 10-4-4 after Commissioner Jordan changes her vote. NO public discussion, but nomination changes and vote changes. What's up with that?
10:30 Mark Harmon nominates Elaine Davis for 4th district seat b. Guthe nominates Jim Smelcher, after a speech about how independent he was, not aligned with sheriff, schools, mayor, etc. Hammond nominates Scott Davis. Lambert nominates Lee Tramel. Smith nominates WIlliam Daniels.
Laurens Tullock nominates Ed Shouse. Process described. Lowest vote gets kicked out. revote until one left standing. 7 Tramel, 4 Scott Davis; 4 Jim Smelcher; 2 Elaine Davis; 1 Daniels; 0 Ed Shouse.
10:40 stops the tape for a 10 minute break.
10:45 I'm somebody now. I've been schmoozed by Herb Moncier. During the break, I let Jigsha Desai (KNS online producer) know I was live blogging, and Herb was standing nearby and heard. He wanted to make sure I was writing good things about him. As for the replay of the meeting, I'm a little bit confused. So far, the commissioners have not discussed anything, and they've already filled 4 jobs and one commission seat.
10:53 We resume the tape with the second vote for 4th district seat b. Tramel gets 7 Davis gets 4 Smelcher gets 4 Ms Davis gets 2 Daniels gets 1 and is eliminated.
10:57 3rd vote. Tramel 7 Davis 6 Smelcher 4 Ms. Davis 1 and is eliminated.
10:59 4th vote. Tramel 8 Davis 6 Smelcher 4 and is eliminated.
11:01 5th vote. Davis 9 Tramel 8 Guthe abstains.
11:03 6th vote. Davis 9 Tramel 8 Guthe abstains.
11:05 Commission takes a 5 minute recess to...???
11:06 While we are watching the tape of commissioners milling about and not deliberating, it appears to me that the 4th district is the key to everything. If this was a railroad, and based on Chairman Moore's comments earlier in the meeting, it certainly appeared that he expected no significant issues to arise, this is where the wheels fell off.
11:17 We're still watching the commissioners stand around and very intently not deliberate. The 5 minute recess has gone on for 12 minutes now. The jurors are trying valiantly to concentrate on the screen but with no audio, and nothing but a bunch of suits walking around and talking to each other, that has to be difficult.
11:25 The 5 minute recess has now extended to 20minutes, and the commissioners are hard at work not deliberating. They must be discussing the upcoming Daytona 500.
11:27 In essense, I'm live blogging events that occurred back in January. OK, we should be about to get started agian. The commissioners are getting back into their seats. By the way, as far as I can tell, there are no county commissioners in the courtroom today.
11:29 We're off. Griess gets the floor, moves that they leave the 4th district seat b all the way to the end, after District 9 seat a. Rules say you go till you get a winner. Law Director says you're amending the agenda and need a 2/3 majority. Motion fails 9-9.
11:34 7th vote Davis 9 Smith announces that Davis will not run again. Tramel 9. Guthe votes for Davis but he stays at 9. Jordan jumped ship and voted for Tramel.
11:36 8th vote Davis 9 Tramel 9
11:38 9th vote Davis 9 Tramel 9
11:39 Take a 2 minute recess.
11:49 The 2 minute recess has now lasted 10 minutes, and the commissioners are still mostly out of the room. I will be very interested to hear the audio captured while they were off camera, not deliberating.
11:53 We're off. Mark Harmon wants to hear from the candidate. Must have 2/3 to amend the rules.6 of 9 Tramel supporters vote no. Motion fails 10-8.
11:55 10th vote Davis 9 Tramel 9
11:57 Gries moves to move the item to the end. Wins 15-3
11:58 Court adjourns until 1:30
11:59 Chancellor wants to fast forward through the recesses. Moncier says that's where the meat is. They agree to remove the swearing in ceremonies. Discussion of getting Commissioner Lambert's phone records. Stackhouse wants the records.So does Moncier. It looks like we won't get any testimony today, just the video and audio.
Posted by Rich at September 17, 2007 9:34 AM | TrackBackI thought we had two honest commissioners in the 8th district......guess it's just one. Thanks Mr. Harmon.
Posted by: Kyle on September 17, 2007 11:55 AM