A censure, investigation, lawsuit, and now a shade meeting: trials of the St. Johns County Commission in the past few weeks.
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla — In November, St. Johns County Commissioner Krista Keating Joseph more than ruffled feathers when she told residents during a commission meeting, that if they don’t like how the county is governed, there is an upcoming election. She whipped out information from the Supervisor of Elections Office.
She was shut down by the rest of the commission and the county attorney.
Joseph’s remarks that day resulted in the rest of the commission publicly censuring her and hiring an outside attorney to investigate her statements.
In response, Joseph is now suing the commission for violation of free speech.
Tuesday, the out-of-town attorney’s report was an item on the commission meeting agenda, to be discussed publicly.
However, during the meeting, the county’s own attorney, David Migut, said, “I’m recommending the commission remove this agenda item.”
Commission chair Sarah Arnold could be heard saying, “Okay…. that’s disappointing.”
Commissioner Joseph was willing to have it remain, but the other four voted for not talking the issue during the meeting. The vote was 4 – 1.
That is how many commission votes have looked since Joseph took office last year. She is often the outlier, frequently the only one voting against development projects.
The county attorney Tuesday suggested having the legal issues with Joseph be discussed at a shade meeting, or behind closed doors. That is not necessarily out of the ordinary when discussing lawsuits. However, this instance is a little sticky because one commissioner is suing the rest of the commission.
Commissioner Roy Alaimo asked if Joseph will be at the shade meeting. Migut said he will be addressing that issue with her attorney.
While most of the commissioner voted to not talk about the legal saga, others – who support Joseph – did talk about it during public comment.
Ann-Marie Evans addressed the commission saying, “It is indeed frustrating that the majority of you chose – on the taxpayer dime – to go all the way to Tallahassee and get a non-election attorney at that, at a cost of $400/hour.” Evans is a candidate for St. Johns County Commission, and she is endorsed by Joseph.
Nicole Crosby told the commission during a public comment period, “Four of our commissioners could not tolerate Commissioner Joseph talking for 60 seconds about the upcoming election.”
