Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
County commissioners do not have the means to compel Clerk of Court Kirk Reams to resign from office, nor do they have cause at the present time to request that the governor remove him.
This basically was the advice of County Attorney Scott Shirley to the Jefferson County Commission on Thursday evening, April 21.
Shirley’s report was in response to the commission’s instructions from an earlier meeting that he research the governor’s statutory authority to remove constitutional officers from office for reasons other than criminal charges.
Shirley told the board that he had reviewed Article 4 of the Florida Constitution, which he said dealt with the powers of the executive branch.
Per Article 4, Shirley said, the governor could suspend from office any county officer for “malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties or commission of a felony.”
But the governor’s suspension order, Shirley said, had to specify the specific charges for the basis of the suspension.
Shirley said he had looked at several of the governor’s previous orders suspending public officials and they were all supported with detailed factual assertions.
“Usually, they are accompanied by offenses or an incident report that was prepared by law enforcement,” Shirley said.
It was Shirley’s recommendation that the board wait to make any request of the governor until after the audit ordered by commission was finished; or upon completion of the investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). And only if either showed wrongdoing, he clarified.
The commission called for Reams to resign on April 7, after weeks of escalating tension between the two constitutional offices and a tense public meeting wherein several citizens and officials spoke against the clerk and his office’s alleged abuse or misuse of funds.
The conflict stemmed most immediately from Reams’ refusal to release a partial payment to a CPA firm that the commission hired to audit the financial records of the county and clerk’s office. Reams’ argued that the commission lacked the statutory authority to order the audit of his office, and hence any payment made to that effect would be illegal.
Reams released the payment at the last minute and offered to compromise by submitting to an audit by the Florida Auditor General’s Office, instead of one by the commission’s hired auditor, while still maintaining the illegality of the audit.
The commission, however, refused the compromise, insisting on its chosen auditor. At the same time, it called for Reams to resign and instructed Shirley to research the matter.
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