With Video

A newspaper column by one commissioner criticizing a second commissioner drew fire today during the county commission meeting.

The authoring of the Letter to the Editor article on behalf of Commissioner Joyce Valentino was allegedly done by county communications director Jim Hunter at Valentino's request. It was first reported by the Citrus County Chronicle by its county government reporter, Mike Wright.

In that article, the Chronicle, via Wright, alleged that Commissioner Joyce Valentino had asked Hunter to draft a letter critical of Commissioner Jim Thrumston, and that County Administrator Anthony Schembri had approved of it.

Thrumston's Letter to the Editor earlier was critical of the county commission, and Valentino's letter was in response to Thrumston's. Commissioners commented about Thurmston's Letter to the Editor during its Sept. 11 meeting (See CitrusDaily front page video block for the video, "Coming Into Agreement.")

The issue surfaced again at today's meeting by a retired executive Dave Kohner of Beverly Hills. "I have to admit I'm embarrassed for Mr. Hunter," he said. "I can't for the life of me understand why it happened. If commissioners have got issues with each other, they can resolve them. It's not through the media and it's certainly doesn't involve the county administrator authorizing or allowing Mr. Hunter to get involved in the middle of it."

Valentino responded, "Nobody authorized anybody to do anything, and I'm sure it'll all come out in the wash."

Schembri also had a response, which he had yesterday given to the Chronicle's Wright. At today's meeting Shembri, reading from a prepared statement, said, "Given the subsequent fallout over the staff involvement, I can assure you that, while we will always stand by ready to help commissioners, we will not again get involved in writing anything that is critical of a commissioner. We learned our lesson."

His statement said he wanted to cut to the chase: "We will stay out of your politics." He said the statement shows acknowledgment of staff's involvement, and added, "Jim Hunter is not at fault. I am," Schembri said.

Valentino offered an explanation of the matter to other commissioners at the meeting. "John (Thrumston) and I were not bickering. This is not political. This was about an issue, many issues," she said. She said one issue involved hiring a single employee in a position that really needed several people for water quality concerns.

She said she had discussed her response with Schembri, who had asked what her response would be to Thrumston's suggestion of hiring a single employee for that position. She said he had asked her, "Aren't you going to respond to that?" She said she told Schembri she probably wouldn't be a response unless it came up during a commission meeting.

However, Schembri disputed about what he had said during her discussion about her response. "Excuse me," he said. "You have a mild acquaintance with the truth. I didn't say that."

Valentino also blasted the Chronicle reporter Wright for interfering on six different occasions with official commission business, including during sensitive negotiations with county negotiations with firefighters. "I think it's a common courtesy that when a commissioner is working on a problem that you stay out of the issue unless there's some sort of a problem." She named the issues she alleged amounted to interference by the Chronicle: A muck project, transportation disadvantage, MARPED, firefighters, FDOT and now a sinkhole.

"And I've learned a lesson here too," she said, looking directly at Wright in the public gallery. "In the future, I will stick with my gut feeling and never respond to an article (in the newspaper)."

At the end of Schembri's and Valentino's remarks, Kohner said he hoped it never happened again.

"It won't. It was wrong," Valentino told him.

Valentino's video:

Thrumston's video: Discussion about Thrumston's letter: Look on the CitrusDaily front page video block for "Coming Into Agreement."