By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Levy County Commissioners waded through an awkward moment Tuesday when the votes of Commissioner Matt Brooks weren’t counted and one business item related to a voting conflict of interest had to be continued for two weeks.

            Brooks wasn’t present at the board meeting and was participating and voting by way of a speakerphone when County Attorney Nicolle Shalley interrupted a motion to approve expenditures at the end of the board meeting.

            She advised commissioners that Brooks’ votes during the meeting wouldn’t count unless the board passed a motion saying there were “extraordinary circumstances that required Commissioner Brooks to vote by phone.”

            “The Attorney General has found simply and said you will find in your reasonable judgment that there are actual extraordinary circumstances that necessitate Commissioner Brooks voting by phone,” Shalley said.

            Commissioners declined to make the motion.

            Brooks’ votes weren’t counted.

            The moment was made more difficult because Brooks and Commissioner John Meeks for several months have been abstaining from voting on county commission purchases of materials from their stores.

            Meeks is the owner of LCNR doing business as Bronson Ace Hardware and Brooks is the owner of AMB Supply doing business as Levy Jones. Both sell supplies to the county commission.

            At Tuesday’s meeting, with Brooks unable to vote, the board was able to approve the general expenditures 3-0, and approve county purchases from Brooks’ store 3-0, but the board was forced to postpone approval of purchases from Meeks’ store due to lack of votes. Meeks would have abstained and Brooks wouldn’t have been able to vote, leaving just two voting members of the board. Three commissioners are needed to pass any motion. Former Commissioner Mike Joyner passed away in August of 2021. His seat remains vacant.

            County Coordinator Wilbur Dean said in an earlier interview that staff felt it was best for commissioners that sell merchandise to the county to abstain from voting on their own store’s sales to the board in light of a Commission on Ethics investigation of Meeks.

            Meeks was cleared by the Ethics Commission of wrongdoing, but nevertheless, staff felt commissioners should abstain from voting on the board’s purchases of materials from the stores they own.

            On May 3, the most recent time when the two commissioners abstained from voting, the board approved $1,660.71 of county purchases from Bronson Ace and $1,241.10 of county purchases from AMB Supply.

             Meeks and Brooks are required to sign Form 8B, a memorandum of voting conflict for county, municipal, and other local public officers before each board meeting. In signing the form, they confirm that a measure will come before them that “inured to my special gain or loss.”

            In other words, they agree they are gaining financially from transacting business with the board and agree not to vote on their store sales.

            During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Florida Attorney General gave county and city government elected boards the right to meet by internet zoom. Individual commissioners could participate in board meetings by speakerphone or internet zoom if they called in sick.

                When the governor lifted his executive order for COVID-19 late last year, the Levy County Commission followed suit. At that point, commissioners were once again required to attend board meetings in person unless the board voted to allow them to attend through zoom or by speakerphone due to extraordinary circumstances, Shalley said. The Attorney General’s opinion requiring elected officials to meet in person except for extraordinary circumstances has been around a long time, Shalley said.

            She said the preference is for commissioners to be present by zoom which allows them to be seen and heard if they can’t be present.

            It was unclear why Brooks missed the meeting. His speakerphone connection in the county commission meeting was spotty and it appeared that his phone signal was dropping at times. His voice would break up when the phone signal weakened. He couldn’t be understood.

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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting May 17, 2022; Posted May 17, 2022