By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
A social media video briefly made an online splash in June when two Levy County government department heads were seen in the video knocking back shots at a New Orleans lounge.
The Snapchat video was seen by at least four Levy County residents who found it offensive that two high-ranking administrators for the Levy County Commission posted a partying video during a hurricane conference.
Levy County Commission Chairman John Meeks led a delegation of six to the National Hurricane Conference on June 14-17 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel, a swanky facility with beautiful restaurants and a piano bar.
All six were assigned river view hotel rooms. Two of them, Human Resources Director Jacqueline Martin and Parks and Recreation and Mosquito Control Director Matt Weldon were forced to pay $116 out of their own pockets to be upgraded to rooms with a view of the Mississippi River.
Meeks was also joined by County Procurement Coordinator Alicia Tretheway, Parks and Recreation and Mosquito Director Weldon, Emergency Management Director John MacDonald, and Assistant Emergency Management Director David Peaton.
No one in county government seemed to know anything about the partying video showing two of the department heads throwing down shots of liquor at a bar.
A Question of Professionalism
“I haven’t seen anything like that,” said County Coordinator Wilbur Dean.
Meeks was contacted by text. He was informed that Spotlight received information about the video from an anonymous source. Spotlight didn’t know the time of day or night when the video was taken.
“So 2 adults of legal age allegedly drinking at an undisclosed time? By an anonymous source? I have no comment on that,” Meeks said.
The county commission enforces seven policies governing how employees must travel and conduct themselves on official public business. Department heads must approve all travel in advance and under normal circumstances, administrative staff within each department makes all travel arrangements for transportation and lodging for employees. The traveling employee must provide an itinerary of what they will do at their destination.
The seventh requirement may bear directly on what happened with the Snapchat video of two employees drinking alcohol from shot glasses and publishing the video online.
“Employees traveling on County business are representatives of Levy County and are expected to maintain a high level of professionalism and to follow all of Levy County’s policies and rules,” the seventh rule states.
Was It Paid Vacation? – Anonymous Source Speaks
The anonymous source who contacted Spotlight was upset about the use of a Snapchat account belonging to one of the county officials to show two officials knocking down shots at a bar in New Orleans. She and her friends recognized the county officials.
“It must have been a bar or something and it was a picture of them drinking shots,” the source said. “The employees – that’s not the problem. I understand people have their own personal time. It was the fact that from a taxpayer point of view, why are taxpayers paying for these people to go to this thing when we have emergency management people who go to this hurricane conference religiously every year or close to it, to keep updated on this stuff. As a citizen, why did we pay for those (other department heads) to go when emergency management can bring that information back to the county and relay information unless it was related to Human Resources.”
The source was questioning why the Human Resource Director Jacqueline Martin, Procurement Coordinator Alicia Tretheway, and Parks and Recreation and Mosquito Control Director Matt Weldon were sent to a hurricane conference.
“I understand you got personal time and all that. It wasn’t so much the video. I know people want to go out and have fun after a long day of seminars but why were those people there? That’s the part that bothered a lot of people.”
The source didn’t like the video itself, saying the video content suggested that taxpayers had funded an expensive vacation for county department heads.
“It was a vacation, a paid vacation,” the source said. “I’m sure we paid for their hotels, their meals. I don’t know how they got there. We probably paid for that too.”
Total cost of the four-day taxpayer-funded trip by six county officials including the price of conference classes, meals, hotel, and airfare, and taxi was $8,846.
Meeks Responds to Cooper Questions
Spotlight Founder Linda Cooper spoke at the Aug. 3 Levy County Commission meeting concerning the trip. She also questioned why the human resources director, procurement coordinator, and mosquito control and parks and recreation directors attended a hurricane conference. She said there was a lack of accountability by the county,
Meeks responded on their behalf about the county’s lack of accountability in allowing non-emergency personnel to attend the hurricane conference.
“Those people are key employees, which whenever we have a disaster, which is what we had at the end of the month (July) whenever we had to close down because we had a hurricane; these are the people, Miss Tretheway, Mr. Weldon who are critical. We included Ms. Martin also.”
“Whenever we had to shut down the county, instead of saying well, there’s nothing we can do, let’s go home, they were willing to volunteer to assist in any way possible. As far as accountability, I received 32 hours of continuing education in four days, so I was out there learning and doing my job to protect the citizens of Levy County,” Meeks added.
Dean Defends Choices for Conference
In a later interview, Dean provided his explanation of why Martin, Weldon, and Tretheway were selected by him to attend the hurricane conference.
Dean said Martin, as human resources director, always has to deal with payroll after a disaster event and there are always different issues depending on the scenarios in a storm that require Martin’s attention. Dean said the storms sometimes occur on weekends or holidays and she has to deal with payroll issues revolving around employees working lengthy hours when they normally wouldn’t be at work. Dean said Martin also volunteers at Levy County Animal Services and she attended classes at the conference related to animal control issues.
Her official paperwork said she was reserved to take a class in Emergency Assistance Shelter Field Guide Training for State and Local Communities (1 day), and Emergency Operations Center/Incident Command System (1 day)
Regarding Tretheway, Dean said she took training on debris removal. He said it seems like the federal government is constantly changing what the county can be reimbursed for through the Federal Emergency Management Agency reporting process. He said someone needs to stay on top of what is changing. FEMA has up to 10 years to conduct an audit of what the county claimed were reimbursement expenses for any declared disaster.
“If you don’t submit it right, the county has to pay it back. One of those counties had to give back $14 million, so it is important that you have people well versed in the requirements,” Dean said.
Tretheway’s official paperwork said she was registered to attend Debris Management Planning for State, Tribal and Local Officials (Day 1) and (Day 2)
Regarding Weldon, Dean said the county’s parks and mosquito control departments are shut down during a storm event. Weldon has always been one of the main players for the Emergency Operations Center out in the field using his crews to work in different areas. Dean said debris management is always one of the biggest issues when the county handles debris removal. Dean said Weldon attended a class on debris management.
“That’s one of the areas you have to pay attention to; the contractors that come in to do that. You have to keep very, very accurate records of where the debris comes from. One of the things we’re required to do now – if you have a tree in the road – we have to take a picture of the tree. We have an app that gives you the latitude and longitude of where it was taken and then you have to track it. You have to report what debris was removed, how much personnel you had at the site, and what equipment was used to remove it in order to get reimbursed,” Dean said. “Used to, you could just dump in it a pile, measure it using a formula that gave you how much volume was in the pile. They don’t do it that way anymore.”
Weldon’s official paperwork said he was registered to take Debris Management Planning for State, Tribal and Local Officials (Day 1) and (Day 2).
Peaton was registered to take All-Hazards Liaison Officer (Day 1) and (Day 2).
MacDonald was registered for All-Hazards Liaison Officer (Day 1) and (Day 2).
Meeks was registered for Emergency Operations Center/Incident Command System (1 Day) and Emergency Assistance Shelter Field Guide Training for State and Local Communities (1 Day).
Missing Departments?
Dean was asked why no one from the Levy County Development Department, which deals with construction issues and implementation of state building codes, was sent to the hurricane conference and why no one from the Levy County Road Department, which deals with washed-out roads, maintenance, and road construction issues was sent to the hurricane conference. Both areas were mentioned as advance directives for the conference as being important areas to be covered.
“They didn’t really have time in their schedules to go to it,” Dean said. “We eventually want to work some of these other departments through this training.”
Why Riverfront Rooms?
Dean was asked why all the Levy County officials at the hurricane conference were given riverfront rooms, but two had to pay extra for their view of the Mississippi River?
“Some of them had it automatically and some of them asked for it. They didn’t realize there were be a different charge. They paid it out of their own pockets,” Dean said.
Administrators Vacate County Office
Dean was asked how the county was able to operate the front office of the county commission when there were no supervisors left in the building. Dean was gone to a different event at the same time Martin and Tretheway, the only other department heads that work with Dean in the front office, were gone to New Orleans for the hurricane conference. No senior department heads were available to run the county office.
“I run a lot of it from my phone, and we had Karen Blackburn on duty who knows where to direct calls with complaints,” he said. Blackburn assists Martin in Human Resources.
No Assistant County Coordinator
Dean has turned down a county commission offer to give him an assistant county coordinator. He was asked if this particular situation demonstrated a need to hire an assistant coordinator.
“I’ll be honest with you, we have tried to keep our office staff as limited as possible and I’ve had some other departments that have had greater need, I felt like, so I tried to make sure we take care of them first,” Dean said.
Dean said it takes only a small misstep after a declared disaster to get in trouble when asking for reimbursement of disaster expenses. He said county staff must have training in the latest federal and state requirements.
“You really don’t know how valuable it was until there is a misstep,” he said.
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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting August 3, 2021; Posted August 13, 2021
