By Linda Dean Cooper
BoCC vs Levy Clerk of Court Danny Shipp
Levy Clerk Danny Shipp and his attorney Stan Griffis were no-shows at Tuesday’s BoCC meeting regarding the ongoing fight for records paid for and owned by taxpayers of Levy County.
Agenda Item #14 below as listed and presented by BoCC County Attorney Nicolle Shalley:
#14 LEVY COUNTY ATTORNEY – Nicolle M. Shalley Requesting the Levy County Board of County Commissioners’ approval of RESOLUTION NUMBER 2024-17 A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF LEVY COUNTY, FLORIDA, RELATED TO THE TRANSITION OF COUNTY BUDGET OFFICER DUTIES; MAKING FINDINGS OF FACT AND A FINDING OF NEED FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION; AUTHORIZING THE FILING OF LITIGATION TO COMPEL THE LEVY COUNTY CLERK OF THE COURT AND COMPTROLLER TO TRANSITION COUNTY BUDGET OFFICER DUTIES AND PROVIDE ACCESS TO COUNTY BUDGET OFFICER RECORDS; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
Shipp and attorney Griffis were present at the prior two meetings but didn’t bother to show up for the approval of filing of litigation and provide access for county budget officer records and a deadline to access those records. Why a no-show is my question?
The Readers Digest version of this is the BoCC had to approve the filing of litigation to compel Danny Shipp, Levy County Clerk of the Court and Comptroller to transition county budget officer duties and PROVIDE ACCESS TO COUNTY BUDGET OFFICER RECORDS; AND PROVIDE AND EFFECTIVE DATE.
For those who could not attend Tuesday’s meeting or listen online read below Attorney Shalley’s agenda statement:
“I’m here to present resolution #2024-17 and I’d like to read it into the record by title, and then I’d like to provide a brief explanation of how we got there. Resolution #2024-17 a resolution in the board of County Commissioners of Levy County, Florida, related to the transition of county budget officer duties, making findings of that and a finding of need for immediate action.”
“Authorizing the filing of litigation to compel the Levy, County Clerk of Court and Comptroller to transition county budget officer duties and provide access to county budget officer records and providing an effective way.”
“So how did we get here? At your April 2nd regular meeting you all reviewed a number of options for county budget officer, and you determined to designate a new county budget officer prior to that, for many years, the clerk had served as your designee.”
“At that meeting, you directed county staff to work with the clerk again, who was the prior designee, to ensure a smooth transition of those duties. Your county staff, which included me, Ali, and Wilbur, we made multiple attempts to communicate with the clerk’s office and to communicate with ADG.” NOTE: ADG is county-owned accounting software used by the Clerk’s office.”
“To make those things happen, we received no response from the clerk until a week ago. We received an e-mail from his legal counsel.”
“The legal counsel’s e-mail stated that the clerk was unwilling to communicate, unwilling to provide access to the board’s budget records, or assist in any regard with the transition of the county’s budget officer duties. The clerk’s legal counsel further advised the board to procure its own budgeting software to transition.”
Without the clerk’s participation and to use of budget data from prior years, and finally, that ongoing contact with the clerk’s employees for access or information is improper, this makes no legal sense. It makes no logical sense. It makes no practical sense. The county budget files, which were prepared and maintained by the clerk on behalf of this board, are the board’s files.”
“Since 1999, the clerk and the board of County Commissioners have used ADG as an integrated fund management system. It’s the one software that does everything for the county’s financial aspects. It handles payroll, it handles fixed assets. It handles the budgeting and then it handles from that budgeting, the payment of bills. If you were to do as the clerk suggests and have your new county budget officer prepare a budget on a notepad or prepare it in an Excel spreadsheet, what we’re going to have to do then is turn that over to the Clerks office and they’re going to have to hand input it into ADG. That makes no sense. Furthermore, your county budget officer can’t then keep an eye on the budget, see how the departments are spending their money, provide guidance, simply can’t do his job.”
“I’m disappointed we’re here. I don’t understand why we’re here, but quite frankly, the clerk’s actions and position have given you little options.”
“So, I have outside counsel prepared to file litigation. We are going to ask that the court act immediately because obviously you need these budget files to not only manage your current year’s budget but also prepare the upcoming budget. And so I will of course keep the board updated on the status of that litigation and Mr. Blanton is working in other ways to move the budget forward, as we will await the outcome with the litigation.”
“Our hands are tied. We’ve got to do something.”
The board reiterated their hands were tied and voted unanimously to move forward with the litigation.
After you have read Attorney Shalley’s presentation you should understand why I called the actions of Clerk Danny Shipp the equivalent of a temper tantrum. As I have said in a previous article, the only winner here is Shipp’s attorney, Stan Griffis if he charges by the minute. None of the actions by Clerk Shipp or Attorney Griffis makes any sense to me.
It appears there are underlying issues that the public is not privy to, but it needs to end. Shipp works for the people and our tax dollars are not his or Attorney Griffis’s slush fund to settle some type of score! Danny Shipp, you’re a public servant, act like one!
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Posted April 18, 2024
