Corruption Watch: RECALL ELECTION -Mexico Beach, Panama City Beach
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April 4, 2024 - People have asked why Vernon City Attorney Michelle Blankenship came to Mexico Beach to tell Mayor Michele Miller that she needs to "self-correct before it's too late."
Despite recently saying that she doesn't know Chris Hubbard, it turns out they had been communicating prior to the Special City Council meeting on March 29.
They both insist, however, that putative City Administrator Chris Hubbard didn't ask her to come.
She said, "I'm here on my own." Hubbard leaned back with his arms folded watched the self-proclaimed "ball buster" gaslight the City.
She's been blogging about the Mexico Beach recall election on her page The Compassionate Conquerer and as a municipal attorney.
She has even posted her legal analysis of the recall hearings and Judge James J. Goodman.
April 12, 2024 - - Vote for StuartForPCB.com on Super Tuesday!
April 12, 2024 - The City of Vernon will lose lose state funding on May 2 if they don’t fix their delinquent audits.
Instead of focusing on that financial crisis, their City Attorney is on a psycho gaslighting crusade.
Michelle Blankenship said I needed to make an official statement that Vernon never received a letter from the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee.
She either didn’t know or she was making another crazy demand.
After communicating with Mexico Beach’s putative City Administrator, Chris Hubbard, she showed up in Mexico Beach recently talking about the bogus recall election.
She had applied to replace Clint McCahill as the City Attorney in Mexico Beach. And she was upset because they were hiring Tim Sloan on a part-time basis.
“I’m here today basically to give you the opportunity to course-correct while there’s still time.”
Even Clint McCahill was rolling his eyes and shaking his head at her.
After all that, Michelle Blankenship wrote on this page, “I don’t know Chris Hubbard.”
The City of Vernon is in a municipal crisis. Meanwhile their attorney is focused on blogging as a “ball buster” at The Compassionate Conquerer.
She has thrust herself into the forefront of the recall election controversy in Mexico Beach as a blogger and as a municipal attorney.
April 12, 2024 - PCB Councilman Mike Jarman is furious that the Republicans have endorsed Stuart Tettemer over crony Mark “Money Mover” Sheldon.
Jarman needs Sheldon so they can continue building hotels and putting migrants first. Imagine the backroom deals.
Cast your vote for Tettermen today from 8-5 at the Conference Center located at 423 Lyndell Lane in Panama City Beach.
April 11, 2024 - City Attorney Michelle Blankenship invoked the “legal community” to make this claim on her blog, The Compassionate Conquerer (where she’s a self-described “Ball Buster”).
Is this true?
Can Officers of the Court please confirm or deny?
April 11, 2024 - is running against Larry Basford as the top prosecutor for the 14th Judicial Circuit.
There is no more important race for the equal application of justice in the following counties:
Bay, Washington, Calhoun, Jackson, Calhoun, and Holmes.
The election is in August.
April 11, 2024 - See the post below regarding this blogger and City Attorney for Vernon who is trying to chill political speech while playing the victim of borderline criminal activity.
Criticism of public figures has been inspired today by Vernon's City Attorney, Michelle Blankenship's continue implied threats.
She needs to self-correct.
City Attorney Blankenship has thrust herself into the forefront of the Mexico Beach recall election. So she responds with reckless accusations of borderline criminal activity on my part.
As an Officer of the Court, she knows better or she should know better.
- Signed, your highly paid PR hack.
April 11, 2024 - VERNON CITY ATTORNEY: "Burnie Thompson is not a journalist, he is WELL KNOWN IN THE LEGAL COMMUNITY as a paid mouthpiece to use when your case is legally weak so you want it tried in the court of public opinion."
She's also a blogger, and a self-described "ball buster."
City Attorney Blankenship implies over and over that my work is the type of thing that leads to violence and death threats. She accuses me of online bullying.
This Officer of the Court is way out of line.
She swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. That includes the First Amendment's guarantee to Freedom of Speech, and to the Freedom of the Press.
As a blogger and a City Attorney, she is a limited-purpose public figure who chose to jump into the Mexico Beach recall controversy and onto this political social media page where ideas and arguments collide.
A limited-purpose public figure is one who has "thrust themselves to the forefront of particular controversies in order to influence the resolution of the issues involved." Gertz v. Robert Welch Inc., 418 U.S. 323 (U.S. 1974.
City Attorney Blankenship is wide open to being criticized, lampooned, and harangued when it comes to matters of public interest - especially when she herself lit the brushfire of rhetoric that drew a response.
What nobody deserves, however, is to be threatened. So DON'T DO it. And limit any comments about her to matters of public concern and politics. DO NOT mention her family that she keeps holding up a shield from public scrutiny. Let her talk about her family, but don't you do it.
She's trying to intimidate this journalist and other citizens from engaging in a robust and sometimes inflammatory debate over the recall election and irresponsible cities that are being sanctioned by the State of Florida such as the City of Vernon, which she represents.
City Attorney Blankenship will continue to get a primer on Constitutionally protected Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press as long as she continues throwing gas on the rhetorical fire and accusing me of threatening her with violence.
That needs to stop. An Officer of the Court knows better, or should know better.
That said, this City Attorney is unfit to represent any municipality because of her reckless accusations that attempt to chill political debate. I can't remember a person of authority making this many crazy claims for quite a while.
Now I'm watching. The City of Vernon deserves better.
April 11, 2024 - He’s also the putative City Administrator in Mexico Beach. I received a very long letter from him yesterday wanting me to course-correct from all the misinformation about his girlfriend.
She was the accountant contracted by the City who quit right after Mayor Miller got elected. She and Chris have been the foxes guarding the financial hen house.
One thing he did NOT do, is invite Chipley City Attorney Michelle Jordan Blankenship to the recent meeting.
I know because the two of them keep saying it over and over.
April 10, 2024 - Chipley's City Attorney enjoys making implied threats.
She spoke at a recent Mexico Beach City Council meeting, and talked about the recall election against Mayor Michele Miller.
She said that she was giving Mayor Miller a chance to "course correct" and talked about her application for city attorney.
Ms. Jordan Blankenship must not have known about the letter I mentioned on the show. See it for yourself in the comment section below.
April 10, 2024 - MEXICO BEACH RECALL ELECTION
Judge James J. Goodman is crafting a ruling on Mayor Michele Miller's claim that the grounds listed in the recall petition are refuted by evidence (or lack thereof).
The recall statute does not authorize the Court to consider the FACTS OF THE CONTROVERSY. But Judges are tasked with considering the FACTS OF THE CLAIM itself.
In order for the recall petition to survive legal sufficiency, the GROUNDS upon which it stands must have a valid basis.
In this case, it does not. Both sides agree that if either of the two grounds listed (malfeasance and misfeasance) fails, then the entire petition for recall is thrown out.
The recall committee has submitted a petition with faulty grounds at best, and at worst has committed fraud on the court.
They knew or should have known that Mayor Miller's email didn't constitute a Sunshine Violation. Thus, there's no malfeasance. So the stated ground for MALFEASANCE is null and void.
They knew or should have known that Mayor Miller didn't violate City Ordinance 644, which applies to employees. The Mayor's obligations and duties are delegated by the City Charter, which states, "The mayor shall be the chief elected administrative and fiscal official of the City." Therefore, the stated ground for MISFEASANCE is null and void.
The important distinction here is that the Court is the judge of the facts listed on the petition. The voters are the judge of the facts of the controversy.
See the following case law:
“Petitions that make conclusory legal claims or are based on conduct that is lawful (or not unlawful) are facially invalid. For instance, a petition claiming that an official ‘violated the public meetings' laws - without supporting statement of facts demonstrating how - is legally insufficient.” Burton v. Oats, No. 5D23-1573, at *17 (Fla. Dist.Ct. App. June 12, 2023).
In Richard v. Tomlinson, 49 So. 2d 798, 799 (Fla. 1951), the Court made clear that If the grounds are supported by nothing more than the statement of a conclusion or opinion without any tangible basis in fact, then the grounds are not sufficient.