Simmonds uses public record to label council challengers as mean spirited idiots
Note to Simmonds: you're way past embarrassing yourself, just resign now and save us all of the bother
-- John Patten, 10/21/07
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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Municipal emails and reelection campaigns
Over the past months, there have been several emails to and from Mayor Fred Hammett and Councilman Bill Willson that should not have appeared on the city's email system. These all involved citizens asking for election signs for their front yards. One can hardly fault the candidates for citizens not knowing that election discussions should not be held in the city's email system.

What Willson and Hammett arguably should have done was write back and notify the sender that they are unable to respond due to the circumstances. Neither did that. Both responded that they would be happy to provide reelection campaign signs, and they made the responses using their "@ci.venice.fl.us" municipal email accounts. Additionally, Willson did advise the person making the sign request that emails to and from city hall email accounts are public records.

That was wrong, and I should have reported it when I first noticed it. I didn't, and here's why: I know that the public sometimes doesn't make the necessary distinctions in a case like this and it didn't look like the candidates were using the city's system to solicit sign placement, the requests just landed wrongly in their laps. Hammett and Willson appear to have reacted automatically and unwisely. In the grand scheme of much bigger election issues, my trying to make a big deal about the emails would have just created a minor off-topic sideshow.

I watched to see if the error would be repeated and if this was the beginning of a pattern. The behavior stopped on its own after two emails from Hammett and one from Willson. Some harm, some foul, but all of minor significance given the bigger scenario.

And that would have been the end of it. Except for Councilman John Simmonds.

On October 20, Simmonds decided to give some unsolicited campaign advice to Jim Woods. After it became apparent that Woods was about to be called out for his recent false statements about Sue Lang, Simmonds offered the following advice by email through the city's municipal email system:

From: "John Simmonds" <aloha1329@comcast.net>
To: "'Woods, Jim'" <JWOODS@ci.venice.fl.us>
Date: Saturday - October 20, 2007 3:01 PM
     When she [council challenger Sue Lang] asks you about attending Council Meetings ask her what she has ever done for Venice besides call the state about a sign which she could have done by calling Venice Publics Works. Then tell her and the audience all the good stuff you have done.
     She is mean spirited and the other one who is against the penny sales tax is an idiot. You might ask him if he can cite 3 things, which have been done with the penny tax.

[Note: both Ed Martin and Ernie Zavodnyik have publicly endorsed the penny sales tax, while independent challenger Gary Budway has come out against it, so it is Budway that Simmonds is referring to as "an idiot."]

 

A Pattern of abuse
This comes on the heels of a number of Simmonds gaffes, not the least of which was publicly insulting retiree Rita Sakowicz after she spoke before council in opposition to the Tra Ponti development (video). Simmonds eventually (and begrudgingly) privately apologized to Sakowicz for his public insult.

Simmonds recently referred to County Commissioner Jon Thaxton as "an idiot," this after the last joint meeting between city council and the county commission. Simmonds was sore because he started and lost a heated argument with Thaxton over the issue of scrub jays living near the airport, an animal that Simmonds stated is a threat to pilots and aviation in Venice.

Even more recently, Simmonds got ugly with candidate Ernie Zavodnyik at a council meeting, this after Zavodnyik complained that the code enforcement department didn't appear to be doing a good job of enforcement when it came to certain favored property owners.

This latest tantrum in an email on municipal servers, however, is a different matter. That Simmonds is insulting challengers to the status quo should come as no surprise and should be of little importance on its own -- this is politics, not politeness, after all. It's a blood sport and those with weak stomachs should go lock themselves in a bathroom and not come out until after the elections, Simmonds, Lang, and Woods included.

But Simmonds is an elected official and he was offering up campaign advice on a publicly owned server, on the public's dime, and in what is now a public record. That the email originated from his personal Comcast email account is of little value in his defense -- he knew better than to send it to Woods' city email account.

That's wrong. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay wrong.

At this point in time, Simmonds should consider resigning from council.

Seriously.

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.