Alachua County whistleblower investigation, Archer audit
Hello from Gainesville, Florida. It's Monday, March 16, and you're listening to StreetSmart. I'm Lillian Hamman. Street Smart is a weekly podcast from Mainstreet Daily News where we cover local news that informs, engages, and inspires listeners like you. A big thanks to our sponsor, Forest Meadows, where compassion meets experience.
Lillian Hamman:Check out their beautiful gardens, funeral home, and tribute center. Cremations, funerals, and memorials all in one trusted place. With exceptional care and personal attention, Forest Meadows is here to honor every life with care. Here's the top headlines we're rounding up.
Lillian Hamman:Gainesville business Fire Neural Network won a quarter of $1,000,000 last week.
Lillian Hamman:The money comes from the Verizon and MIT Solve Disaster Resilience Prize. The company is located in the Innovation District and detects lightning strikes likely to result in wildfires. Gainesville Regional Airport is set to have a new CEO. The airport authority interviewed three finalists and selected Paul Merlik to step into the role. A contract is expected to be finalized next week.
Lillian Hamman:The Children's Trust of Alachua County approved its strategic plan for the next four years. Two of the main goals will be family health and early learning. The school board of Alachua County finalized its rezoning plan late last week. The rezoning plan has been in the works for several years and will close multiple schools. The city of Archer renamed its community center in honor of former mayor and longtime advocate, Roberta Lopez.
Lillian Hamman:At 87 years old, Lopez continued leading community initiatives until she passed away in February. As always, visit mainstreetdailynews.com for more details on our stories. Thanks to our generous members, this news stays free for the whole community with no paywall.
Lillian Hamman:Thanks again for listening to StreetSmart. I'm Lillian Hammond, and glad to be back in studio alongside Seth Johnson for another episode.
Lillian Hamman:We're gonna get straight into our feature stories for this week. Seth, any idea what I'm gonna be talking about today?
Seth Johnson:Oh, boy. You've got a broad beat covering a lot of rural areas. It could be from any one of those.
Lillian Hamman:That's right.
Seth Johnson:Can you narrow it down for me a little
Lillian Hamman:It'll start with an a.
Seth Johnson:Okay. An a. So Alachua or Archer.
Lillian Hamman:Yeah. Fifty fifty shot.
Seth Johnson:Okay. There's been a good bit going on in both of them. Let's go with Archer.
Lillian Hamman:Correct.
Seth Johnson:Alright. Archer, we talked about them on our quick hits, renaming their community center, so probably not that. We talked about 4 laning Archer Road a couple weeks ago. Is it either of those?
Lillian Hamman:It is not. It has to do with the first meeting for their new city manager, Donald Barber. The commission hired Barber in January, so he's been working hard alongside the deputy city manager, John Martin, who previously served as Hawthorne's city manager, to start getting into the details of some of the financial recovery. During Archer's commission meeting last week, the city managers gave a report on where they're at with wanting to do a, essentially, an internal forensic audit going through every single bill, every single transaction. They said they found, you know, years of incorrectly reported statements to the IRS and that w twos for this tax season have been delayed due to Social Security payment mistakes from the city.
Lillian Hamman:City Manager Barber said that he's currently working bill by bill to create a new budget that more accurately reflects what's coming in, what's going out, as opposed to the current budget they're using that was made by a non city employee.
Seth Johnson:And a lot of this isn't exactly new. Archer's been kind of working through these financial issues. They've had several outside parties look at their documents and say, you know, things weren't reported or were reported incorrectly in past years. And it sounds like Barbara is now the newest person to kind of have eyes on the issue and start to create a plan to hopefully get out of that situation.
Lillian Hamman:Yeah. There are lots of new plans in place, and they've come across some other positive things like $3,600 from a bank account that had been neglected and $14,500 that was stolen from the city last year from a former city employee was returned last week as well. So they're gonna make sure the new budget reflects those positive incomes as well.
Seth Johnson:Sent by sent, dollar by dollar, it sounds like Archer's working to get towards some financial stability out there.
Lillian Hamman:And Seth, pivoting to your story from Alachua County.
Seth Johnson:Yes. It's on the county, and he guesses on mine.
Lillian Hamman:Does it have anything to do with a whistleblower document?
Seth Johnson:It does. It doesn't help when you just go through and read my stories and know what I'm gonna talk about ahead of time.
Lillian Hamman:Well, it was a pretty big story, so I couldn't help but not read it.
Seth Johnson:Yeah. Definitely a lot of people interested in this. The county started an investigation coming from a whistleblower letter that was emailed to them. And that's a 15 page letter from multiple former and current staff members that said, kind of diving into issues that they had with Alachua County Animal Resources and specifically its shelter and how it's dealing with shelter populations. And the letter had a lot of photos and kind of anecdotal stories on dogs not being taken care of, not getting out and getting walked daily, rat infestation, kind of feces and blood being left in cages, things like that, along with stories of cats being mauled by dogs and other issues with staffing there.
Seth Johnson:One of the main things the letter highlights is, euthanasia practices. The letter said county staff weren't following the policy procedures for euthanasia, and that was a really big concern for them. And they point to several examples of dogs that were euthanized in just the last couple months that they said didn't follow those policies. And so all of that's in this letter, gets sent to the county, and they decide to open a whistleblower investigation. And the county actually adopted a whistleblower policy back in 2020, and this will be the third time it's been implemented leading to an investigation.
Seth Johnson:And if you're wondering what those other two investigations were, I was also curious and sent a request to get those reports and kind of see what those involved as well. So stay tuned. Maybe that'll come up on the podcast as well.
Lillian Hamman:And this didn't come out of the blue. The shelter has been dealing with issues raised by employees and volunteers and, you know, ongoing complaints. Right?
Seth Johnson:Yeah. There's been complaints over the last several months even and even stretching back further on the shelter and issues with the shelter there and staffing and animal conditions. But this has really kind of been taken to another level with the investigation. The county's animal resources has had three directors in the last five years, so they haven't had that stability there in the top position. But Alachua County has been focused on animal resources through several different initiatives here recently.
Seth Johnson:One is getting a brand new shelter. They are under contract to build a new shelter at the University of Florida's swine unit just off of Archer Road. And they also just finalized the deal with the sheriff's office in order to deal with animal complaints that rise to kind of a potentially criminal level. So the sheriff's office will be responding to, animal complaints and animal enforcement along with the county's normal, codes enforcement for animal related incidents.
Lillian Hamman:What did the county commission say about the investigation?
Seth Johnson:Well, all of the commissioners supported the investigation. It's gonna be done by an outside party. So it's not the county doing the investigation itself. They're paying an outside entity to come in and do it. And that investigation will need to conclude within ninety days of starting, which is gonna be June 1.
Seth Johnson:So there will be a report to the board of county commissioners by then. The commissioners also said, you know, they support their staff. They believe their staff's doing a good job with the resources they have, acknowledging that that shelter was built as a kill shelter and very outdated. Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler questioned a little bit some of the photos involved. She said after a night without staff there, sometimes, yeah, the dog cages can look rough and they can be in disorder.
Seth Johnson:But, staff usually comes through and cleans them and it can be looking very different later in the day. And so she questioned some of those photos and the timelines that go with them. But the commissioners said overall they wanna know what's going on there, especially surrounding those euthanasia practices and some of the text messages and emails that were included in the letter and how staff has been operating out there. And the letter specifically points to the interim director right now over the shelter along with another shelter supervisor, names those two by name, and so the investigation will be looking into kind of the policies that they've been overseeing and whether or not they've been following those euthanasia guidelines.
Seth Johnson:The commissioners also emphasized that with their whistleblower policy, you know, there can be no retaliation against those employees or former employees who came forward to kind of be a part of the letter or raise concerns. That's something they emphasized several times to public commenters and the crowd. They said that even extends to volunteers, you know, being able to continue volunteering there. And they definitely praised the work of their volunteers over time. They said there were some people who've been working at the shelter for a very long time and are very dedicated to animals that are doing good work.
Seth Johnson:So we'll see what comes out of that investigation before long.
Lillian Hamman:Before we get into this week's news forecast and event segment, we're gonna take a minute to hear from our sponsor, Forest Meadows.
Forest Meadows:At Forest Meadows, our commitment is simple. Exceptional care, personal attention, and respect for every family we serve. Forest Meadows offers every option in one trusted place. Visit our beautiful gardens and glass front niches, or plan ahead for cremation, funerals, and memorials at our funeral home or tribute center located on our cemetery grounds. Forest Meadows, where compassion meets experience, and every life is honored with care.
Lillian Hamman:Now for this week's news forecast. Alachua County's development review board will consider a 23 acre final development plan for Spring Hill. The development is just south of Northwest 39th Avenue at I 75.
Lillian Hamman:The city of Hawthorne will hold its regular meeting on Tuesday. The commission will review a veterans wall plan, wastewater project, and its community resource center. The town of Micanopy will have a special called planning and historic preservation board meeting on Tuesday. That'll start at 6PM.
Seth Johnson:Now for our event segment covering upcoming family friendly events this weekend. The city of Gainesville has started its spring market series every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through April 5. Each weekend features a different mix of 26 vendors at the streetery along with music and a skills share.
Seth Johnson:Gainesville Harley Davidson is revving up for its birthday bash on Friday starting at 5PM. The event will feature contests for a burnout winner and a best modification along with food, music, and more.
Seth Johnson:Kannapaha Botanical Gardens will welcome over 100 booths for its spring garden festival on Saturday and Sunday. The price for entry is regular admission to the gardens, $8 for kids and $13 for adults.
Seth Johnson:Hawthorne's frog song organics farm is holding a spring festival on Saturday. Guests can pick their own onions, carrots, and strawberries along with other family friendly activities.
Lillian Hamman:And that's all we've got for this week's StreetSmart podcast brought to you by Mainstreet Daily News and made possible by our generous Another special thanks to Forrest Meadows for believing in local news and sponsoring us. We'll be back next week to round up more local news that matters to you. Take a moment to share StreetSmart and help us continue the work. Remember, click on the link in the show notes to find more free local news at mainstreetstreetdailydailynews.com or pick up a print copy around Alachua County. Our theme music is Sunset Sonata by Gainesville's own ska band, now leaving space. This episode is a production of MARC Media.
