Former County Commissioner Questioned About Explicit Messages

SEBRING - David Flowers, director of county facilities management, is under investigation for sexually explicit, instant messages he exchanged on county computers with fired budget department employee Treasa Handley.

Rick Helms, the assistant county administrator, is in charge of the investigation of Flowers, a former county commissioner who failed in his bid this week to become director of the county's new division of administrative services.

Helms is reviewing evidence against Flowers, including the verbatim transcript of at least one sexually explicit instant-message exchange on county computers between Flowers and Handley.

Gloria Rybinski, the county's assistant public information officer, said Helms also has talked to Flowers as part of the investigation, and that he may talk to Flowers again in an official capacity.

"I prefer not to respond right now," Flowers said Wednesday afternoon when he returned a phone call seeking comment on the pending investigation. Flowers worked most of Wednesday morning interviewing job applicants for an open position in the county facilities management department.

In total, 22 Highlands County board of county commissioners employees used their instant messaging capability on their county computers inappropriately, according to Bob Jamison, senior director of business services in the Highlands County Clerk of Courts office.

Handley, the former coordinator of non ad-valorem tax assessments, was fired Monday for sending sexually explicit instant messages to two co-workers in the county budget department.

Also fired, for the same reason, were two of Handley's co-workers, Jared Lee, a budget analyst and a former Highlands County Schools 10th grade English teacher, and Christine Edwards, a budget analyst.
Most 'Inappropriate'Messages Not Sexual Outside of the three employees fired from the budget department, Flowers is the only known person, among the 22 county employees who used instant messaging inappropriately, involved with sexually explicit messages.

The other 18 employees who used instant messaging inappropriately sent messages involving their "personal business," but did not send any of a sexual nature, according to the clerk of court's office.

Handley, Lee and Edwards have until 5 p.m. today to file an appeal of their dismissals. As of press time Wednesday, none of the three fired employees had filed an appeal, although they had said on Tuesday that they planned to appeal their dismissals.

According to county records, between five to six county employees have been fired, on average, per year for the past two years.

Eleven board of county commissioner employees were fired "for cause" from Jan. 1, 2006 to Jan. 1, 2008, according to Rybinski, who looked up that information at the request of Highlands Today.

Helms was expected to make an announcement about his investigationsof Flowers' use of county instant messaging by the end of this week.

County administrators are checking the cases of the 18 county employees who reportedly used instant messaging inappropriately for "personal business" but did not send messages of a sexual, or otherwise offensive, nature.

Sexual Messages Discovered 'Accidentally'

The county clerk of court's office began investigating improper instant messaging by accident, Jamison said. The sexually explicit messages were discovered when the clerk's office ran a routine financial audit of the county's 9-1-1 emergency calling system.

Jamison said clerk's personnel were simply checking all e-mails, instant messages and other county documents that had anything to do with expenditures, bills and authorization of payments for the maintenance and operation of the 9-1-1 system.

Among the instant messages that came up during that financial audit were messages on the accounts of Handley, Lee and Edwards, he said. Those messages contained not only routine county business but also a voluminous amount of what Jamison called "sexually explicit material."

"We did not target them or anybody else as far as checking instant messaging," Jamison said.

Once the sexually explicit messages were found, the clerk's office checked all instant messaging by board of county commissioner employees for six months, for the period from July 12, 2007 until this week.

"Of the total number of county employees who had instant messaging capability on their county computers, half of those employees never turned it on," Jamison said.

Helms, for example, was one of the county employees who never used and, in fact, never activated his instant messaging software.

Who Guards The Guardians?

The county clerk of courts office uncovered and then investigated inappropriate text messaging by county employees because it provides the bulk of "information technology" services for county government.

Bob Jamison, the senior director of business services in the clerk's office, said the clerk's office also checked its own employees' use of instant messaging.

In effect, the county employees tasked with checking on other county employees were checked to make sure they weren't sending inappropriate instant messages themselves.

Jamison said a check of the instant messages sent and received by clerk of courts employees found a small problem which was handled within the clerk's office by low-level disciplinary measures.

About a handful of clerk's office employees used their instant messaging for "personal business" when the only authorized use is for official county business, Jamison said.

Jamison said there was nothing that could even remotely be considered offensive in the "personal business" messages sent by clerk of courts employees.

"The typical messages of a 'personal business' nature they made were, 'Where would you like to go for lunch?' or 'How was your weekend,'" Jamison said.