WAKULLA NOIR

Once again, the Tourist Development Council's (TDC) under the eye of citizens. This time it's about the cancelling of the director's group health benefits because she was not entitled to receive them.

Mike Stewart, chairman of the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) loves the TDC and is protecting the Director, as he did with former administrator Ben Pingree, dismissing very aggressively any questions raised raised by citizens, costing the county thousands of dollars.

He threw a report on Pingree "in the trash" and he refused to question any arrangement with the TDC director until outsiders raised the same questions that citizens had.

He loves berating citizens over their concerns, calling names and attacking verbally people who are concerned about the county's wasteful spending.

Well, this time he lost. The Wakulla County administration and board gave the TDC director health insurance to which she was not entitled. The new county administrator cancelled the insurance.

Her having insurance she was not entitled to opened up the door to hundreds of thousands of dollars in unfunded liability to the county should the health insurance provider deny the claims of an ineligible person.

And, to date, the contract has not been fixed.

This lack of oversight has got to stop. If staff can't do it, they need to be replaced. If the BOCC can't do it, they need to be replaced.

And the county needs to take a good hard look at the TDC. A citizen audit of the council is a place to start. If they can't do it for reasons of cronyism and insider dealings, then outside people need to investigate further.

I'm betting they will.