If you kept up with City Manager Julio Avael's mishandling of former Building Dept. Director Catherine Harding's termination over the past month or so, you may recall the name Jesus Cepero.
As part of Avael's campaign to justify his firing of Harding, he sent a memo instructing her successor, Charles Stephenson (who still does not have even a provisional license from the state to head a municipal Building Dept.), to investigate allegations that Harding had electrical work done at her home by an unlicensed contractor.
In Avael's memo to Stephenson, he said that a Jesus Cepero (he spelled it "Zepero") had come forward to claim that he had performed electrical work for Harding— and that he didn't have a license from the state.
Avael sent copies of his memo to the City Commissioners and it was subsequently leaked to the press.
When a Key West Citizen reporter tracked Cepero down, he realleged that he had done electrical work for Harding without a license— but he was quoted as saying that he was "in the process of getting licensed by the state."
Harding said that she never heard of Cepero and, in fact, Stephenson's investigation subsequently cleared her of any wrongdoing— although, when we broke this story last week, Avael had not bothered to forward that report to the City Commissioners, as he had done with the original allegations.
This week, Key West The Newspaper checked with the Florida Dept. of Business & Professional Regulation (BPR). A BPR spokesperson in Tallahassee said they, too, had never heard of Jesus Cepero or Zepero.
"No one by either of those names has applied for a license," said Lonnie Parizek at the BPR.
So we followed up with another question: Contracting to do electrical work without a license is against the law, right? So, what agency would be responsible for prosecuting someone who does that?
"When we learn about it, we issue a cease and desist order and refer it to the State Attorney for prosecution," Parizek said.
Well, we know that State Attorney Mark Kohl reads our paper. And he now knows about Cepero's admission of wrongdoing. And he knows that both City Manager Avael and Acting Building Dept. Director Stephenson know about Cepero's "confession"— and that neither has taken any action to ensure that Cepero is not out there today, continuing to work illegally. So, by looking the other way, are they both aiding and abetting?
Let's watch together and see what happens.
SOME QUESTIONS FOR MR. CEPERO:
1. What were you thinking when you came forward to admit that you are out there working illegally? Duh!
2. Why would you tell the Key West Citizen that you're "in the process" of getting a license when you're not? Is that a status thing? "No, I don't have a license . . . but I'm thinking about applying for one."
3. Do you think that, if you are prosecuted, your pal Julio will come to your defense? Dream on, Bubba! He can't even spell your name right. Of course, on the other hand, if Stephenson doesn't work out, Avael just might reward you by putting you in charge of the Building Dept. Obviously, under Julio, you don't need a license to do that.
Maybe that's what he means by "Reinventing Government"?