Two weeks ago, allegations were published here in Key West The Newspaper that outgoing County Commissioner Shirley Freeman may have violated State election law by serving on the Election Canvassing Board while actively working for the election of Commission candidate Sullins Stuart to the seat she's vacating. This week, Freeman recused herself from the Canvassing Board for the Nov. 7 election.
In the Republican primary runoff on Oct. 3, former Key West Mayor Sonny McCoy defeated Stuart by 12 votes. He will face Democrat Sheila Chamberlain and independent Jerry Coleman in the general election on Nov. 7.
Sullins challenged the results of the runoff election, suing the Canvassing Board as well as McCoy. In his response, McCoy charged that Stuart had been an illegal candidate. He said Stuart had been required by law to resign from his job on the County Planning Commission when he signed up to run for the County Commission. Stuart didn't resign until he made the runoff.
This week, Freeman and fellow Commissioner Wilhelmina Harvey were caught in an apparent plot to get Stuart reappointed to the Planning Commission before the new Commission takes over next month. A special meeting of the County Commission has been called for today, Friday, Nov. 3, in Marathon. Most of the items on the short agenda deal with Marathon. But a final item has been tacked on: "Approval of the reappointment of David Sullins Stuart III to serve on the Monroe County Planning Commission with term to expire September 2002.
The sponsor of this agenda item is Commissioner Wilhelmina Harvey. However, Commissioner Harvey is now reportedly considering pulling the item off the agenda. At press time, Commissioner Freeman had not responded to a request for comment. No one answered the phone in Co0mmissioner Harvey's office.
Supervisor of Elections Harry Sawyer said Wednesday that he has asked Chief Judge Mark Jones to appoint a new member of the Canvassing Board to fill the vacancy left by Freeman. "Mrs. Freeman was serving in her role as Chairman of the County Commission," Sawyer said. "Normally, another County Commissioner would step in. "But of the four remaining Commissioners, Harvey and Mary Kay Reich are running for reelection and Nora William and George Neugent told Sawyer that they're actively working on other candidates' campaigns.