“It is very disappointing to say the least, and unfortunate for the residents and our city. We will work hard to get every certificate of occupancy, permit and inspections done in a timely manner,” City Manager Vickie Gainer wrote in response to a records request Monday. “Safety is our number one priority. We will continue to restore our residents’ trust and confidence with the city. No one wants this more than myself.”
Between May 2020 and April this year, Gordon allegedly conducted 85 illegal inspections. His company was paid 75% of the permit fees for permits inspected, the arrest affidavit states. The city calculated Gordon received $12,436.84 for work outside of his scope.
One immediate change the Bay County Supervisor of Elections Office made was removing the exterior drop box where early voters would typically drop in their ballots.
“The outside one, I’d have to have two people in security on it,” Supervisor of Elections Mark Andersen said. According to the bill, SOE offices could be fined $25,000 if drop boxes are left unattended.
Anderson added since it is a municipal election but not county-wide, “it doesn’t impact (Lynn Haven voters) on the side of voting because we have drop boxes inside the voting places.”
Lynn Haven voters on May 18 will select their candidates for mayor, Seat 3 and Seat 4 in a runoff election between the top two candidates in each race. Early voting started Monday and ends Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the Lynn Haven Senior Center, 905 Pennsylvania Ave.
Gray said as soon as it became apparent that he would enter the runoff election against incumbent Judy Tinder, the man “started threatening my job, calling my boss saying I was doing illegal stuff, which I wasn’t.”
Emphasizing he does “not have access to information in the VA system” and “everything that I have came from the Supervisor of Elections Office,” Gray said the accusations still “made it all the way up to D.C.” Subsequently, the VA has opened an internal investigation and his supervisor recommended him to leave the race, according to Gray.
“I just had to make a decision that was best for my family, to just take a break for now and catch the next cycle so that I can protect my family and job right now,” he added.
LYNN HAVEN The mayoral seat that has been left vacant for more than 100 days after the former mayor Margo Anderson was indicted along with the former city manager, city attorney, and community services director on dozens of fraud charges involving the mishandling of federal emergency dollars in the early hours following Hurricane Michael, is now being vied for by three new faces to the Lynn Haven Commission, each promising to restore the integrity of what it means to hold public office. There definitely were some major problems, but much of that has been weeded out and we re looking toward a bright future for Lynn Haven, said mayoral candidate Joe Brown, who has more than 20 years in finance management in city and county government.