Century Employee Letter Raises Allegations; Words Fly Between Mayor And Town Planner

Words and allegations flew at a recent Century Town Council meeting between Mayor Henry Hawkins and Town Planner Debbie Nickles, and Hawkins refused at the time to say which town employee wrote a letter with the allegations he brought to light.

Hawkins told the council he that was reading from a letter from a town employee. Copies of the letter he distributed to council members had the name of the author redacted (see bottom of story). When NorthEscambia.com asked for an unredacted copy of the letter, Hawkins replied “You won’t get it…until I give it to the ethics commission you will not get it.”

Update: After publication of this story, the town provided the unredacted version of the letter.

In the letter dated June 17, window clerk Tammy Amerson wrote that Nickles asked to be contacted after work, and a discussion about filling problems ensued.

“Mrs. Nickles asked me to gather up information regarding our Town billing clerk,” Amerson stated in the letter. “Information that included getting copies of all the customers’ documents that have yet to be into the system and were receiving free services for long periods of time because of her not doing her job. I agreed with a lot of the things she was saying. I told her I would call her back. I called her back and told her that I would not do that. I told her that it wasn’t ethical and I thought it was probably against the law. She said that she was gathering this information for Ann Brooks to bring up at the council meeting. Again I said ‘NO’.

“I should’ve never been put in this situation. My job and this community are very important to me,” Amerson concluded.

“That is a board of ethics violation,” Hawkins said. “I’d like to remind us that I am the mayor, and do not want people calling and trying to get dirt on somebody else cause you put everybody in a bad distrust issue. I had several people that was ready to quite on Friday.”

“That is not true. I was told that information was here, that was available, that someone was not doing their job. I don’t appreciate you saying that I’m violating ethics,” Nickles responded to Hawkins. “I don’t care what that letter says. That letter is not correct.”

“I don’t appreciate you Mayor Hawkins of accusing me…It’s not true, and I don’t appreciate it,” she said, also adding that she was told Hawkins threatened to fire anyone “on the spot” or their paycheck would be withheld for providing information about what was happening at town hall.

Hawkins said he became aware of the issue during a staff meeting last Friday, and he had the employee put it writing and had the letter notarized.

“I’m tired of you Mr. Hawkins,” Nickles said.

“You have been showing that you are tired of me because I understand that you have a petition trying to get me impeached,” Hawkins said shortly before Nickles walked out of the meeting.

Nickles issued a written letter of her own emailed to NorthEscambia.com after the meeting with the subject line “Tammy Amerson’s letter”.

“I feel sorry for the employees of the Town as they must work under conditions of intimidation and the threat of losing their jobs if they air the Town’s dirty laundry with outsiders. Apparently, Town Hall has something to hide,” Nickles wrote. “On another note, I want to set the record straight in that Council President Ann Brooks had NOTHING to do with my request for any documentation nor was any information provided to me ever going to be brought to the Century Town Council meeting(s).”

The mayor claimed the letter to be notarized, and it does appear to include the notary seal of Kimberly Godwin, the town clerk. However, the letter is missing Godwin’s signature and certification statement as required by Florida Statute 117.05.

Godwin originally provided a redacted copy in response to a NorthEscambia.com email requesting the letter read by Hawkins. “I am forwarding a copy of this email to Mayor Hawkins as I do not hold the original,” she wrote. As of Wednesday night, Hawkins had not responded to our original request or to any email forward from Godwin. Thursday morning, Godwin had obtained and emailed the unredacted letter to council members and NorthEscambia.com.

NorthEscambia.com image, click to enlarge.