Like the Energizer Bunny, Orange County’s texting scandal keeps going and going. It’s been almost four months since county leaders sent and received private text messages before derailing a paid sick-leave proposal, yet some commissioners and staff still haven’t released all those texts to the public.
This has gone on way too long. The time is ripe for Jeff Ashton, the incoming Orange-Osceola state attorney, to investigate whether leaders violated Florida’s law requiring them to conduct the public’s business in, yes, public.
Mayor Teresa Jacobs, some county staff and five of six commissioners deleted texts from their personal cellphones after their Sept. 11 meeting. This was the meeting in which the commission voted 4-3 to bump off the ballot a citizen-led initiative forcing many employers in the county to provide employees with paid sick leave.
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