Santa Rosa Commissioner James Calkins angers fellow board members with "campaign stunt"
District 3 Santa Rosa County Commissioner James Calkins may not have thrown his hat in the ring to run for re-election just yet, but it might be hard to convince anyone in attendance at Thursday's regular board meeting of that.
Under the guise of celebrating county workers taking care of a flooding issue on County Road 182, Calkins had staff present a video he had someone shoot from the scene.
The video came complete with a musical entrance, and the commissioner, sporting his signature Make America Great Again hat and wearing a jacket bearing his name and title. With great fanfare he announced "we're here clearing out this ditch to address our flooding issues."
After sitting through the entire Calkins' show, something two other commissioners chose not to do, Commissioner Ray Eddington said he had to walk around the county administrative building twice to clear his head.
"I was aggravated, that's not a place to campaign," Eddington said. "I dropped my head. I didn't know it was coming. I think everybody thought he was campaigning."
Commissioners Kerry Smith and Colten Wright left their seats and walked out of the meeting room as the Calkins' video aired.
"I find it embarrassing that somebody has to get on the dais to do their campaigning when they've had three-and-a-half years to show what they can do," Smith said. "That was an obvious campaign stunt and it was an embarrassment to me and the entire board."
More: Santa Rosa Commissioners lose patience over Calkins' 'political grandstanding'
Calkins' District 3 seat is up for grabs this year along with the District 1 seat occupied by Commission Chairman Sam Parker and the District 5 seat of Colten Wright. Both Wright and Parker have pre-filed to run for re-election, but as of Thursday Calkins had yet to do so.
The video opened with Calkins standing in the foreground, in front of heavy equipment moving dirt. He introduced himself as the commissioner for District 3, representing the north end of Santa Rosa County. He also introduced the county staff who had arranged for the flooding mitigation work to be done and the men actually on scene doing it.
"We had flash flooding here not too long ago and we had citizens concerned," he said. "So what did we do? We stepped into action."
Calkins signed off by saying "God Bless Santa Rosa County and God Bless the United States of America."
Though the theatre might have seemed contrived, the issue being addressed by the county crews is real. Assistant Public Works Director Andrew Hill confirmed residents living along CR 182 have expressed concerns over flooding issues, and efforts were being made earlier this week to clean ditches and clear culverts along the roadway.
A more permanent fix to the flooding issues is also being looked at, he said.
Calkins, who fellow commissioners have called out in the past for grandstanding, appeared unmoved by the negative reaction of his cohorts. After the video had ended and the meeting was adjourned, he remained seated for some time, a big smile on his face.
He defended the video as a fitting tribute to county employees, and said county commissioners routinely put up social media videos of themselves acting in an official capacity.
"Nothing in the video is any different than any other video we put out," he said. "It's a positive thing. I'm always going to try to get our message out that we support our employees and also get the message out that we are doing what we can to solve our flooding issues."
Calkins said he had consulted County Attorney Tom Dannheisser ahead of the meeting and had been cleared to show the video.
Dannheisser confirmed he had viewed the video prior to Calkins showing it and found nothing that would prevent it from being shown to those attending Thursday's meeting.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Santa Rosa Commissioner James Calkins angers board with video
