Thank You John Cagnina...

That distant honking you hear is not those crazy horns from the World Cup matches in South Africa. It's the inevitable screeching of Recallers whose petition was used as a template for John Cagnina's failed ethics complaint against Mr. Stoltzfus. Richard Harrison placed the city on notice a month ago (HERE) that Cagnina's complaint was ill conceived and that Florida law requires the city to reimburse Mr. Stoltzfus for the costs of his defense should he prevail. Harrison notified City Attorney Jim Dye Friday HERE and Sunday HERE that the bill is on the way.

That the ethics complaint tracked the language of the recall petition is no coincidence. And, of course, it will be trumpeted as all Mr. Stotzfus' fault that Cagnina took it upon himself to file it with no apparent independent knowledge or investigation beyond the pages of the local papers. As you can read HERE, Mr. Stoltzfus has the option of pursuing Mr. Cagnina for the expenses and in a perfect world that is exactly what should happen. But pursuing Mr. Cagnina places the city at additional risk should Cagnina, and one expects he would, bob and weave his way through the collection process. Under Florida law, the city should have third-party claims against Cagnina for the money it is forced to expend because of Cagnina's actions and it should take immediate steps to assert those claims.

So, we are sure you'll hear shouts of blame tossed at Mr. Stoltzfus. But you can thank John Cagnina.

Bill Yanger