Lies, Ugly Lies

April, this is the guy below--David Schmidt-- whose free speech rights I defended at the last board meeting. It looks like you colluded with Ms. Elia to use staff to comb through his records to find a gnat with which to nail him.

And you led her to retaliate against Mr. Schmidt, although it doesn't take much pressure to get Ms. Elia to nail some person for some manufactured error.

This was the method used by the Professional Standards office with Bart Birdsall to retaliate against him for his free-speech right to protest gay bias in the county library. His retaliatory treatment was why I began monitoring the school board.

And what about Mr. Schmidt's recital of your empty claim of being a "successful business owner"? Those "businesses" you were engaged in with your husband were not "successful." Is it true that a lender had to sue you to get you to pay back a loan? Good lord. How dishonest and tacky.

Remember when you first ran for office I told you never to lie to the press, that its members would find you out and never forgive you or believe you again? I believe that instance of your being caught out by the press was your claim to have had some kind of administrative position in the Boys and Girls Club when you didn't.

And a person who retaliates against a man for criticizing her--that's free speech--does not belong on a school board. In fact, she does not belong near a school. Children should not be taught to lie by example. I told my four, "Don't lie. It's easier to tell the truth because then you will never get mixed up and caught out. It's better to tell the truth no matter how bad you think it is."

I give you the same advice, April. Tell the truth. You didn't have to put false information on your official school portrait and biography. Just say the truth about yourself. This lie makes you look cheap and sleazy and insecure. Our children deserve better board members than one who lies and then embellishes the lie to put on the Web page of the school board.

And I agree with the reader's note that I post below that the guy sent to Mr. Schmidt's blog. Why hasn't the board dealt with Ms. Elia's conflict of interest if she is using a school lawyer to coerce her neighbors into accepting her vulgar tin roof?

Oh, let me add another lie to your list. You promised me you were going to USF and get a degree. You are still running around town preening your importance on the board with no degree. The same goes for Susan. How can you pretend to care about the education of the children of the community when you don't care about your own?

If you get a college degree you won't make so many grammar-punctuation errors on you Web site that I suggested you start. And don't say I didn't tell you to start a Web site because then you would be telling another lie.

lee

The Schmidt Charge Against April Griffin

Sunday, April 11, 2010

April Griffin vs Florida Ethics Commission (Pay Attention SP Times Editor John Hill

Today, I mailed to Tallahassee a Florida Ethics Commission complaint against April Griffin.

For years, she has told us that she was a successful business owner, which gave her a background to provide oversight to our district’s $3.2 billion budget as well as to its day to day business activities.

On the Hillsborough School District’s website, her board member bio also says she was a “successful business owner.”

I always wondered where she gained this “successful” business experience, particularly as a GED grad. So I did some research.

Seems like, back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, she and her husband created three businesses, now all defunct.

One was called OpenmyOffice.net, Inc. It was opened in 2000 and shows one of Griffin’s home addresses in Seminole Heights. It is now listed as “inactive.” April is listed as Vice-President.

April and hubby Brian started another company in 1999 called CS Consulting Group, Inc. Again, this company has Seminole Heights addresses, either at April’s home or a low-rent storefront. Again, April is listed as Vice-President.

CS Consulting Group evolved into Cybersoft Solutions sometime in 2002. It also had a Seminole Heights business address, with Brian Griffin listed as chief officer. It went “inactive” in late 2002.

Somewhere during that timeframe, I guess business wasn’t so “successful.”

I found in Florida state court records that “CS Consulting Group, a dissolved Florida corporation, Brian Griffin and April Griffin” were successfully sued for an unpaid business loan by Union Planters Bank of Memphis. The Bank received a Final Judgment November, 2003 for $24,991 in principal plus $500 in attorney’s fees, $350 in costs, and $5272 in interest. I guess the Griffin’s hadn’t made a payment for a while.

The above information is the basis for my ethics complaint against April. She lied to the voters in 2006, she lied to editorial writers like John Hill of the SP Times, and she is lying to anyone who visits the district website now.

This coming election, April will have to face the fact that past lies will not help her win re-election.

Much more to come. We need to examine her other work history….as she reported in job applications to the school district in 2004.

See Ms. April....payback is not any kind of a threat.....it is a promise of political action!

posted by admin @ 4:45 PM 1 Comments
Monday, April 5, 2010
At April 12, 2010 12:15 PM , Anonymous John said...

As an employee of fabulous SDHC I think your blog and insights are so valuable...Thank you.....Should there be some kind of ethics investigation on what Elia did with the School Board's attorney for her personal matter... I am sure she makes enough to retain one....
Keep up the excellent work....