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Largo moves toward censuring commissioner for inappropriate use of city iPad

 
Holmes has admitted downloading inappropriate material but refused a colleague’s call to resign.
Holmes has admitted downloading inappropriate material but refused a colleague’s call to resign.
Published Sept. 18, 2014

LARGO — City commissioners will hold a special meeting Tuesday to decide whether to censure one of their members for downloading inappropriate material on his city-owned iPad.

They also will decide whether to take the iPad away from Commissioner Curtis Holmes.

The 6 p.m. meeting was called at the request of several Largo commissioners who said they did not want to wait until Oct. 7, their next scheduled meeting, to handle the situation.

The controversy began during a meeting this week when Commissioner Jamie Robinson and other commissioners condemned Holmes for downloading multiple images from Facebook and YouTube. The materials included anti-Obama comments, political articles, crude jokes and insults to illegal immigrants and Muslims. One video showed a scantily clad woman gyrating in a sexually suggestive manner. Another showed a pig and a man wearing only a turban with a sexually suggestive caption insulting Muslims.

City officials said the images, which Holmes conceded downloading, violate a policy that bans any "conduct that belittles, demeans, denigrates, or shows hostility toward an individual or group based on (among other things) race, religion, national origin." Under the policy, the city decides the standard and if it has been violated.

Robinson said Tuesday's meeting will offer Holmes a chance to defend himself. If Holmes is not persuasive, then the censure will allow commissioners to officially announce their disapproval.

Robinson said the censure also would formally let Largo employees know that commission members will be held accountable for their actions. Nonelected employees, he said, would have been immediately fired for doing the same thing. But censure is the only remedy when a commissioner violates city policies. Once that's done, commissioners can "get back to the business of the city," he said.

"This should not be a defining moment for the city of Largo."

Robinson urged Holmes to resign when the commission met earlier this week, on Tuesday. Holmes refused.

Holmes could not be reached Thursday for comment. But earlier he said he was unconcerned about being censured.

On Wednesday, he sent an email to the other six commissioners, accusing them of holding a "Kangaroo Court" and saying city administrators were after him.

"For the record and upon advice I will make NO further comments, but be advised there is a 'spirited' rebuttal coming," his email said. "You should have been made aware of federal statute before launching your misguided assault on me. You've attacked the victim."

Contact Anne Lindberg at alindberg@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8450. Follow @alindbergtimes.