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Largo commissioner urged to resign for inappropriate use of city iPad

 
Published Sept. 17, 2014

LARGO — City Commissioners condemned one of their members and suggested he resign Tuesday for downloading inappropriate material to his city-owned iPad.

Officials said Commissioner Curtis Holmes downloaded multiple images from Facebook and YouTube, including a video of a scantily clad woman making sexual gestures and a photo depicting a sexual joke about Muslims.

Not all the material was available Tuesday. Holmes acknowledged accessing it but accused city officials of acting improperly.

This is "just completely reprehensible," commission member Jamie Robinson said, noting there was no reason for anyone to have such images on a city computer. "If there is nothing done, we're all going to get in trouble. I think commissioner Holmes should resign."

Holmes said he would not defend himself. He said city officials had violated federal privacy laws by monitoring his email.

"Am I going to resign? Not a chance," he said. "You will be hearing about the second shoe. You have my word on that."

Largo officials denied monitoring Holmes' emails. They said the material was discovered recently when it appeared on other city-owned iPads.

City Attorney Alan Zimmet said Holmes had broken no laws. He said the commission could censure Holmes and take away his iPad.

Commissioners did neither Tuesday, but ordered that the charter be reviewed so commissioners could be kicked out of office in the future for violating employee rules.