ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla — A St. Johns County Commissioner is suing the rest of the county commissioners, claiming her freedom of speech has been threatened.
Krista Keating Joseph does not usually vote the way the rest of the St. Johns County Commission does.
She ran on a platform to slow down development.
Now comes another instance in which she is the odd man out when it comes to county politics.
She is suing the other four St. Johns County commissioners in federal court.
This comes after a commission meeting in November. During that meeting, she reminded the public that if they weren’t happy with how the county is being governed, there is an upcoming election.
While seated in the commission meeting at her desk, she said, "There’s hope. In less than nine months, we have an election. I stopped by Vicky Oakes (Supervisor of Elections). Here’s the information."
The other commissioners quickly jumped in. Commissioner Henry Dean could be heard saying, "Point of order" and Commissioner Sarah Arnold said, "Don’t you think this is out of line?"
The commission questioned if she could speak about elections during a public meeting.
At the following meeting, the other four county commissioners voted to censure Joseph and hire an outside attorney to determine if she had violated state election laws.
The outside law firm released its report this month, and it determined that Joseph “While carrying out her duties as a County Commissioner at an official County Commission meeting, she made comments that would naturally influence or coerce another person’s vote, and her comments seemed designed for that very and unlawful purpose.”
The outside counsel suggested the matter be referred to the State Attorney's office for consideration of criminal charges.
This week, Joseph fired back. She file a lawsuit against the four other county commissioners.
Her lawsuit indicates the commission is violating her freedom of speech because the outside counsel's report shuts her down from talking about upcoming political races, even outside the commission chambers, if she is identified as a county commissioner when she does it.
In response to the lawsuit, County Commission chair Sarah Arnold issued a statement saying in part, "The laws that Commissioner Krista Keating-Joseph has likely broken have been long established to allow officials with differing opinions to come together and do the business of government. We have passed the realm of decorum and have entered a degree of breaking the law.”
All of this is on the County Commission meeting agenda, to be discussed Tuesday. However, announced today the county’s attorney plans to ask for the agenda item to be pulled from the meeting agenda so it can be discussed in the "shade" or behind closed doors.
Joseph is not up for re-election in 2024. However, she has endorsed candidates who are not the incumbents.