Davenport Election Snarls

What a tangled web we weave … when it comes to politics.

The little City of Davenport, Florida, just got a taste of election snarls when it posted on its website an article by the local newspaper that ran a scandalous story on one of four folks vying for office. The city website included the announcement of the four candidates: Scott Woodlee; Linda Robinson; Jeremy Clark; and Chris Lopez. It ended with the scandalous newspaper story, which prominently targeted candidate Scott Woodlee. 

The city had never done something like this before, ever, in its history. It had never posted newspaper clippings on its home page, and it had never demonstrated bias against one candidate. As it stands, the city doesn’t take much interest in updating its website, mydavenport.org, but it decided to take it upon itself to add the scandalous article on top of the legitimate announcement of the candidates, filling up much of its home page with the article.

The city took down the newspaper clipping on Tuesday, February 27, when it received contact by lawyers and local constituents about the matter. The post had been up for four days, exacting the city’s intended damage to this candidate. (We’ll find out April 2^nd, election day.)

What the city did was attempt to sway the upcoming election. It was election interference, not by the Sun, but by the very government that is running the election, Davenport. The Four Corners Sun is our Fourth Estate, so to say, and had the right, nay, the duty to report. They went overboard on the savory details, but, hey, that’s what sells newspapers. Nonetheless, the article was indisputably biased.

It led the first paragraph on Woodlee with his past sexual encounters, which would have prompted the reader to turn the page. Then they gave upwards of one column to Woodlee and barely none to the other Davenport candidates. And, finally, it snuck in the next-to-last paragraph the issue that what Woodlee did was not illegal.

Donna Fellows-Coffey, publisher of the Sun, is currently a commissioner on the board for which this election is being run and, is also apparently, on not-so-friendly terms with Woodlee (at least so far. Maybe they’ll kiss and make up later.) The fact that the article targeted Woodlee and was from a hostile publisher strongly indicates bias in reporting. And, if there was bias in reporting to begin with, the city is now responsible for posting biased information.

What Happened

So, we have candidate Woodlee running for commissioner. Then, we have a commissioner, Fellows-Coffey, who’s alleged to have missed so many board meetings that Woodlee considered a recall on her ass before he decided instead to run for office, thus the negativity between them.

Then, we have the nepotism factor that Fellows-Coffey represents, being the offspring of another current commissioner, Tom Fellows, a.k.a., daddy. (She’s the city’s nepo baby until this April when her dad gives up his seat for the winning candidate. That would be Seat 1 for you voters out there.)

Donna Fellows-Coffey walked through the door into her position because she ran unopposed. That’s not a matter of Donna being unqualified. She’s perfectly qualified. However it is a problem with voters in the community.

There. I said it!

Like everywhere in this democracy, Americans don’t vote. It’s true in Davenport too.

Sex

To detail sexual matters in politics makes for good news but is bad for community cohesion, nonetheless, I will have to talk about sex too. Yeppers. Just like they did at the Four Corners Sun, except they went into particulars I won’t be going into.

The article Fellows-Coffey’s newspaper published detailed information about Woodlee’s lifestyle, which resulted in a scandal that took place 16 years ago. (And, of course, today, via the city.) As it turns out, Commissioner Donna is also a person who currently enjoys an alternative lifestyle, being the partner of Lisa Fellows-Coffey, one of the editors of the newspaper.

While people’s lifestyle choices should remain private, Donna, decided against that when she published the story in the biased manner that it was published. She did this regardless of the fact that neither Woodlee’s lifestyle was nor her own lifestyle is illegal.

John 8:7

“He that is not without sin among you, let him cast the first stone…”

The Bible

Politics

Donna Fellows-Coffey’s ascension was leftover politics from a spade of catastrophes suffered by the city, which I will not go into here. Other commissioners who were brought in without the vote in recent history include the current mayor’s first term as commissioner. Mayor Brynn Summerlin, who originally got onto the board via appointment, after a catastrophe ended the career of another board member, who had been voted into office.

Brynn was later officially voted into his mayoral position, winning by 79 votes in 2020. The total number of votes that year was 395. (The City of Davenport has a population of 18,587, which technically means that just a few hundred of us are allowed to complain about politics; the rest of you be damned.)

A second catastrophe ended the mayorship of another board member, and that’s when the commission appointed Jeremy Clark, a local pastor who doesn’t hesitate to use the city (and city grant funds) for his church activities. Clark was voted vice-mayor by the commission, gives most of the sermons, I mean, invocations at board meetings, and is one of the four candidates. Can’t say much else about Clark as he doesn’t speak much at board meetings.

Appearance is Everything

Vision and mission are important components of government. The City of Davenport’s vision and mission are to “build the public’s trust and confidence” and “improve the perception of government,” goals that the city seems all too destined to destroy during this election cycle.

Because of the city’s posting of the Sun article, it appears that Donna and the City of Davenport colluded to ensure one specific candidate loses, while another, i.e., Linda Robinson, wins. (A third candidate, the only black candidate, was disqualified on a technicality.) Robinson’s qualification is that she is the wife of the city’s last mayor, Rob Robinson, who had been mayor for two terms. His second term was mainly as a placeholder to prevent another candidate from receiving the seat.

I can understand the newspaper’s printing of the article, as that is what it is supposed to be doing, but the city? No, the city had no right to add the Sun article to its announcement of the candidates. Below was the article published by the Sun (and re-posted ad nauseum by City of Davenport staff). (May god forgive their souls.) It’s not posted here on Darhlene.com because it was clearly biased news reporting, and you will find that it exists nowhere on the Sun’s website. If you’d like to see for yourself, search for the title, “Candidates abound and controversies resurface with four commission seats up for grabs.” (I would’ve just titled it Sex.)