VolusiaNews.net and NSBNews.net provide Volusia County with 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage for a 21st-century world.
.jpg)
Video and photos by Henry Frederick / Oak Hill City Clerk/Administrator Laura Goodearly uses a sheet of paper to try and hide her face from the video camera during discussion about a pay raise at Monday night's City Commission meeting. Click on the video to see Goodearly's bizarre behavior.OAK HILL -- Like a perp being led to jail in front of TV camera crews, City Clerk/Administrator Laura Goodearly used a sheet of paper to try and hide her face from NSBNews.net's video camera during discussion tonight over her request for a pay raise that was tabled by the City Commission after learning she has a DUI conviction.
Three of the five commission members reached prior to the meeting said they were concerned about the revelation of Goodearly's 2004 conviction in Duval County criminal court to driving under the influence, which they first learned of in a story posted Friday on NSBNews.net.
NSB News was alerted to Goodearly's criminal conviction by a city employee who asked for anonymity. The raise request was placed on the agenda prior to Friday's news report.
Despite the objection of Commissioner and Vice Mayor Mary Lee Cook, Commissioners Ron Engle, Kathy Bittle and Linda Hyatt refused to act on Goodearly's request, instead tabling it without mentioning the DUI conviction specifically.
For someone who had nothing to hide, Goodearly made a spectacle of herself from the onset, trying to shield her face from NSBNews.net's video camera with a piece of paper.
At one point, Goodearly's media friend, Robert Burns of The Observer newspaper aimed his camera at NSBNews.net and started firing off shots until NSBNews.net turned its video camera on him capturing the smirk on his face as he shied away and retreated to his seat. Goodearly is listed on the Observer's Facebook fan page as a "friend."
Goodearly is the lone administrator among Volusia County's 16 cities and in Volusia County government with a Facebook page and as a media friend to the Observer. She's also the only administrator at the municipal and county government levels to have a criminal record.
Oak Hill has been rocked by scandal in its police department and Mayor Darla Lauer said the revelation over Goodearly's criminal past has added even more embarrassment for Oak Hill.
The mayor was not at Monday's meeting due to illness, but outside of Cook, non of the other commissioners were willing to back Goodearly.
Prior to the meeting, Hyatt said she was embarrased and upset that Goodearly did not come clean about her past. Not only did she not support Goodearly,she asked her commissioners to consider fielding other candidates with better qualifications.
At one point, Goodearly openly protested NSBNews.net's video camera, saying she didn't want to be videotaped and motioned with her hand to go away while keeping her face concealed. NSBNews.net tersely responded: "it's a public meeting" and continued shooting.
Goodearly has refused to answer NSBNews.net's questions regarding the DUI offense for which she was adjudicated guilty in court.
After the meeting, Cook said she was livid, dismissing Goodearly's DUI conviction as something "that happened in the past."
She added, "It wasn't a crime. It was a slap on the wrist. She paid a $500 fine and that was the end of it. The police chief has done worse."
The 84-year-old Cook left the meeting with Goodearly in the clerk's car.
Goodearly has been picking up Cook and driving her home over the last few months in the wake of commissioner's son's arrest on felony charges of videotaping underage girls with a secret video camera in his backyard shed which was being used as a tanning salon.
David Russell Brown is expected to go on trial in circuit court in Volusia County later this spring on multiple counts of video voyeurism.