No contest cocaine plea continurs to dog Stephen Sather's public office runs
Photos for Headline Surfer® /NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Jason McGuirk, a New Smyrna Beach commissioner and the vice mayor, called Jake Sachs to offer congratulations after his decisive victory over Stephen "Steve" Sather in the commission zone 2 race in Tuesday's general elections.
So, too, did Commissioners Kirk Jones and Judy Reiker.
Lame-duck Mayor Adam Barringer and Mayor-elect Jim Hathaway sent Sachs separate email messages congratulating him as well.
They offered any assistance he feels is needed to help him prepare for his role on the public dais and the demands of taxpayers and developing a basic understanding of hid role as a policymaker and evaluator of city administration and overall governance.
But Sach's campaign opponent, Sather, while claiming during the campaign how much knowledge and talent he has has given him the proverbial cold shoulder. Headline Surfer® inquiries to Sather via email have gone unanswered.
Sachs said he expected as much from Sather, considering his opponent more often than not would put a PR spin on events and accomplishments that he had little or no part in, and in some cases, took credit for any way. Another bone of contention was Sather consistently filing incomplete or inaccurate campaign reports that Sachs questioned several times with the City Clerk's office.
"I'm not really surprised and it is not unexpected," Sachs told the 24/7 internet newspaper of Sather's snub, which he sees as a continuation of how Sather handled himself during the campaign.
"I'm not really surprised and it is not unexpected," Commissioner-elect Jake Sachs told the 24/7 internet newspaper of losing opponent Steve Sather's snub, which he sees as a continuation of how Sather handled himself during the campaign.
Headline Surfer® photo by Henry Frederick /
Post-election etiquette traditionally suggests the loser in a given race to offer congratulations either in person, in a phone call or in the age of digital technology, through an email or text message. Typically, that show of respect is done election night or the next day, or two at most, unless a recount is at play.
But in New Smyrna Beach, the city where municipal leaders often cite the "charm," or friendliness, even as there hasn't been a lot of either in the five year-run Barringer had along with City Manager Pamela Brangaccio, whose tenure continue with the new commission, which will be seated Tuesday.
Headline Surfer® / Sather, despite a controversial past with drugs and what one critic of city hall described as an arrogant disposition in the community, was nevertheless appointed to the city's planning board two years ago with longtime friends Barringer and Reiker, pushing it and getting the other commissioners to go along with it.
A survey the city the city had commissioned for feedback with residents on how they felt about the level of satisfaction with municipal services services gave the the planning board the lowest marks.
Sachs said he wasn't in a position to comment on the performance of the planning board or Sather's demeanor on it because he's only had limited interaction to this point.
Sachs and Sather ran in the 2014 elections for the zone 2 seat Jack Grasty exits next week because he ran for mayor against Hathaway, who had previously served on the dais for 18 years before he gave up his post in 2012, to run for County Council, coming up short.
For Sachs, a retired Miami firefighter, this election campaign -- his first -- was a testament to his hard work and his community involvement with 58 percent of the overall 9,670 votes cast. Sachs received 5,557 votes to Sather's 4,113 votes, leaving Sather with barely 40 percent of the total.
But the 59-year-old Sachs readily acknowledges it is Sather himself by virtue of his contributions to the community -- good or bad -- that helped define the vote.
Ever-careful as he has been throughout this election cycle, Sachs has resisted providing direct quotes for the record on Sather's past involvement with cocaine, which has been well documented in media reports, readily accessible in the our records and from general knowledge in the community.
What Sachs did say was: "A voter needs to look at the whole character of the man."
Ever-careful as he has been throughout this election cycle, Sachs has resisted providing direct quotes for the record on Sather's past involvement with cocaine, which has been well documented in media reports, readily accessible in the our records and from general knowledge in the community. What Sachs did say was: "A voter needs to look at the whole character of the man."
As such, in this campaign cycle, Sather's second attempt at elective office in five years, the voting results are equally abysmal, even if the percentages are different. A loss is still a loss.
Consider, Sather received 42.53 percent of the votes in this election. And the results in the 2009 election cycle were similar in a three-way primary won outright by the incumbent, then-first term Commissioner Jack Grasty, with 2,181 votes or 59.06 percent of the 3,693, to 858 or 23.33 percent of the votes for second place finisher Palmer Wilson, and 654 votes or 17.71 percent for last-place finisher Sather. Because Grasty received more than 50 percent, plus 1 vote in the primary, a runoff was avoided.
Tuesday's election results and Sather's subsequent dissing of Sachs come as no surprise to citizen watchdog Bob Tolley, who told Headline Surfer®, "Look at his past troubles and the way he deals with situations. Why would anybody expect him to behave differently with Jake. Sather is arrogant about everything."
And that arrogance, Tolley said, is reinforced by Sather's continued attempts to run for public office, which invariably led to whispers about his past.
Tuesday's election results and Sather's subsequent dissing of Sachs come as no surprise to citizen watchdog Bob Tolley (shown here at right), who told Headline Surfer®, "Look at his past troubles and the way he deals with situations. Why would anybody expect him to behave differently with Jake. Sather is arrogant about everything." And that arrogance, Tolley said, is reinforced by Sather's continued attempts to run for public office, which invariably led to whispers about his past.
Sather on Oct. 22, posted a comment on his campaign website, saying that a candidate forum he attended at the Brannon Center sponsored by the NSB Citizens for Smart Growth focused on the candidates and their issues and not the "vitriolic personal attacks that too often are the focus of campaigns in our nation today. America could take a lesson on putting the real issues on the most important questions in front of the voters & citizens from New Smyrna Beach."
What Sather didn't say, however, were the questions read during that forum were screened ahead of time and that he's personal friends with that group's organizers. He also didn't' mention that at an earlier forum at Sugar Mill Country Club, an elderly resident asked about Sather's drug past and was shouted down.
HeadlineSurfer.com, then known as NSBNews.net broke the story of Sather's past involvement on the eve of the 2009 primary for the zone 2 seat held by then-incumbent Jack Grasty, who was finishing his first four-year term and was being challenged by Sather and the second challenger Wilson.
A review of public records by the internet newspaper in 2009, revealed the following:
• Sather was arrested on Aug. 28, 1992, by an undercover New Smyrna Beach cop posing as a cocaine supplier during an exchange of money for drugs. Sather was charged with conspiracy to traffic in cocaine, a first-degree felony, and booked into the Volusia County Branch in Daytona Beach where he remained for 15 days, pending $7,500 in bail.
• Sather, represented by New Smyrna Beach criminal defense attorney Phil Peterson and prosecuted by then-Assistant State Attorney Tom Bevis, pleaded no contest in open court on Oct. 16, 1992, to a reduced third-degree felony complaint of unlawful sale/delivery of a controlled substance.
By pleading no contest, a defendant neither admits or denies guilt, but concedes the state has enough evidence to result in a guilty verdict at trial.
• On the same date that Sather copped his no contest plea, Circuit Judge R. Michael Hutcheson agreed to withhold adjudication of guilt (meaning he wouldn't be designated a convicted felon, pending successful completion of the agreed upon conditions in the plea) and was subsequently sentenced as follows: two years of community control, followed by two years of probation.
• Because sentencing guidelines were less strict then than they are now, Sather's community control ended on Oct. 25, 1993, and his probation began at that point, and on Nov. 18, 1994, it, too, was ended and his record sealed.
• Sather's file was sealed because of the withhold of adjudication by Hutcheson, who accepted his negotiated plea with the state and sentenced him the following month with the conditions of home confinement and probation.
The New Smyrna Beach police charging affidavit was sealed in the court record, though Sather's no contest plea to "unlawful sale or delivery of a controlled substance (cocaine), a lesser included offense, has remained part of the public record. Sather's no contest plea.
Because he's not a convicted felon, Sather was able to run for public office and finally did so in August 2009, when he qualified to run for the Zone 2 City Commission seat held by the incumbent Grasty.
In an interview with the internet newspaper (then known as NSBNews.net) for a story published Sept. 8, 2009, Sather said he regretted buying an ounce of cocaine for $2,000 from a man who turned out to be an undercover cop, resulted in his arrest on the felony charge that resulted in the plea agreement, including the restrictions of community control and probation that concluded 25 months later.
"I made a mistake 17 years ago," Sather said in the 2009 story, continuing, "My family already knows. Everybody knows. This is not news. I had a lot of stuff going on... I got involved in the party scene." Sather added, "I bought for the undercover cop. It was a three-year investigation into drugs in New Smyrna Beach and I was nailed in an undercover bust."
"I made a mistake 17 years ago," then-first time candidate for public office Steve Sather said in the 2009 story, continuing, "My family already knows. Everybody knows. This is not news. I had a lot of stuff going on... I got involved in the party scene." Sather added, "I bought for the undercover cop. It was a three-year investigation into drugs in New Smyrna Beach and I was nailed in an undercover bust."
Sather said in the same interview that after his probation was terminated, he was appointed to the city's planning and zoning board, serving for nine years. Sather also was the P&Z's "citizen representative" for two of those years on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which administers federal funding for transportation.
Regardless of his no contest plea, he was eligible to seek public office because the judge agreed to the withhold of adjudication of guilt, and as such, the tag of a connected felon.
In August of 2009, Sather successfully qualified to run for the Zone 2 City Commission seat held by the incumbent Grasty.
Sather justified his initial run for office in the 2009 internet newspaper story, acknowledging his involvement in the felony crime: "What I did was wrong -- I knew I was going to have to face this," Sather said. "I am proud of who I am today. I'm proud of my last 17 years of life. All I want to do is serve."
Twice-failed City Commission candidate (2014 & 2009) Steve Sather justified his initial run for office in the 2009 internet newspaper story, acknowledging his involvement in the felony crime: "What I did was wrong -- I knew I was going to have to face this," Sather said. "I am proud of who I am today. I'm proud of my last 17 years of life. All I want to do is serve."
Asked for comment in the same 2009 story on Sather's legal troubles in the past, Grasty said he was aware of the situation and wasn't surprised it got out. "All I'm going to say is the record speaks for itself," Grasty said.
A week after the story of Sather's cocaine past was broken by the internet newspaper, the Daytona Beach-News Journal published a story as well, leading up to the Sept. 22 primary, in which Sather was crushed.
It was inevitable, though that Sather was determined to run again, first gaining a seat on the city's planning board with the help of his friends, Barringer and Reiker, both of whom won elective office for the first time in that same 2009 election cycle.
Headline Surfer® photos by Henry Frederick /Sather used his tenure on the planning board to tout his experience before and more recently, without making any reference to his past situation with the police and court.
Two years ago, Sather was appointed to the planning board. Grasty didn't vote for Sather during an initial round of nominations, but when it became obvious that Sather had the support of a majority of the commissioners and the mayor, Grasty acquiesced and Sather's appointment was unanimous.
Palmer Wilson, the third candidate in the 2009 race with Sather and Grasty, said in a brief phone interview for this post-election story on Sach's win Tuesday that he agreed with Grasty's earlier assessment of Sather's past. And like Sachs,
Wilson said he, too, had issues regarding Sather's campaign filings and brought them to the attention of the City Clerk's Office.
Wilson said he believes Sather knows full well that if there is any vitriol as had been alluded to in Sather's website, it's apparently his own grousing over media reports that were rightfully informing the public on a candidate's past that were sure to create doubt about the legitimacy of the campaign.
Headline Surfer® reminded readers again of Sather's 1992 involvement with cocaine when he announced he was running again.
Headline Surfer photo by Serafina King-Frederick / The question was raised with his opponent Sachs in two Headline Surfer® candidate forums that preceded two public candidate debates sponsored by the internet newspaper for two county council races and each time Sachs declined to discuss Sather's drug past, saying he wanted to focus on the merits of his own campaign. And to reiterate, invitations for Sather to attend the Headline Surfer® community forums went unanswered.
Sather's drug past was brought up again in a story published by the News-Journal on Oct 27, and in a Headline Surfer® published endorsement for Sachs on Oct. 30, with a rebuke of Sather's second attempt at running for office, regardless of the passage of time to a major drug offense he readily pleaded to after he was assured adjudication of guilt would be held after doing a couple of probation.
Wilson, the other candidate in the 2009 campaign with Sather and Grasty, and a retired police lieutenant from Maryland, said the message of this election to his former fellow candidate and his involvement with cocaine that led to arrest and no contest plea should be crystal clear, if it wasn't five years ago: "Hopefully now Mr. Sather has learned that his past behavior does not endear him to the vast majority of the voters -- they don't like it."
Palmer Wilson, the other candidate in the 2009 campaign with Steve Sather and Jack Grasty Grasty, and a retired police lieutenent from Maryland, said the message of this 2014 election to his former fellow candidate and his involvement with cocaine that led to arrest and no contest plea should be crsytal clear, if it wasn't five years ago: "Hopefully now Mr. Sather has learned that his past behavior does not endear him to the vast majority of the voters -- they don't like it."
In the Works: Post-election coverage continues in NSB
Jim Hathaway makes a triumphant return to New Smyrna Beach municipal government after a two year abscence and fuldills his destiny.
New Smyrna Beach Mayor-elect Hathaway takes center stage on Tuesday when he is sworn in along with Commissioner-elect Jake Sachs.
And their arrivals mean the departures of Hathaway''s 2014 opponent, Jack Grasty, who was on the dais for nine years. Because he ran for mayor, his seat was up for grabs and won by Sachs.
Joining Grasty out the door is Adam Barringer, mayor for five years in what turned out to be be a less-than stellar tenure with multiple scandals within the CRA and police department as well as Barringer's own finances. And two years in a row of tax increases.