Time for board member to step down.
Look at the little mugshot with this column. Have you seen this man — someplace other than the back of a milk carton, that is?
His name is Jeffrey Bauer, and he is a Seminole County School Board member. He appears to be missing in action.
The Orlando Sentinel’s Leslie Postal wrote a recent story about Bauer being paid for nearly a year as serving on the School Board without showing up a single time. Dang! I want a job like that.
So, dear reader, I’m going to be taking off the next year and spending it splayed out on a Bahamian beach with my dog Lola, both of us tanning our pink bellies and wearing dark shades. She prefers the little umbrella in her drink to be red. Let’s keep this plan between us. After all, nobody at the Sentinel will notice, right?
This sort of absurdity happens only in government. No wonder voters keep saying that they want government to “run like a business.”
Truth be told, they really don’t. Government has a completely different purpose.
What people mean is that they want more accountability, and they are right. Who lets a guy skip work without so much as a word of explanation for months and months and continues to pay him?
Do you do that, Disney? How about you, Mr. Downtown Hotel? And you, Little Restaurant Owner?
Bauer’s colleagues on the Seminole County School Board decided — after Postal exposed the abuse — to write him a letter and ask his intentions. Now that is just plain useless and way too late. His intentions are clear: Keep collecting his $41,000 salary and nice health insurance benefits as long as possible.
Perhaps some of Bauer’s unworthy behavior can be accounted for by possible medical problems. Bauer told a local political website in June 2016 that he had suffered a stroke.
Between then and Feb. 28, 2017 — the last time he attended a meeting — Bauer was seen in a wheelchair, apparently unable to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance or when board members handed out awards to students.
A letter by the Seminole State College board chairman, on which Bauer also serves, reported to Gov. Rick Scott that Bauer faced a “health issue” and was “engaged in rehabilitation under a doctor’s care.”
Still, Bauer remains a trustee of the college.
Nobody seems to know for certain what happened to him — he never officially explained his absences or submitted any documentation to Seminole schools showing his disability. Postal went to several houses to try to find Bauer, sent letters, contacted family members and tried to get
hold of him through the school district — all unsuccessfully.
Family members may have whispered about his situation to other School Board members, but that’s not enough. Bauer works for the voters who elected him, not for other board members. He owes an explanation to the public.
And he also owes them a resignation. It is past time for Bauer, who lives in District 1 and was elected countywide in 2014, to go. To stay longer is simply robbing the public. A vote is a pact with residents that elected officials will vigorously serve to the best of their ability.
Bauer either cannot or will not fulfill his duties as a board member. His possible illness is unfortunate and certainly regrettable. But it shouldn’t be an unlimited meal ticket for Bauer, who also gets health insurance from the district.
The Florida Constitution says members of elected boards can be removed from office by the governor for “malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties, or commission of a felony.”
Instead of sending a polite little note to Bauer, the Seminole County School Board should be asking the governor to remove Bauer from office and get someone in there who is able and willing to serve.