Former federal inmate 07048-003, Gene Sullivan, pictured on the dais during a recent Santa Rosa County Zoning Board meeting
District 4 Commissioner Ray Eddington, who represents Holley-Navarre, appointed former federal inmate Calvin “Gene” Sullivan to the Santa Rosa County Zoning Board. Since then, trouble has been brewing.
“A member of this Zoning Board has made it very clear that if he doesn’t get his way, he’s going to verbally accost people in the lobby,” Commission Chairman Kerry Smith said of Sullivan this summer.
Santa Rosa County’s Zoning Board is a state-required local planning agency which performs certain tasks, including hearing requests for variances and special exceptions and making related recommendations to County Commissioners.
Sullivan attended a May 22 special rezoning meeting, during which commissioners voted 3-2 against the April 10 recommendation of the Zoning Board to deny a proposed project adjacent to Sullivan’s home.
Afterward, in the lobby outside the board meeting room, multiple witnesses corroborated that Sullivan and Tony Ashe profanely accosted the project property owner, Melissa Johnen.
Johnen said she told each of the commissioners. “Eddington was rude and refused to listen to me,” she said, stating he had a “preconceived notion” about her case from Sullivan, his appointee.
Subsequently, Commission Chairman Kerry Smith on June 9 proposed removing Sullivan from the Zoning Board.
“I don’t like bullies…when one of those bullies is a member of the zoning board, I’ve got a real big problem,” Smith said. “When (citizens) have to come back in and get escorted to their car because they’re scared of a Zoning Board member, well there’s something we can do about this.”
However, Eddington opposed taking Sullivan from the position. “I will not remove that man from that board…I will stick with my guy,” Eddington said.
Smith declared his intent to place the matter on the June 12 agenda, and District 5 Commissioner Colten Wright suggested Smith read facts of the case into the record. Therefore, Smith read verbatim an email he had received from one of four witnesses who were present and later corroborated the altercation:
“Congratulations, B****, now you can get your B**** A**on your pony and get out of town,” Sullivan reportedly told Johnen. Then his companion, Tony Ashe, said “Yeah, that’s right, get your fat A** out of town.”
Sherry Chapman of Pea Ridge, a supporter of Eddington’s re-election, spoke against Sullivan’s removal. “Once a meeting is adjourned, it becomes community speech at that time,” Chapman said. “There’s been times the officer has had to ask people to leave and we’ve not fired them.”
Ultimately Smith backed down from making a motion to remove Sullivan, noting he didn’t have enough votes at the time.
“It made me feel like the county failed us all, allowing him to get away with it,” Johnen said.
In addition to serving prison time, records suggest Sullivan has faced additional criminal charges filed against him, including:
- Adjudicated guilty in 2018 of misdemeanor count of violating a FWC level two rule or order ;
- Adjudicated guilty in 2009 of operating an ATV in a closed area;
- Adjudicated guilty in 1991 of oystering in a prohibited area;
- Additionally, charges of aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony with firearm and oystering in prohibited area in 1989 show Sullivan took a plea deal, accepting three years of probation. Per the FWC report, Mr. Sullivan displayed and then discharged twice a semi-automatic handgun from his vessel in East Bay towards the direction of Officer S.W. Williams, who was standing on the shorelines approximately 75 yards away.
*Witnesses to the post-zoning meeting argument included: Melissa Johnen, Michael Broker, David Fitzpatrick, Barb Lewis.
