Remember court clerk, Lisa Niles, employees showed up at the commission meeting seemingly in support of Ms. Niles who had prevented their raises with her ongoing law suit against the county?

You might think they would have had signs that said , we support commission. After all, we wanted to give them their money and Ms. Niles apparently didn't want them to have their money. Maybe some of the mystery has been solved.

Below is a letter I received a few days ago that was reportedly sent to Niles employees. You read the letter and we'll discuss further.

Even though my copy of the letter is unsigned, it appears it was possibly written by Niles chief deputy clerk, Penny Glasgow, given that she was the one who addressed "( I will talk)" the commission on August 1st. Ms. Niles may have even help write it, who knows.

Probably the most disturbing line in the letter is,

"I need to have each and everyone behind me...present at the Commish meeting, stand up with me (I will speak); and tell them WE BACK LISA NILES, CIRCUIT COURT CLERK!"

Please scroll back up and look at the picture. Looks like she got about what she wanted.

Now imagine this, you're a mid to lower level (newer) employee of Ms. Niles. You really need your job and you and your family really need your medical insurance and benefits and you receive a notice from a superior telling you "I need to have each and everyone behind me...present at the Commish meeting, stand up with me". What exactly are you going to do? You're going to the meeting whether you want to or not.

Let's take a closer look at this document.

I really like the part at the top, "Typed at home and delivered on breaks." You gotta love that. I assume that's suppose mean that nothing took place during work hours or on work stationary.

Apparently, Ms Niles is allowing her attorney, who intends to be paid by the tax payers, to be her office PR manager now. The letter writer says she asked Zach Tenry, Niles attorney, if she could address the commission and "he has allowed me to (with conditions)". Hum, not sure that's part of his job as Niles attorney. Wonder what the conditions were?

She goes on to discuss the News Herald article on the proposed raises then states "they are belittling Lisa again", "Kelly Brewster then dogs Lisa". Don't think describing what Ms. Niles has done to the county, the tax payers and her employees is belittling or dogging her. I think it's called telling the truth.

She goes through this long explanation about Lisa getting her state mandated raises as though the commission doesn't know how that works. I think we're pretty familiar with how elected officials raises work.

"Now then there's Van Shaver." May have to add intimidation to the description along with legal exhortation. Wonder how her blood pressure is now.

Then she puts her lawyer hat on and goes through a long dissertation to give Ms. Niles cover for not signing the supplementary salary agreement to give the employees their back raises. Obviously, she didn't read the resolution we passed or just didn't understand it. Didn't know she was a lawyer. Maybe she stayed at a Holiday Inn Express or something.

Then she goes on another rant about how noble Ms. Niles is. You can make your own judgment on that notion. Then it sounds like she really wanted everyone to support not taking the raises. But that was never brought up at the commission meeting. Then we're back to the whole, you need to stand with me part of the letter.

I'll be honest, I've been in politics, maybe too long. I've seen a lot of political shenanigans but I can honestly say I've never seen anything quite like this. What kind of elected official or staff would work this hard against their own employees not to mention the tax payers? Beats anything I've ever seen.

I certainly hope Ms. Niles nor anyone else tries to use the fact that I came into possession of this letter to take retribution or retaliation against any of the employees. Be assured, no current employee gave me a copy of the letter.

Cheers