BREVARD COUNTY, Fla.,None — Controversial Brevard County property appraiser Jim Ford announced Monday he'll run again for election in 2012. At the same time, WFTV uncovered new documents in a lawsuit against Ford.
In them, Ford stated he was worried that he was being followed. Ford even used paid county employees to watch his back.
One of his managers paid John Sternagel to sit in his car while the property appraiser was inside getting his haircut. It is just one of a few surprising admissions the property appraiser made in preparation for a federal lawsuit against him
"I have no desire to talk to you," stated Ford To WFTV.
Ford was forced to talk to lawyers about some of his office's dirtiest secrets. While Jim Ford has settled suits with a half-dozen former employees for undisclosed amounts of money, he is still being sued in federal court by Dana Blickley.
Blickley claims Ford fired her after speaking up about various problems, including Ford promoting a "temp" fellow worker he was suspected of having an affair with. During the deposition, Ford said he didn't have a personal relationship with his then public relations director, Dawn Averill, before May 2006.
Ford testified: "I had a great appreciation for her abilities and had a lot of compassion for what she was dealing with, with regard to all these rumors and backbiting techniques."
Ford was even asked personal details about whether he and Averill kissed. He denied it and couldn't say how often they were out of the office together. Within a year, they both divorced their spouses and married each other.
The property appraiser, though, did admit he had his director of information services sit across the street from a barber shop to look for anyone following him. He told lawyers in a sworn deposition: "I asked him to be there to see if someone was following me, because I had been told that that's what Dana Blickley and her cohorts had been doing instead of working."
Right now, Jim Ford is taking retirement from the state and collecting his salary as property appraiser and WFTV learned he has announced his intentions to run for office again in 2012.
WFTV
