Sheriff Eric Flowers needs to know that the buzz about his extramarital affair isn’t going away any time soon, no matter how many videos his media-relations team posts on the Internet about headline-grabbing crimes around the county.
Distraction isn’t going to work.
Transparency might.
If Flowers truly wants to repair the damage done to his reputation and credibility – if he hopes to have any chance at rebuilding the trust he betrayed and overcome his blatant hypocrisy – he needs to come clean about his infidelity.
He needs to tell us what happened, explain how he allowed himself to put his marriage and career at risk, and offer an honest, from-the-heart story of human failings that have put him on the road to redemption.
He needs to give us something more than that lame public statement he issued two weeks ago on his social-media platforms, where he apologized to his wife, Sheriff’s Office employees and the community – but never mentioned the reason for his apology.
Mostly, Flowers needs to allow himself to be held accountable – a practice the 41-year-old, first-time sheriff has failed to embrace through his first 13 months in office.
You might’ve noticed that Flowers carefully manages the agency’s message, showing us the Sheriff’s Office he wants people to see and appearing at news conferences only on matters he wants to address, particularly those which present his leadership in a favorable way.
Instead of taking tough questions, he gives us well-produced videos that tell us only what he deems necessary for us to know.
Flowers also appears to be selective in dealing with members of the local news media, accepting phone calls from and granting one-on-one interviews to only those he considers friendly, or at least harmless.
It should surprise no one, then, that Flowers hasn’t taken my calls since the summer of 2020, when he was in the final weeks of his campaign.
Apparently, I wrote something he didn’t like.
I attempted to address the situation in a face-to-face conversation with him last year at the annual Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches Barbeque, but he said he wouldn’t talk to me and refused to tell me why.
He ignored the messages I left at his office before writing the column that prompted his public apology earlier this month.
Regarding that apology, Flowers’ decision to publish his statement using his personal Facebook page and Twitter account – and not the Sheriff’s Office’s social-media platforms – allowed him to limit and even remove negative comments without violating Florida’s public-records law.
And while we’re on the topic of public records: My requests for such documents, which were regularly provided within hours during the previous administration, now take days for Flower’s Sheriff’s Office to produce.
Maybe it’s mere coincidence, but as someone who enjoyed a good working relationship with Flowers for more than six years when he served as his predecessor’s public information officer, I can tell you something about him has changed.
And not for the better.
In his recent public statement, Flowers apologized for “not living up to my own personal high standards,” referring to his campaign promises as a family-values candidate and his first official address as sheriff to his 500-plus employees.
In that speech, given minutes after he was sworn in, Flowers told his deputies to equate their oath of office to marriage vows, and conduct themselves in a manner consistent with his values, on duty and off.
He made it clear they would be held accountable for their actions.
Flowers, though, has thus far proven himself to be a do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do sheriff whose hubris enables him to demand accountability from his deputies while resisting all attempts by others to hold him accountable.
That needs to change.
We can only hope the embarrassment that accompanied the public exposure of his marital infidelity and betrayal of the community’s trust will humble him enough to make a difference in how he moves forward.
This story isn’t going away.
Flowers may be right in thinking he can survive this crisis and serve out the remaining 35 months of his four-year term.
His re-election, however, is in serious doubt – unless he revamps his playbook, sets aside grudges and convinces our community that he has learned from his mistakes.
For that to happen, he needs to allow himself to be held accountable.
Is he willing to do that?