WAFC Local News – February 27, 2026, 8:32 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. Clewiston City Vice Mayor Hillary Hyslop says despite the ongoing investigation at City Hall and the building department, things are going very well for the city. They have a new hotel being built, a new Culver’s restaurant recently opened, and other projects are in the works. Hyslop defended the work of city staff in the past year. I think if you sit back and look at it as a whole, maybe not as of late, but as a whole, I think it’s been a great year for the city. Building official Christopher Cooper made some remarks on the raid of the building department by sheriff deputies. Directly after this last meeting, I had some visitors in my building over there that kind of shook the whole department up in order to get this done. It takes a couple months to get stuff ready to present to you guys. It’s not just sit down and put it on paper and get it to you for me to do it thoroughly. It’s not a two-day job, it’s a 30-day job. The Southwest Florida Interagency Child Exploitation and Persons Trafficking Task Force, or INTERCEPT, announced the results of Operation Cyber Tip Surge. Two people who were arrested were actively exploiting children. They identified 22 child victims and seized 67 electronic devices. John Yancey is the head of Department of Homeland Security in Fort Myers. There’s no higher priority than rescuing children. Human exploitation is one of the worst crimes that anyone can imagine, and it’s some of the hardest work that anyone in law enforcement can do. Henry County Sheriff Deputies contributed to that investigation. Glades County Commissioners again looked to impose assessments for fire protection and EMS services. The resolution adopted, 5-0, begins the process and must be approved by voters at the ballot box this year. Chairman Tim Stanley wants to hold workshops to develop a plan and spell out all the details so residents understand he doesn’t want to repeat old mistakes. And maybe even how much the assessment’s gonna be and what we’re gonna do with that assessment because it’s hard to get them to buy in when they don’t know what we’re doing. Okee City Attorney Bernadette Norris Weeks is under attack from the son of the interim city manager. Demarcus Porter says the city is not transparent and that change is needed. He’s also been criticizing Mayor Keith Babb for 30 years of service, saying he’s accomplished nothing. Weeks defended herself, saying she’s a professional and things have to always be done legally. Porter says when his mother wanted to hire an outside firm to examine finances and address a scathing audit due to lost revenue, the attorney failed to advise her about the legalities. He stuck up for his mother. So I guess she wasn’t listening when they were talking privately. She wasn’t listening when she drafted whatever she needed to draft for the meeting. She wasn’t listening or she wasn’t paying attention to the little booklet that they flipped through. If the process was wrong, why wasn’t that guidance given beforehand? Why allow the city manager to walk into a public meeting without information that you already knew she needed? Resident Ronald Mathis urged Pahokee to make Bussey the permanent manager. I can understand why y’all kicking the can down the road, why y’all don’t go ahead and appoint her as the city manager. I mean, listen, we shouldn’t even have to go through that. We got somebody here that love our city, who raised him, and y’all keep bringing people in here, don’t care nothing about our time. They’re here for the fish and the loaf, to get our money, don’t care nothing about those people. And from now on, we gonna have to have our city manager from somebody in Pahokee. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).