Allegations of the existence of indecent photographs depicting the County Executive is the topic of this week's OPEN AGENDA for June 26 (S3 E35). The naked truth was revealed two weeks ago when the county attorney had no choice but to fulfill a Public Information Act (PIA) request for email correspondence between County Executive Julie Giordano and Sheriff Mike Lewis. These emails suggested that the inappropriate photos exist--were taken by the Executive herself—and were then transmitted to an unnamed deputy sheriff. Although Ms. Giordano initially called for an investigation into what she described as “fake news,” upon being advised that any such investigation would involve forensic analysis of her phone and other electronic devices, she dropped her demands. Did these revelations impact last week's primary elections in which the Executive clearly lost a considerable number of Republican votes in her bid for reelection? Did they contribute to the landslide losses of some of her hand-picked candidates for sheriff and county council? Can Ms. Giordano be an effective leader when the public's confidence in her judgment, moral character and truthfulness is rapidly sinking?
