ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – The St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners has a new chair following a dramatic meeting marked by a clash between two board members.
The change in leadership comes after weeks of feuding between commissioners Clay Murphy and Krista Joseph, who was removed from her board chair position on Tuesday.
(Watch the tense exchange and the vote in the video below)
On Tuesday, Murphy nominated himself as board chair, just weeks after Joseph was re-elected to the position on Nov. 18.
Joseph, visibly upset by the move, resurfaced allegations she made last month against Murphy, claiming he failed to attend a required state ethics meeting. She said she told him when she confronted him about allegedly not going to the meeting that he was going to jail.
Murphy dismissed the claims as nonsense, saying they were retaliation for not supporting Commissioner Ann Taylor for vice chair last month. He also says county legal told him he was in compliance.
“There’s other instances that I know about Clay Murphy before he took the office, considering a white envelope on a developer’s desk that I have not made public, but I have turned this into the FBI,” Joseph also said during the meeting. She declined to elaborate on that claim when reached by phone by News4JAX on Wednesday.
Despite the accusations, Murphy was elected chair with a 3-2 vote, receiving support from commissioners Christian Whitehurst and Sarah Arnold.
Before the vote, Murphy apologized for the drama and expressed his desire for the county to move forward.
“There are things that need to be done that are just not getting done and I think it’s time for someone else to have the opportunity to lead that fight,” Murphy said.
News4JAX reached out to both Murphy and Joseph regarding the allegations. Joseph stated,
“If I feel that I see something that is illegal, I am going to report it to the correct authority,” Joseph said.
Commissioner Murphy told News4Jax over the phone, “I have met my obligations under the law about my ethics training and as to a white envelope I have no idea what she is talking about. I look forward to an investigation by the FBI if that is what I have to do to clear my name. I think it is slanderous. I will be contacting an attorney for legal advice.”