04/12/2026
With the upcoming election on April 14th, Iโve noticed an increase in fake accounts attacking members of our community with unsubstantiated claims and spreading misinformation.
Particularly, Iโve seen discussion regarding mischaracterizing and lying about facts related to the plannerโs resignation investigation.
I want to set the record straight.
Around early February of last year, the senior leadership of Alachua's Planning Department all resigned in short succession. This was a staggering loss of institutional knowledge and experience in a very short period of time. The Commission knew it, and that is why a motion was made and unanimously passed.
The motion, made by Commissioner Williams and seconded by Commissioner Ringersen:
"๐๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐กโ๐ ๐ถ๐๐ก๐ฆ ๐ด๐ก๐ก๐๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐ก๐๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ ๐ก๐ โ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐"
Every commissioner voted yes.
At the next meeting, City Attorney Rush returned with exactly what had been requested. Yet Commissioner Williams claimed her motion was never meant to launch an investigation and expressed surprise at the ready contract.
The rhetoric shifted, with speculation that planners might not want to participate โ though they weren't present and were never asked. Public comment against the investigation included the Boukari family and Emory Group CEO Mitch Glaeser, who cited bad experiences with the planners.
Vice Mayor Potts tried to scale it down to exit interviews only, but that also failed, voted down 3-2 by Ex-Mayor Coerper, Commissioner Williams, and Commissioner Ringersen.
Shortly after, 17-year city planner, Justin Tabor spoke publicly. In a written letter, he alleged he had been pressured to put a developer's interests above the public's, and that former City Manager Adam Boukari had effectively continued co-managing the city while privately representing developers.
Tabor said the scheduling of development applications over staff objections was, in his firsthand view, orchestrated by Boukari to serve his private clients. He closed with a pointed question: if the planning staff had been doing their jobs poorly, why didn't their performance evaluations say so?
He put his name on that letter. He had worked here for 17 years.
That deserved a factual accounting by this city.
That letter prompted a closer look at the record. After leaving the city manager role in 2021, Boukari continued receiving consulting contracts from the City of Alachua.
On February 14, 2022, Commissioner Miller โ now Commissioner Williams โ moved to renew that contract for another six months. It passed unanimously.
Then came a bigger turn. In summer of 2024, FDLE agents raided the offices of Alachua County Today and Boukari Law on Main Street. The reasons remained unclear for nearly a year, until May 2025, when a memorandum from FDLE's Office of Inspector General surfaced in an unrelated civil case.
Attorney Bryan Boukari filed emergency motions to keep it off the public docket, but residents obtained and shared the document before it was pulled from the Clerk of Court's website. What it revealed: an FDLE investigation into alleged sexual acts involving Adam Boukari and juvenile boys at that building โ sometime between 2006 and 2021. The same years he was involved as City Manager and Assistant City Manager.
When that memorandum became public, along with the historical close association with City leadership, it was more urgent than ever to establish the facts of what happened in the planning department. I got City Attorney Rush to bring two outside attorney candidates before the Commission โ it passed 4-1, with Commissioner Williams again in dissent. When it came time to vote to move forward, it failed 2-2 with Commissioner Brown absent.
Regardless of these hurdles and the surprise termination of Marian Rush, I felt we still needed to move forward. I brought the second attorney Rush had identified back before the Commission. But this time was different.
When I moved for the investigation to continue, my fellow commissioners went silent. Commissioner Williams โ the same commissioner who made the original motion, then voted against her own motion two weeks later, and against it every single time after โ also said nothing.
The community was promised an investigation. They deserved better than silence.
So when I hear talk about protecting our community's children and putting our community first, those words have to mean something. Continued excuses from blaming absent parties, walking back prior statements, citing reasonable negotiated costs as an excuse โ none of that justifies inaction and silence.
This community showed up meeting after meeting and asked for answers. A year later, they are still waiting, we have yet to move forward.
๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ค๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐.
๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐คโ๐๐ ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ก.
๐ต๐ข๐ก ๐ฆ๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐โ๐๐๐๐ ๐คโ๐๐ก ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ โ๐๐ค๐ .
๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐๐๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ญ๐ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐ฉ๐ซ๐ข๐ฅ ๐๐๐ญ๐ก
