Note: this is a summary of the 13-minutes of police body cam footage of the Oct. 29 bicycle accident involving City Manager Ty Ross.
New Fernandina Beach City Manager Ty Ross is shown sitting cross-legged on the grass in the dark confused and unable to provide coherent answers to police questions on video recorded by a Fernandina officer the night of Oct. 29.
Ross, who has admitted to having too much to drink downtown, crashed his bicycle near the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and 14th Street. Two motor scooter riders saw Ross sprawled on the lawn of a house and summoned police at about 7:30 p.m.
Ross was in his second week on the job as Fernandina City Manager.
As the officer approaches, he asks "how are you doing sir?"
Ross responded "What's up boss?" and extends his right arm to give the officer a fist bump.
The officer asks Ross "what's going on tonight?"
Ross said "I am. Just taking in the sounds."
He is asked whether he lives in Fernandina.
Ross responds "unfortunately I live here. I'm the..."
The rest of his reply was redacted by the city.
The officer asks "were you out drinking tonight?"
Ross did not answer.
The officer states "it's alright if you were, just trying to get you home."
Ross then responds raising his hands "it's the real deal."
The officer then makes a radio call to his supervisor and says "you might want to be 51 on this. The code "51" means en route.
The officer than asks witnesses "what was he (Ross) doing?"
The witness reports "I thought he (Ross) got hit. He was laying in the grass."
During the conversation, Ross lays back down on the lawn.
"He wasn't moving much and I didn't see any blood," the witness said.
The officer goes back to Ross and asks "do you need an ambulance?"
Ross answers "no."
The officer then makes a cellphone call to his supervisor.
The first part of the call was redacted by the city.
"He was riding his bicycle down the road flailing around," the officer said.
Another portion is redacted, then the officer said "No, I didn't know if you wanted to know because of who he was."
The call ends.
The officer then asks Ross if he wants a ride home.
Ross said "yes" and after giving the officer his home address, he stands and takes a slight stumble,
The officer helps Ross walk to his patrol vehicle and asks "you don't have any weapons or knives or anything on you?"
Ross answers "hell no."
The officer searches Ross and puts Ross in the backseat of his police vehicle.
He then loads Ross' bicycle on the patrol car.
Ross remains silent for the five minute drive to his house.
As the officer parks his vehicle, Ross asks about his bicycle.
"I've got your bike right here," the officer tells him.
When the officer opens the passenger door, Ross raises his hands in surrender and remains seated until the officer tells him "you're good, you can relax, I'm going to walk you to your front door."
After giving Ross his bicycle, the officer tells him "Just a heads up, if you ever need a ride or whatever, just give us a call and we'll try to get you home. So that way you don't fall off your bike and get hit by a car because that wouldn't be good."
Ross said "That wouldn't be good."
As the video ends, another officer says "that's not good" about the incident.
You can watch the video here:
Most drunk drivers (even on bikes) are put through many sobriety tests, then taken to jail. What compassionate policy is the chief talking about? This is truly a case of special treatment by our new police chief who was hired by the new city manager two weeks after starting his job. Ross thinks he has on-the-job pressure now? Just wait! If he cares about himself and his family, he should resign ASAP and get help before they move here and have to share in his poor decision-making and embarrassment.
Didn't read anything there that I believe would justify his termination as there did not seem to be any request for special treatment although difficult to say definitively since after he identifies himself as the CM there is a redaction. Of concern is his failure to inform the commissioners. While this was on the weekend and outside normal working hours, the reality is that the CM is "on call" 7/24 and must be in a condition to respond/handle major emergency situations and has a higher standard of conduct than a normal citizen.
I believe placing CM Ross on performance probation would be a fair action to be taken given my current understanding of the situation.
This will certainly detract from any gravitas he had. Needs to get help. Having PD ignore a DUI doesn't help their credibility and perceived objectivity either.
Unless 10-51 has a different meaning in the City than it does in the county (which it doesn’t because they use the same dispatch), 10-51 stands for ”en route”. While I know you probably looked up 10-51 and got a code you wanted, codes are different in many areas for many reasons. Just another correction, at least for the area, there is no 10 code for ”drunk persons”; it’s a signal. So unless the officer specifically used the term “signal #” (which I’m not going to explain any more codes/signal to a reservist in the PD) then the officer never identified the subject as “drunk”.
FB City Manager Ty Ross needs to go into treatment. Not considering his public position and using poor judgement is a sign of other more serious problems. Let's hope the City Commissioners relieve him of his duties so he can get the help he needs. The pressures of a high-level public position makes it difficult to serve the public considering his obvious need for treatment.