I don’t understand Brad Harvey’s motives either

By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor

Over the past several years – and especially the past couple of weeks – a lot of people have wanted to talk about Brad Harvey and his embezzlement of county funds.
The former property appraiser was sent off to state prison a few weeks ago for overpaying himself more than $200,000 and racking up more than $25,000 in personal expenses on the office credit card. That’s over three years in office.
I will never understand why he did it.
I can’t come up with the motive – why he would throw his career away to steal taxpayer  money.
For some reason – and I can’t understand this either – he was under the impression that he was entitled to the money and had done nothing wrong.
Wakulla Circuit Judge Layne Smith brought the hammer down on Brad, sentencing him to 12 1/2 years in prison followed by 17 1/2 years of probation. In his comments at the sentencing, Judge Smith indicated that Brad had violated the public’s trust in elected officials and government.
Before all of this scandal, Brad and I were friends. We were in Rotary together. When I was president of the club back in 2016-17, Brad was treasurer. He became club president a couple of years later – and he was serving as club treasurer again when it came to the club’s attention that money from a gun raffle was missing.
The sheriff’s office investigated that – and after being questioned by detectives, turned over cash that he said was gun raffle money that he’d never gotten around to depositing. There wasn’t enough to charge him with a crime because the club hadn’t kept records of ticket sales, but the incident prompted an employee of the property appraiser’s office to start looking into the office finances.
That person questioned the character of someone who would steal from a club seeking to do good in the community – and figured if he would steal from Rotary, he would steal from other sources too.
He made a good salary as property appraiser of around $105,000 a year. And it’s a job he could have held for the rest of his working life if he hadn’t thrown it away.
I will never understand.
Kudos to Lynda Kinsey for getting the great photo of Brad after his sentencing. It really told a story.
Also, I’ve had some recent family emergencies and I want to thank everyone who has helped cover for me – you are appreciated.  

William Snowden is editor and publisher of The Wakulla Sun.