Residents are mounting the recall against Arthur Czyszczon after he sent lewd texts to a constituent.
TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — Last September, Treasure Island Commissioner Arthur Czyszczon tried to stop constituent Rick Matthew from reading a text Czyszczon sent him early in the morning.
“My commissioner asked me, ‘What is my wife, Kim, wearing…?” Matthew quoted during public comment at the next commissioner’s meeting.
“This is a private matter,” Czyszczon interjected.
“It’s not a private matter, it’s on a city phone,” Matthew responded before continuing to read the text. “’When can I clean your feet?’”
“It’s a reference to Jesus,” Czyszczon said.
“Let me finish,” Matthew responded. “’Kisses to Kim, first, then you second.’”
Mentioning Matthew’s wife kick-started a movement called “100 women of Treasure Island” that sent a letter to the governor asking for Czyszczon’s removal, with no response.
On Wednesday, Matthew said organizers of a recall passed their first hurdle in collecting enough signatures to continue the recall.
“The second phase will be a petition will be written with his rebuttal, and then 15% of the residents have to sign that,” Matthew said. “He has time and again shown a path that he will not listen to the residents.”
But instead of writing that, Czyszczon instead sued Matthew, claiming he is the “de facto” chairman of the group, Treasure Island City Clerk Lisa-Marie Kennedy, and the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections, Julie Marcus, saying the recall is illegal.
The complaint states: “While the nonsensical text sent by Commissioner Czyszczon may be eccentric, perhaps even bizarre, it’s not grounds for removal.”
10 Tampa Bay News sent a message to Czyszczon asking for additional comment and got no response.