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SEMINOLE - It seemed innocent enough. Put a bug in the city manager's ear that the Chamber of Commerce was interested in buying a city-owned lot north of the agency's building.
In hindsight, Jimmy Johnson said, he should never have written the e-mail to City Manager Frank Edmunds.
Johnson is a Seminole City Council member and executive director of the Greater Seminole Area Chamber of Commerce.
"I probably should have let the president of the chamber do it," Johnson said Friday, adding he does his best to avoid mixing chamber business with city business.
Doing so could violate Florida law, according to a 1989 opinion from the Florida Commission on Ethics. The judgment basically says an elected official can't lobby the city on behalf of his place of employment.
The e-mail was written Tuesday morning from Johnson's chamber office. Later that day, the City Council unanimously voted to drop its request for an opinion from the ethics commission.
The council wanted to know whether it was committing a breach of ethics because one of its members runs the local chamber, which receives city funds. Last month, the stage agency told the council that only Johnson could seek that opinion, but the council or a citizen could file a complaint.
Johnson said he wouldn't seek an opinion. He said he'd already received favorable responses from the city attorney, his personal attorney and the voters.
"I was so pleased that the council decided to put it to rest," Johnson said.
But a resident hasn't.
Leo Mutchler, who lost his bid for a City Council seat in 2001, announced at the council meeting Tuesday that he was planning to file a complaint to the state.
"This is not a personal attack on Mr. Johnson," he said. Rather, it's a way to set the record straight on exactly what Johnson can and cannot do while serving in office and working for the chamber, Mutchler said.
"I really think it's got to be very, very clear," he said.
Johnson said he was surprised by Mutchler's action. "Of course, he has the constitutional right to do that," he said. "I don't have a problem with it."
And the 1989 opinion didn't see a problem with a city commissioner working as the local chamber's executive director as long as:
- The officer's employment is not directly or indirectly compensated as a result of a contract or business relationship with the city.
- The elected official didn't participate in the municipality's decision to contract or to enter into the business relationship with his employer, whether by participating in discussion at the meeting or by communicating with officers or employees of the agency.
- The officer abstains from voting on any matter which may come before the city involving the officer's employer, publicly states to the assembly the nature of his interest in the matter from which he is abstaining and files a written memorandum.
"(The opinion) has not been overridden or revoked," said Helen Jones, spokeswoman for the ethics commission. "We would use that for precedent for other like situations."
Mutchler told the council he doesn't think Johnson should participate in discussions about the chamber. For example, he said, a chamber member could come before the council seeking a zoning change. Johnson's discussion could affect the other council members' decisions, Mutchler said.
But, oftentimes, city attorneys advise elected officials to abstain from even the discussions, said Marilyn Crotty, director of the Florida Institute of Government at the University of Central Florida.
Johnson says he is cautious, but admits politics is new territory for him. He was elected to his first office in March.
Paul Cavonis, chamber president, said the organization's board has discussed the issue at length. Johnson does need to be careful not to mix the two positions, he said.
"The good thing about Jimmy is he will be the first one to admit if he's made a mistake," Cavonis said. "He is a man of integrity."