TALLAHASSEE - Guy Tunnell, a Panhandle sheriff with 30 years of police work and a loyal supporter of Gov. Jeb Bush, secured a unanimous vote from the Cabinet on Tuesday to lead the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Tunnell won the job even though he had not undergone a routine criminal background check by the agency he will lead.
"There's not a sheriff in this room that would hire a deputy that would not do a background check prior to naming him," said Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher. "I know it's a formality but it's a very important formality that we all have to do. . . . I would like us to put things in the right order in the future."
Tunnell, 52, will start work Oct. 1 at FDLE, succeeding James "Tim" Moore and earning $124,000 a year. Tunnell will supervise an agency that safeguards Florida against terrorism, provides security for the governor and top state officials, and conducts often sensitive investigations of public officials. FDLE is 10 times larger than the Bay County Sheriff's Office in Panama City that Tunnell has run since 1988.
"I've got a lot to learn," said the mustachioed, 6-foot-7 Tunnell. He acknowledged that the media-savvy Moore with his extensive political network will be hard to follow. As a manager, Tunnell said, "I like to do a little "MBWA,' " meaning "management by walking around."
Bush reached outside a pool of finalists and handpicked Tunnell for the job. "I am completely comfortable with my choice," said Bush, who called Tunnell "a person of unimpeachable integrity."
Tunnell's wife, brother, sons and a delegation of Sheriff's Office employees stood and cheered his appointment, as did a group of sheriffs from several North Florida counties.
One who wasn't cheering was Kevin Wood, a political activist in Panama City who made a brief statement to the Cabinet and called Tunnell a "blatant racist."
Wood cited an interim ruling by U.S. District Judge Stephan Mickle in 1997 that cited a "common plan" by Tunnell and the Bay County Commission "motivated by racial animus, to close the Sun Dancer (a bar) down."
Bush dismissed the allegations.
"It's totally unfounded," Tunnell said. "But he has the right to speak his piece."
A Democrat who switched to Republican on Election Day 2000, Tunnell began his law enforcement career as a deputy in Orlando 30 years ago. He remembered sharing a patrol car with a deputy who helped him cover the city's entire east side.
In 1999, Tunnell ordered the destruction of photos deputies had taken of 70 patrons in a drug raid at a party after defense lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union said the photos may have violated privacy rights.
Two years ago, Tunnell defended hiring a convicted scam artist as a receptionist, although one of his captains concluded after a background check that the man shouldn't have been hired. Tunnell said the ex-con deserved a second chance and did only clerical work.
- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
