An investigation reveals details of state Sen. Mandy Dawson's requests to lobbyists to pay for her trip to South Africa.
By LUCY MORGAN
Published April 12, 2005
TALLAHASSEE - Sen. Mandy Dawson, D-Fort Lauderdale, solicited money from 10 people, including several lobbyists, to pay for a trip for her and a companion to South Africa with other lawmakers, an investigation has found. Three agreed to help.
Senate general counsel D. Stephen Kahn issued the findings Monday with no recommendation for action. But the report sheds light on the inner workings of a Legislature that often turns to lobbyists to pay for trips and gifts.
Two lobbyists and the treasurer of a political action committee for ophthalmologists gave $5,000 for Dawson, in apparent violation of Senate rules and ethics laws that forbid lawmakers from soliciting gifts from lobbyists and prohibit lobbyists from giving gifts valued at more than $100.
Dawson could not be reached for comment Monday but has previously acknowledged the solicitation was "wrong and it was stupid."
The 10-day trip was organized by Enterprise Florida to see ports in South Africa and cost $2,500 per person. Most lawmakers paid their own way, but the $5,000 cost of sending Dawson and her companion was paid for by lobbyists.
Dawson wrote a letter on Jan. 3 soliciting money "to help defray the cost" of "a once in a lifetime opportunity." The trip included a weekend safari and visits to Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Port Ngqura, East London, Durban, Richard's Bay, Hluhluwe and Johannesburg.
An aide questioned the possible misuse of Senate stationery, but Kahn noted that Dawson insisted. The letter went to lobbyists Ronnie Book, Yolanda Cash Jackson, Jorge Dominicis, W. Michael Goldie, Paul W. Hamilton, Robert E. Hawken, William D. Rubin and Paul B. Sanford, and Alan Mendelsohn, treasurer of the ophthalmologists' PAC.
Kahn said three or four of the lobbyists were described as "regulars" for such a list.
Dawson asked each to donate $2,500 and to make the checks payable to the Florida Caucus of Black State Legislators "due to ethics regulations."
Senate President Tom Lee will decide whether Dawson should receive punishment, which could range from a reprimand to removal from office. A spokeswoman for Lee said he will wait for the Rules Committee to review the report.
Book said he hesitated a few days before sending a $1,500 check. Mendelsohn sent $2,500, and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. lobbyist Larry Williams, responding to a similar December letter from Dawson, got his client to contribute $1,000.
Other lobbyists sent nothing.
Other legislators who made the trip were Sens. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, and Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, and Reps. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, D-Miami; Joyce Cusack, D-DeLand; Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, Ed Jennings, D-Gainesville, and Frank Peterman, D-St. Petersburg.
Most of the others covered the costs with personal or district office funds. Jennings, chairman of the Black Caucus, took his mother and had the caucus pay $4,500 of the $5,000 fee. He repaid $2,250 for his mother after Dawson's solicitation became public in March.
