Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Ethics panel clears Crist and Gallagher

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published April 28, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - A state agency has dismissed ethics complaints against both Republican candidates for governor, Tom Gallagher and Charlie Crist, and a third complaint against George LeMieux, chief of staff of Crist's campaign.

The Commission on Ethics said all three complaints failed to meet the basic threshold of legal sufficiency, meaning that even if the allegations contained in the complaints were true, they would not constitute a breach of the public trust.

The complaints against Crist and LeMieux were filed by Sam McDowell, a former employee of Convergys Corp. He accused Crist and LeMieux of putting politics ahead of their duties, for refusing to look into McDowell's complaints that his former employer mishandled sensitive personnel information belonging to state employees.

McDowell's complaints said Crist didn't investigate "due to the various relationships between the Attorney General's Office, the Crist for Governor campaign, as well as powerful Tallahassee lobbyists."

The Ethics Commission didn't see it that way.

"Nothing in the complaint indicates that the attorney general is required to investigate the Convergys matter," the order said. Furthermore, "We are not aware of any law requiring the attorney general to investigate a given matter."

The complaint against Gallagher was filed by Dorothy Carter of Arcadia, who disapproved of the handling of a workers' compensation claim. Carter accused the chief financial officer and other officials of being "influenced by the rich and powerful attorneys."

In its order tossing out Carter's complaint, the Ethics Commission wrote: "The complainant merely voices her displeasure with Florida's workers' compensation system," and her complaint "does not substantively indicate a possible violation" of the ethics code.

The commission voted at its April 21 meeting to dismiss the complaints.

[Last modified April 28, 2006, 01:15:08]