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Law enforcement veteran to be interim head of FDLE

Gerald M. Bailey, the inspector general for the Florida Lottery since 1999, says he will run the office until a leader is selected.

By LUCY MORGAN and STEVE BOUSQUET
Published May 3, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - Gerald M. Bailey, a veteran law enforcement officer who has been inspector general for the Florida Lottery since 1999, was named Tuesday as the interim director of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Bailey, 59, is a North Carolina native who was a state trooper in that state. He started work at the FDLE as an agent in 1970 after getting a criminology degree at Florida State University.

"I was fortunate enough to get in on the ground floor of the FDLE as we know it today," Bailey said.

He left the FDLE for six years to run a family craft-book publishing business, Country Cross Stitch, and returned in 1987 to work in the governor's office as director of a law enforcement study commission. He returned to the FDLE in 1988 at the request of former FDLE Commissioner James "Tim" Moore, now a lobbyist, who Bailey said remains a friend. Bailey was one of four finalists for the U.S. marshal's job in North Florida in 2002.

He said he got a call from the Governor's Office a few days ago, inviting him to send in a resume for the interim position. He promised not to "campaign" for the permanent FDLE job, but stopped short of saying he would not seek it.

"Right now, my objective is going in and running that agency until the governor and the Cabinet come up with a permanent replacement," Bailey said. He said he plans no major changes and no shakeup in the staff.

In accepting Bush's appointment as interim commissioner at a salary of $125,000, Bailey told Bush and the Cabinet that despite recent controversies involving former commissioner Guy Tunnell, the "FDLE is strongly grounded in professionalism and integrity."

"I know you'll do a great job," Bush told Bailey.

The permanent replacement for Tunnell needs a unanimous vote by the governor and Cabinet, a decision that might not come before November because two Cabinet members, Charlie Crist and Tom Gallagher, are running for governor.

"My thought is, we take our time and go through this in a deliberate way," Bush told Cabinet members.

Tunnell resigned last month in the midst of a controversy stirred by a series of e-mails he exchanged with Bay County Sheriff W. Frank McKeithen over the death of a 14-year-old inmate at a boot camp Tunnell helped create when he was sheriff.

[Last modified May 3, 2006, 01:34:09]