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Gallagher's judgment

His performance as a state official has been generally well-regarded, but several ethical lapses are tarnishing that reputation.

After spending most of the last three decades in state government as a legislator, agency head or member of the Cabinet, Tom Gallagher ought to have a pretty strong sense of what ethical behavior is by now. Instead, the Republican candidate for governor has become tone deaf.

The latest evidence comes from Gallagher's 2005 tax return. It shows he owned 4,000 shares of stock worth $270,000 in St. Joe Co., the state's largest private landowner. While he owned the stock, Gallagher voted as a Cabinet member to approve an annual list of properties for state purchase that included nearly 16,000 acres owned by St. Joe. Gallagher made the motion to approve the list, but he kept quiet about his stake in the company. While he technically did not own enough stock to represent a conflict of interest under state ethics law, the state's chief financial officer would have been on higher ethical ground if he had disclosed his interest in the politically influential company.

This is not the first revelation in the campaign that raises concerns about Gallagher's judgment and the fuzzy relationships between his public office and private business. He owned and traded insurance stocks in 2002 while he was the state's insurance commissioner. He owned stock in an energy company in 2004 when he voted as a Cabinet member to approve that company's project. He spent time as a day trader working on his own portfolio from his office in the state Capitol. He employs one of his subordinates to manage his rental properties in Tallahassee, and that employee sometimes drives his state fire marshal vehicle around town to pick up the rent checks. These disclosures paint a portrait of politician who has been in Tallahassee so long he has all but erased the line between his public office and private investments.

Gallagher may be able to hide behind the letter of the law, which says more about the weakness of the ethics laws than the strength of his personal judgment. Vague state law bans conflicting employment and contractual relationships, but the state ethics commission generally has looked the other way as long as public employees don't coerce their subordinates into doing private work for them. Gallagher's stock holdings in St. Joe and other companies have been far below a 1 percent share of the company, the threshold necessary to raise a conflict of interest issue. But only the largest shareholders in public companies would hit that bar. The governor and three Cabinet members should put their private investments in a blind trust, as Gov. Jeb Bush has done, or the Legislature should significantly tighten the 1 percent threshold for those statewide offices.

Gallagher has been a familiar face in Florida government and politics for a long time, and his performance as a member of the Cabinet has been generally well-regarded. Yet these repeated disclosures of poor judgment and ethical lapses tarnish that solid reputation he worked so hard to build after his less distinguished tenure as a legislator. It turns out we didn't know him so well after all.

[Last modified July 5, 2006, 00:50:35]