Former expressway lobbyist sues Tampa Tribune

By TIMES STAFF
Published August 15, 2007

TAMPA - John Beck, former lobbyist for the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority, has filed a lawsuit against the Tampa Tribune.

Beck was fired from the Expressway Authority in January after the toll road agency had been embroiled in allegations of misconduct for several months.

Both the Tribune and the St. Petersburg Times printed numerous stories about the controversy, in which Beck was a central figure.

In his lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough Circuit Court, Beck says that the Tribune distorted the facts and portrayed him in a false light by giving readers the impression that Beck was cheating and defrauding the Expressway Authority and taxpayers. He is asking for more than $25,000.

Beck's association with the Expressway Authority became a source of contention beginning last August. He was accused of questionable billing practices and violating ethics policies and open records laws. Those allegations helped ensnare the toll road agency in a series of state and federal investigations.

At $175 an hour, Beck's firm had charged the toll road agency more than $300,000 over the previous year and had double-billed for at least $6,500 worth of invoices, agency records showed.

Beck, who had worked for the authority for eight years, says the newspaper articles damaged his reputation as a transportation consultant, lobbyist and lawyer.

The Tribune declined to comment Tuesday.

[Last modified August 15, 2007, 00:21:53]