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Letter to the editor

Outgoing vice mayor blasts 'ethically bankrupt faction'

The Safety Harbor vice mayor says she was the target of an FDLE investigation.

By EILEEN SCHULTE Times Staff Writer
Published January 24, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT Kathleen Earle used her last meeting to tee off on opponents. Former Safety Harbor Mayor Pam Corbino resigned in 2006 under pressure.

SAFETY HARBOR - Most Safety Harbor residents are honest, decent and forthright.

But there is a "virulent, cowardly and ethically bankrupt faction" that will do anything to get its way.

So said Vice Mayor Kathleen Earle in a highly unusual and highly charged speech during her last meeting on the City Commission on Tuesday night.

At times appearing to hold back tears, she described going through a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation, which found no wrongdoing, into whether she had lived in the city long enough to legally run for office.

"This claim is an outright lie ... and it's an action that I cannot ignore," said Earle, who announced in November she was resigning for family reasons.

The speech was the first time that the existence of last year's FDLE investigation was made public.

At one point, Earle read from the FDLE's investigative report, which said former Mayor Pam Corbino had her lawyer talk to someone who was believed to have damaging information against Earle.

Neither Corbino nor Gary Jones, who made the complaint that led to the investigation, returned calls for comment Wednesday.

The investigation began after Jones, a former member of the city's budget advisory committee, filed an elections fraud complaint against Earle, according to the FDLE.

Earle was one of five city commissioners who had voted Jones off the advisory committee in response to allegations that he misused his position to intimidate firefighters inspecting his business.

The complaint was transferred from the Florida Department of State Division of Elections to the FDLE in August 2007.

Jones alleged that Earle was still living in Maryland within a year of the election, according to the FDLE's report. The city charter requires commissioners to have lived in Safety Harbor for at least a year before taking office.

Earle said she moved back to her hometown of Safety Harbor in November 2004, 15 months before her election.

But Jones alleged that Earle changed her driver's license to reflect her new Safety Harbor address on Aug. 1, 2005.

Moreover, he said local painters and a hardware store owner had said Earle's house was painted in the summer of 2005 in preparation for her to move in.

But Jones also acknowledged to an FDLE investigator that he had no firsthand knowledge where Earle lived before she was elected and he got his information from others.

Jones also told the investigator that former Mayor "Corbino had been given most of the information that I have written in this report by a city resident."

In June 2006, Earle complained that Corbino had tried to obtain Earle's Social Security number from a city employee.

Under pressure, Corbino resigned. After an investigation, the Florida Commission on Ethics found no probable cause to believe that Corbino misused her position because she was trying to get the information so she could find out whether Earle met the city's residency requirement.

According to the FDLE report, Corbino had her attorney, John Finch, talk to one of the painters about when he painted Earle's home. Finch even prepared an affidavit for the painter to sign, but that didn't happen because the painter was unsure of specific dates.

During the investigation, Earle met with FDLE investigator Thomas Berlinger and showed him numerous receipts, invoices, bills and other documentation. After interviewing her and others involved, he concluded that she met the city's one-year residency criteria, and did not commit perjury by signing the affidavit swearing she met all the qualifications to hold office.

Although the ordeal was exhausting for Earle, 43, a language arts teacher at Dunedin Highland Middle School, she said the investigation is not the reason she resigned from the commission.

She said she is "a perfectionist," and because of family responsibilities, she cannot devote her full attention to city business.

Before she left the chambers for the last time, she had one last thing to say.

"We need to make this stop," she said. "My sincere request for the welfare of the city of Safety Harbor is that this kind of underhanded and cowardly behavior stops. And for those who cannot or will not stand and deliver in an honorable manner, please don't enter the public realm. Safety Harbor has hopefully outgrown that kind of despicable politics."

Eileen Schulte can be reached at schulte@sptimes.com or 727 445-4153.

[Last modified January 23, 2008, 23:11:32]