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Though no one knows its target, an inquiry into "matters in the city of Port Richey'' has wreaked havoc on city politics.
By MATTHEW WAITE
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 14, 2001
NEW PORT RICHEY -- A state grand jury opened an investigation into "matters in the city of Port Richey" on Tuesday, according to a report to a Pasco judge.
There was no official word as to what the grand jury was hearing testimony about, but the grand jury told Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Judge William Webb on Tuesday afternoon it needed more time to interview more witnesses.
In July 2000, police Chief William Downs went public with an investigation into the Building Department and allegations from a former building official that former vice mayor and current mayoral candidate Bob Leggiere had interfered with his work.
On Tuesday, Downs was one of the witnesses called, appearing for about 15 minutes in the afternoon. Afterward, he would not talk about what went on in the closed courtroom.
Also called Tuesday afternoon were former Port Richey building officials Ralph Zanello and Rune Lero. Zanello answered questions for 45 minutes and Lero for 20 minutes in the afternoon.
News of the grand jury took city officials by surprise. City Manager Vince Lupo said he hadn't heard anything from investigators in months, and didn't know a grand jury had been convened.
"I'd love to see this thing resolved," he said.
Leggiere, whose name has been tied to the investigation but has said all along he has done nothing wrong, said he was happy to see a conclusion coming after eight months of secrecy about the investigation.
"I'm glad," he told the St. Petersburg Times. "Maybe the truth will finally get out.
"If it will bring the truth out . . . I will be thrilled."
Though no one knows its target, the investigation has wreaked havoc on city politics and created a fault line between two factions within the city. The inquiry got the current mayor into city politics, helped lead to Leggiere's defeat in his first mayoral run and caused another council member to quit days after being interviewed by state investigators.
In June, city authorities and elected officials were crowing that for the first time in months they would have a full Building Department staff. However, two weeks after they arrived, the building official and the plans examiner both left.
Downs told the Times in July he was looking into allegations made by former Building Official Greg Schneider in his resignation letter and exit interview. Leggiere, who was acting mayor at the time because then-Mayor Eileen Ferdinand left to run for another office, denied interfering with Schneider.
Leggiere, just days before the investigation was revealed, had said he was running for the mayor's job to be filled by a special election in September. Three days after the news, current Mayor Eloise Taylor jumped into the election, saying she was concerned with how the city's government was run.
Nearly a week after the investigation was revealed, a city worker complained about Downs and the way he was conducting the investigation. In a letter to City Manager Vince Lupo, she wrote of two building projects that Downs questioned her about and about which Leggiere had fielded complaints from the builders.
Leggiere said he helped the two citizens who were frustrated by the city's lack of a building official and the office losing their permit applications.
State investigators would later take those files.
Over the summer, other than as a campaign issue, the investigation stayed quiet. Taylor went on to defeat Leggiere by 18 percent of the total votes cast in an election that drew a larger number of voters to the polls than expected.
Her election first exposed the rifts in the city. The three remaining council members didn't attend Taylor's swearing-in, and Leggiere lashed out at the Times in his final speech as mayor for stories written about the investigation.
Taylor's first meeting was filled with tumult as she was the lone dissenting vote in appointing Dr. Dale Massad to fill Leggiere's post, and voted against a move by the rest of the council to open an administrative investigation into allegations Leggiere had made in his final speech about fraud and missing public records.
City officials would later drop that investigation when the state attorney's office revealed that it had taken over Downs' inquiry.
A month later, in October, then-council member Tom Brown quit abruptly after it was revealed that he and council members Joe Menicola and Pat Guttman had all been asked by the state attorney's office to come talk about the inquiry. Investigators said they were just witnesses.
Brown went to talk with investigators, with an attorney, and quit just days later. Guttman and Menicola refused to go without a subpoena on the advice from the same attorney Brown retained.
From that meeting until the grand jury meeting Tuesday, no information about the investigation surfaced. When Leggiere announced in February he was running again against Taylor on April's ballot, Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe said he needs to make a decision on how to proceed "soon."
On Monday night, at a candidate forum, the investigation came up again as a campaign issue. Asked about it by the audience, Leggiere said, "To my knowledge, there is no investigation going on." He went on to say no investigator had ever contacted him.
The grand jury will reconvene March 22 to call more witnesses, but it was unknown who would be called.
- Staff writer Matthew Waite can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com.