Review of official produces complaint

A Port Richey employee's letter of protest after she was questioned by police indicates a delayed building project is a focus of the investigation of the acting mayor.

By MATTHEW WAITE

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 12, 2000

PORT RICHEY -- The ongoing investigation into acting Mayor Bob Leggiere and the city's departed building official has so upset one city employee questioned that she fired off a letter of complaint to the city manager.

And in doing so, she might have shed some light on just where the investigation is going.

Police Chief Bill Downs has been quiet about his investigation. He confirms little more than that he is looking into former building official Greg Schneider's departure, and his resignation letter that accuses Leggiere of interfering with his job, which the acting mayor denies.

On July 7, Christine Pinckney, the certified licensing official at the Building Department, wrote to City Manager Vince Lupo that Downs asked her about "the Johnson project on Dasher Court," referring to a delayed storage building project.

In the file for the project on Dasher Court, there is a letter from Leggiere to Schneider, written the day before Schneider penned his resignation and quit. Pinckney said Downs got upset with her during questioning about the letter.

Pinckney, who would not comment on her complaint, wrote that she felt "harassed, intimidated and upset" by Downs during an hour and a half of questioning on July 5. Pinckney also claimed in her letter that Downs called her a "liar and was insinuating that I was protecting certain individuals in the city."

Downs denied Pinckney's claims, and said he expected some to be upset with the investigation.

"It appears the investigation has hit a nerve with Ms. Pinckney," Downs said. "The allegation of me calling her a liar is untrue."

Leggiere said he can easily describe what went on, and freely talks about his involvement.

Leggiere said he got involved in the project when Donald Johnson, the builder of the storage building, called him to complain about the city building department. Leggiere said that from March to June, he took more than 15 calls from representatives of the project, all of them upset with the city.

Leggiere said he was drawn in because three building officials ended up with pieces of the project and the file was lost several times.

Leggiere said he went to city hall on several occasions to ask where the file was, and once helped find it buried on a desk.

Permits for the project were first denied by Rune Lero, who was building official for the first three months of the year, because none of the plans could be found. Once the file was found, Lero had left for another job.

Leggiere told city workers to send the file to Hernando County's building department, which had agreed to help the city while it didn't have a building official. There, former Port Richey building official Ralph Zanello became involved.

Zanello stopped the project when he found plumbing roughed into the slab of concrete that formed the base of the building. On the permit, Johnson had said there would be no plumbing or electricity. With no information about that plumbing in the building file, Zanello stopped the project.

In a letter to Schneider, Zanello wrote that he talked with Leggiere, who asked him to look over the plans to "see if there was anything that could be done for Mr. Johnson." Zanello, after reviewing, said he couldn't permit the project.

Leggiere then brokered a compromise: Johnson came in and hand-wrote a letter promising not to hook up the plumbing without proper permits. With that letter on file, Zanello then permitted the project.

Zanello wrote that Leggiere then told him to turn the file over to Schneider, who had since been hired. Leggiere said Schneider asked him to write a memo about the site because Leggiere had been there before concrete was poured and saw things that Zanello had questioned.

Leggiere said he told Schneider he didn't want to get involved, but would write the memo. He wrote on June 15 that he toured the site before concrete was poured and everything appeared proper.

"I was totally frustrated by it, getting in the middle of something I didn't want to be in the middle of," Leggiere said. "I thought the guy (Johnson) was getting jerked around."

Leggiere said he thought the memo would end it. He said he would have called Lupo to handle troubles like this, but "when there's nobody down there, they call me."

The Johnson project was fairly simple, Leggiere said. "But all of a sudden it became a nightmare to pour a concrete slab.

"Is that interfering? I don't know. I think it's my job."

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