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Lynne McCarter donated an old house to a non-profit group that works with her boyfriend, Tampa official Steve LaBrake.
By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD and JEFF TESTERMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 2, 2001
TAMPA -- When Lynne McCarter wanted to clear away an old cinderblock house to make room for a sprawling, elegant new one, she found a convenient method: Donate it.
The Tampa Hillsborough Action Plan, a non-profit group that builds low-income housing, paid $22,000 to have it hauled off the lot. It paid another $2,700 to move a fence, sign and trees blocking the path.
The house now sits on La Salle Street where, after refurbishing it, THAP hopes to resell it at a 6 percent profit.
For McCarter, the deal had a financial incentive. It spared her the cost of having the old house torn down, which can run into the thousands.
But the deal also raised several ethical questions.
McCarter is the girlfriend and top aide to Steve LaBrake, who runs the city of Tampa's business and community services department, which works closely with THAP and helps fund the agency.
City policies forbid employees from profiting from their official positions in private deals.
"I didn't know there was a problem with ethics," said Chet Luney, a THAP director. "If we had, we wouldn't have done it. We were just looking for a deal, and we just did it with the wrong person."
Previously, Luney told the St. Petersburg Times it was Luanne Quinn, a widow who lived in the cinderblock house at 3608 W Corona St. for 26 years, who had donated it to THAP and received a tax credit. But Quinn said Wednesday that wasn't the case.
"If I did that, where's my (tax credit)?" said Quinn, who now lives in Wesley Chapel. "I didn't donate that house at all."
Quinn said McCarter paid her $121,000 for the house, and that LaBrake was there with her at the closing in January. Quinn said she didn't know either of them worked for the city.
Luney, the THAP director, said Friday that he had thought it was a condition of the contract between Quinn and McCarter that the Corona Street lot had to be cleared. He said he had no paperwork establishing exactly who donated the house. "To be honest, it really doesn't matter who gave us the house," he said. "I thought it was the seller."
McCarter and LaBrake declined to comment Wednesday.
The 4,200-square-foot house she is building on the Corona Street lot has become the center of a widening controversy. The FBI, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Tampa City Attorney's Office are investigating whether LaBrake and McCarter used their influence to have the home built at a substantially discounted rate.
Ryan Construction, which has received more than million dollars in contracts from LaBrake's office over the years, is charging $120,000 to build a home that real estate experts say could be valued at a half-million dollars.
LaBrake has taken a personal interest in the property, visiting often enough to anger some residents who have complained about the construction.
Dave Strickland, a stockbroker who lives at 3610 W Corona, complained after workers knocked down his wooden fence to bring in a backhoe to build a pool and spa in the back yard of McCarter's property.
A new fence was put up, but it didn't match Strickland's fence. Moreover, the new fence was built 6 inches onto Strickland's property, he said. Strickland also complained about the height of McCarter's house, and the proximity of her new pool to a rear property line.
Strickland said he tried to "extend an olive branch" to LaBrake, offering to let the new fence stay over his property line if LaBrake would assure it would be fixed to match the rest of the fence.
The next thing Strickland knew, he was the recipient of a code enforcement notice from the city. The notice said Strickland's rear fence, damaged in a storm, was dilapidated and needed to be repaired.
Code enforcement inspectors did nothing about the complaints at the McCarter house, Strickland said.
"I think (LaBrake) is pulling some strings," said Strickland. "He's just using his position to bully everyone."
- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Christopher Goffard can be reached at (813) 226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com