Pasco: Commissioner: Complaint ruled 'insufficient'

Commissioner: Complaint ruled 'insufficient'

Ann Hildebrand says Elections Commission officials have decided she did not violated election law.

By ALISA ULFERTS

Officials with the Florida Elections Commissions have ruled a complaint against Commissioner Ann Hildebrand "legally insufficient," according to Hildebrand, who said she was notified Thursday.

Citizens for Sanity co-founder Clay Colson filed the complaint against Hildebrand last month and said she violated Florida elections law by attending a fundraiser for her held at a restaurant in a county-owned building that wasn't rented for the occasion.

The restaurant, like a number of other businesses in the building, rents space from the county.

State law, according to Florida Statute 106.15, Subsection 4, forbids the solicitation of political contributions in a government-owned facility unless the building is rented specifically for a fundraiser.

But because the restaurant space already is rented from the county, no violation occurred, Hildebrand said Elections Commission Executive Director Barbara Linthicum wrote in the Aug. 28 letter. Linthicum could not be reached Thursday afternoon, but Hildebrand said Colson still can appeal before the entire Elections Commission, according to her letter.

Hildebrand said she was pleased to be assured she had done nothing wrong.

"I never lost faith in the system," Hildebrand said.

Colson could not be reached Thursday.

His complaint focused on an Aug. 8 fundraiser that the Devco Development Corp. (developers of Meadow Pointe) held for Hildebrand at Steve's Fountain View Restaurant in the Central Pasco Professional Center, a county-owned building on U.S. 41 also known as the David "Hap" Clark Building.

Hildebrand, a Republican from New Port Richey, has been a commissioner since 1984 and is running for a fifth term against fellow Republican Scott Factor.

- Information from Times files was used in this report.