UPDATE: New Charges in Ethics Complaint Against George Neugent

I previously reported on the formal ethics complaint I filed with the state of Florida against George Neugent for his actions bankrupting Stand Up for Animals in order to award their contract to his friends. I also reported on Neugent’s breaking of his signed oath on his financial disclosure Form 6 with numerous errors showing no effort to be “true, accurate, and complete.”

I also reported on George’s strange responses to these columns in my endorsements column.  He does not address a single fact I discuss, preferring instead to call me a “Slander[er]” and “nut case.” And the strangest thing is this is the most cogent defense anyone is offering, as no one else has said a word on his behalf—neither in the dozens of responses praising my columns, nor in emails I have sent to his fellow commissioners asking for a word to help out their friend.

A fair amount has happened since then. Most importantly, George won his primary against Danny Coll. Danny tried to run a “positive” campaign, emphasizing his different ideas about county issues. The forums and the corporate media did the same, ignoring the very serious charges I have made formally and in print—while, again, not offering a word in George’s defense.

It turns out you cannot file an ethics complaint against someone within a month of their election, a decent rule in my opinion, so my original submission was returned. I confirmed that I can now re-submit, as it is well over a month until the November main election. This was a bit lucky on various counts. In discussions with the Ethics Commission, I found out that the problem with George’s Form 6 is in the ethics bailiwick, so I am including that as Part 2 of the current complaint.

Also, I wondered if George had bothered to file an amended Form 6. They wouldn’t have it locally at our election office, I was told—amendments are sent to the state office. This led me to their website where I could find out that as of five days ago—the lead time to get posted—George indeed had not.  But sitting there in plain sight was a Form 6 George had filed ten months before the corrupted one he filed this June.

And the surprises with George never stop! The big one on the August 2013 disclosure form is that his “Savings” are “$ 50,000.” This is the number that swells to “assort stocks annuities” of $ 200,000 just ten months later. How he did this with only his County paycheck of $ 40,000 as reported income is quite a mystery to me.

He made all of the reporting omissions I reported he made on the 2014 Form 6 , so we have no idea how this remarkable “savings” account could have exploded so wonderfully, while not generating any reportable income. I guess George wants us to use our imaginations. An inheritance? A hot stock?

I also had time to decide to test the Ethics Commission’s bona fides. I am a bit concerned about their 7% action rate, that is, only 7% of complaints made result in any sanctions against the accused. It occurs to me that this may be the rate of accused who burst into tears and plead guilty with a signed, videotaped statement. I know from my PhD studies in neoinstitutional theory and my academic publications on accountability how oversight committees like this, which are supposed to hold their charges accountable, very often become captured by them. They identify with, in this case, the office-holders, and become a defense team like the FDLE instead of investigators.

So I will do a long term general study of the hundreds of cases they have handled recently, the backgrounds of the commission members, the commission’s funding, and who overseas the ethics commission itself. This should keep me busy for about a year. For a relevant case study, I’ll see how vigilant and capable their investigation is of George’s relation to his local country club, the new Part 3 of my complaint. I’ve smelled a lot of smoke, and have pointed the commission to where they might find fire. Or else they can put the rumors to rest and clear him of something.

As it is, I have done their entire investigation for them on Parts 1 and 2. George keeps providing me with more crap to complain about, and, as I’ve said, he is the crappiest part of my otherwise blessedly happy life. So I’m going to file the larger, three-part complaint and take a few weeks off of the Neugent watch. I’m praying next week I’ll be able to report about the demise of the bicycle “sharrows” on the boulevard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rick Boettger