Ethics Accusations Denied By Commission

Many of our readers may recall that back during the recall episode, the Fort Myers Beach Town Council voted not to set qualifying dates for that election. Town Attorney Nancy Stuperich advised the council they were not mandated by the court to set the dates. That didn’t matter to Cindy Johnson.

Johnson filed an ethics complaint with the Florida Ethics Commission against Karen Woodson and John King for not setting the qualifying dates. Keep in mind, there were four votes in favor of not setting the dates, including Jim Atterholt and Scott Safford. Mayor Dan Allers voted in favor of setting the dates. Despite the Town Council not setting the qualifying dates, the Lee County Supervisor of Elections, Tommy Doyle immediately set the dates the very next day.

At the time of the vote, both Woodson and King were given the opportunity to sign a conflict of interest form. Both refused because they did not believe they had a conflict. And that’s where Johnson comes in. The ethics complaint states that Woodson and King did not sign the conflict of interest form. The allegation is that Woodson and King would benefit from not signing and voting against the qualifying dates.

Johnson stated in her complaint that King and Woodson should have recused themselves from the vote due to their “self-interest and direct involvement in the resolution.” For Johnson’s complaint to get any attention with the Ethics Commission it must allege in a substantive and factual manner that King and Woodson were to privately gain as a result of a vote.

The Ethics Commission met in Executive Session in late January and ruled that “there is no indication that a vote to set a qualifying date for a potential successor would create an economic benefit or harm for the accused, relatives, or business associates.” The Commission went on to say, “when the vote was taken, it was unknown whether King and Woodson would lose the recall.”

The Commission stated that for those reasons an investigation is not even warranted. “The complaint is hereby dismissed for failure to constitute a legally sufficient complaint.”

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