Two Polk commissioners cleared of ethics complaints. School board member has appealed hers

In the same week, Polk County Commission Chairman Bill Braswell and Commissioner George Lindsey were cleared of state ethics complaints filed against them.

A complaint against Braswell was initiated March 7 by Clayton Cowart of Winter Haven, a pastor and a leader of the Poor and Minority Justice Association, a Winter Haven-based civil rights group, following an anonymous tip to the group.

The Braswell complaint

In Braswell’s case, the Ethics Commission did not disclose the complaint against Braswell until a decision was made public last week.

Complaints received by the Ethics Commission, as well as all proceedings and records relating to it, are confidential and exempt from the public records disclosure until the alleged violator makes a written request for the records to be made public or until the complaint reaches a stage in the commission’s proceedings when it becomes public.

Cowart alleged that Braswell intervened in the firing of a Polk County Fire Rescue employee, Charlie True, and then helped with his rehiring. He also alleged that Braswell never spoke with Joe Halman, assistant county manager for public safety.

When reached for comment Monday, Braswell said the Ethics Commission "came to the correct conclusions." He added, "It's too bad that time and money were wasted on this frivolous claim."

Cowart alleged in the complaint that Braswell engaged in “interference with employees who work under the authority of the County Manager.”

“The only relation that a County Commissioner should have regarding work with any such employee should be for the purpose of inquiry and gathering information,” the complaint said.

“In a meeting with County Commissioner Bill Braswell, he acknowledged that he had been in communication with John Hall and Charlie True," the complaint said. "True was an employee of the Polk County Fire Department who had been terminated for misrepresentation of documentation (payroll).”

Cowart said PMJA members met with Halman and it was confirmed that Braswell had communication with the employees, leading the group to file the ethics complaint.

“This is a clear violation of Provision 3.4 - Non-Interference; this is malfeasance within the meaning of Article IV, Section 7 (a) Florida Constitution,” the complaint said.

"Commissioner Braswell was aware that Charlie True had lied regarding working 24 hours per day for 10 days straight," the complaint said. "After Mr. True was fired Commissioner Braswell tried to influence the Deputy Chief to rehire him, someone who had misrepresented payroll costing taxpayers $60,000.” 

The firing of True had followed a dispute with agency management over hours that were logged by crews during a disaster-relief response in Levy County to support residents impacted in August by Hurricane Idalia. The issue revolved around hours worked vs. hours the PCFR personnel were told to work by its administration. When he was rehired  earlier this year, he was demoted from battalion chief to captain and placed on two years' probation.

After seeing the Ethic Commission dismissal, Cowart said he was disappointed the panel did not interview all the individuals who reported what happened to the PMJA.

"We did our job by reporting it because we had a citizen who reported to us anonymously," he said. "We did check into it."

Touching on civil rights issues behind the complaint, Cowart said Halman and the Polk County Fire Chief Hezedean Smith are Black. After they decided to terminate True, other county leaders who are white went around them and he was rehired.

"So that decision was made by him as the fire chief. What makes them come back in a few days and change that decision?" Cowart said. "What powers were in operation?"

The Lindsey complaint

In Lindsey’s case, Commissioner Neil Combee had filed a state ethics complaint against him, The Ledger previously reported. Combee had accused the former board chair of privately pressuring two other members over a proposed tax for roads.

"I'm pleased that it's over and it's the result I expected because the truth will prevail," Lindsey said on Thursday. He added that Brian Haas, the state attorney for the 10th Judicial Circuit, also investigated and found the complaint "legally insufficient."

"It has had a dampening effect on the camaraderie of the board," Lindsey said. "That's just human nature. There is just no way around that. We still conduct the business of the board, but it's certainly, as I said earlier, it bruised the relationship."

Over the years, Lindsey and Combee have frequently butted heads publicly on a variety of issues. But Lindsey said the irony of the relationship is that they vote the same 85% to 90% of the time.

For the previous Ledger report, Combee had shared a letter he sent to the Ethics Commission alleging that Lindsey used the promise of committee chair positions to persuade fellow Commissioners Martha Santiago and Rick Wilson not to publicly oppose placing the tax referendum on the ballot.

Combee alleged that Lindsey threatened to withhold or remove commissioners from their preferred board assignments and chairmanships if they did not agree to remain silent or neutral on the referendum.

Florida’s “Sunshine laws” forbid commissioners from discussing any official business outside of public meetings.

Also, Combee previously told the Ledger he had shared the information in his letter of complaint with Haas.

On Thursday, Combee said in a text that Haas sent out a report including interviews with board members and attorneys saying they never talked about the proposed sales tax referendum.

“Sometimes a bad memory isn’t a bad thing,” Combee said of the finding. “I really wasn’t expecting much, but my goal was to make sure the proposed sales tax increase didn’t get on the 2024 ballot ...... and it did not.”

If the referendum passed, it would have provided tax dollars to “make road improvements which are necessary to allow development to proceed uninterrupted well into the future,” the complaint said. The complaint also noted that Lindsey is a business partner of land developers and that he has abstained approximately 80 times in the past three years because of his business relationships.

Ethics complaints stack up

The complaints against the two county commissioners mark the third ethics complaint filed against a Polk County elected official since 2023.

The Ethics Commission found probable cause that Polk County School Board member Lori Cunningham violated standards when a company she owns sold mandated school uniforms at two charter schools within the Lake Wales Charter Schools system.

The commission also found there was no probable cause that her company sold uniforms to a district school, a Jan. 31 press release from the commission stated.

In recent efforts to determine the status of the case against Cunningham, the Lake Wales Charter Schools attorney Robin Gibson said an appeal is still pending. In February via email, Gibson said, "Charter schools are not well understood by a lot of folks and I believe the Order finding probable cause is an unintentional mistake."

The Ethics Commission spokeswoman said Gibson had requested a public hearing but "the case is still in the hands of Advocate Melody Hadley, who is an employee of the Attorney General's office." She has to initiate the next step with a request to the Department of Administrative Hearings.

The process started after the Florida Commission on Ethics in Tallahassee received a complaint on Jan. 5, 2023, from former School Board member Billy Townsend. He had asked the state for clarification on possible violations of the Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees.

Lindsey, whose term will end Nov. 5, added that complaints today are "voluminous" and during most of his time as a public servant he has received positive feedback from constituents. Still he welcomed new legislation that proponents say will help keep politics out of ethic complaints.

A bill (SB 7014) passed the Legislature in March that would require ethics complaints be filed by someone with personal knowledge of the offense and that they attach their name to the complaint and sign it under oath. The bill was sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday, and it now awaits his signature or veto.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Ethics complaints dismissed against two Polk County commissioners