Neugent And Monique

 

By Rick Boettger

 

I am going to be filing a formal complaint with the Florida Ethics Commission about County Commissioner George Neugent’s actions against Stand Up For animals (SUFA) and its director, Linda Gottwald. I have cleared it with the Commission’s legal staff that it is my First Amendment right to report any facts and allegations I care to put forth regarding this case. If the Commission decides to do their own investigation based on the factual allegations I put forth, it is part of their charter to keep their findings confidential until they reach a conclusion.

 

 

In brief, the facts show that Neugent violated Florida Statute 112.313 (6) Misuse of Public Position. “No public officer . . .shall . . . attempt to use his . . .official position . . .or perform his . . .official duties, to secure a special privilege, benefit, or exemption for himself . . . or others.”

 

 

In the summer of 2010, Neugent forcefully used his authority as county commissioner to initiate an investigation of SUFA, freeze their funds to put SUFA out of business, and give SUFA’s quarter-million-dollar/year animal control contract to a different organization. (Its members were in fact friends and supporters of Neugent, but that is not required by the statute.)

 

 

In 2012, 25 out of 296 official complaints like mine, that is, only 7%, found a “Probable Cause” resulting in sanctions by the Commission. Also, I risk having to pay Neugent’s attorney’s fees if the complaint is dismissed.

 

 

So why am I doing this? I actually like the good George. The last time I spoke at a commission meeting I supported his motion regarding a marine issue, his area of expertise. But what he did to SUFA was far beyond the pale, far beyond putting them out of business and suing their board. I have listed all of the investigations and attacks on Gottwald before, but now we have it official that everything they did was against a completely innocent person. Read it again in that light:

 

 

  • The County Clerk’s office audited Gottwald without even interviewing her. In her eight years of administering a quarter-million-dollar contract, they found one utility check paid from the wrong account. The County itself averages a mistake like this every day. They recently failed to record the $$5 million they paid for Rowell’s Marina.

 

  • They froze her funds, both the County’s payments and her $100,000 in private donations, putting SUFA out of business. This was overturned on appeal, as being completely illegal.

 

  • They released the preliminary audit, showing only their attacks before she could respond, a criminal violation of state law. Their slanted allegations were repeatedly printed in local corporate media, including the Miami Herald, ruining her reputation nationally.

 

  • The tried to get the State Attorney to prosecute. Mark Wilson said what I had written: that SUFA was an independent contractor, not subject to the County’s micromanagement.

 

  • They set the FDLE on her for months, keeping her under a felony investigation that cost her friends and jobs up north. There was nothing for the FDLE to find.

 

  • After losing the frozen-funds appeal, they tried to pressure Gottwald by adding her kindly board of directors to their lawsuit against her. The judge ruled, properly, that doing so was against both federal and state law. They kept up the pressure on the non-profit board for a total of over 8 months by trying again. This time the judge dismissed “with prejudice.”

 

  • They approved contracts adding up to $110,000 for an outside forensic auditor to try to find anything bad in SUFA’s 10 years of bookkeeping. There was nothing to be found.

 

The County did not decide to drop their suit and pay Gottwald $45,000 because they thought she was guilty. No, they themselves were guilty, and knew they risked having it proven in court. Realizing after the embarrassing depositions of Roman Gastesi, George Neugent, and Danny Kolhage that they would look foolish if not criminal in front of a jury, they have finally faced the facts.

 

 

Neugent’s actions permanently blemished the following:

 

 

  • the County Clerk’s office, who did the reprehensible audit;

 

  • Roman Gastesi and Danny Kolhage, who illegally released that preliminary audit;

 

  • Judge David Audlin, who mistakenly approved freezing SUFA’S funds;

 

  • the County Attorney’s office, forced to put forward a no-chance suit destined to humiliate their legal team;

 

  • the other commissioners who trusted Neugent and backed him to the end, despite all the facts and legal rulings surging against them;
  • and the Keys’ corporate media.

 

We, the taxpayers, are unblemished, but we’re stuck with paying at least $150,000 in accumulated legal costs even before the $45,000 settlement, as well as losing the local benefits of the $240,000 SUFA had accumulated in donations on behalf of Middle Keys animals. Plus the tens of thousands of our tax dollars spent on the State Attorney and FDLE investigations. If you add up just the money, Neugent took more from us than Monique Acevedo did. And all she did was steal and have fun with it. Neugent’s theft from us persecuted an innocent woman and besmirched vast swathes of our public sector. Acevedo spent years in jail. So should Neugent.

 

 

Next week: exactly what he did and when, as I will draft in my official complaint.

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