LETTER TO THE EDITOR
What George Neugent Did Wrong
Note: Despite rumors to the contrary, I have NO relationship with any of the candidates for the Monroe County Commission.
Last week, in my The Big Story column for Konk Life, I wrote that I’d be filing an official ethics complaint with the Florida Ethics Commission against County Commissioner George Neugent “for using his official position to secure a benefit for others.” I detailed the terrible results, including costing us, the taxpayers, more money than Monique Acevedo did when she stole $413,000 from the School District.
Now, I am contributing a second article as a Letter to the Editor, rather than as a column.
Here’s what Neugent did to kill Stand Up For Animals (SUFA) in 2010:
In June of that year, Neugent spoke with Cora Baggs at a campaign event at Keys Fisheries, when he was in a competitive campaign for re-election to his commission seat. He told her to form another non-profit to take over the shelter, even though he later admitted under oath that there had been no complaints about SUFA for eight years. Baggs and three others promptly formed a non-profit on July 11that did indeed end up getting SUFA’s contract.
On July 6, a mysterious meeting with at least County Administrator Roman Gastesi and Public Works Director Dent Pierce was held in order to ask the County Clerk to audit the animal shelters because of “possible improprieties involving SUFA.” Under oath, Neugent cannot deny having been at this meeting: “I attend a lot of meetings.”
On Aug. 4, Neugent had lunch with Cora Baggs at the Marathon Yacht Club. He admits under oath that the purpose of the meeting was to attack SUFA. George also admits he made no effort to contact Linda Gottwald of SUFA to get her side of the story.
After lunching with Baggs, Neugent asked County Attorney Suzanne Hutton how to get at the $200,000 SUFA had accumulated in her accounts, mostly from donations and grants.
On Aug. 5, Neugent forwarded Cora Baggs an email from a competitive bidder for the contract Baggs wanted.
On Aug. 11, the preliminary audit was released to the press, an audit done without even interviewing Linda and weeks before she is sent a copy. Neugent, in discussing the attack audit, writes on his Facebook page to a defender of SUFA, “Do you support criminal activity? Theft of public money?” As developed in court, this was untrue.
On Aug. 18, 2010, Neugent tried to get the county commissioners to terminate SUFA’s contract. He was stopped by Commissioner Mario Di Gennaro, who pointed out to do so would be illegal, as the topic was not publicly listed on the meeting’s agenda and SUFA had not been notified.
At that meeting, Neugent also announced that SUFA’s board of directors had no local members. Again, this was not true. They had three. Nonetheless, he repeated this in a radio interview.
During this time SUFA’s accounts were frozen, they were put out of business, and the quarter-million-dollar/year contract was indeed awarded to Neugent’s friends. After I reported on the original board members as being close to Neugent, they all were replaced.
SUFA’s board was illegally added to the county’s suit in an effort to force Linda to settle, or, in George’s words under oath, to “scatter things.” They sued every member but one: Lynn Mapes, who, George admits under oath, was “a longtime close friend . . . over 20 years”– and whose wife contributed to his campaign, the only one on SUFA’s board to have done so.
Between 2010 and now, Neugent’s friends got the contract, closed the Big Pine shelter, got Marathon quarantined for three months, and fired the director who had given Neugent the supposed “dirt” on Linda.
It’s our local big dogs who, in a sense, started it all, that are suffering the most. Years ago, I told the stories of three of them, large, cold-weather furry dogs named Marco, Chachi, and Eva. After languishing for as long as Marco’s 8 years in the Marathon shelter, these big guys found homes in mere weeks up in Michigan. The car trips were paid for by earmarked private donations.
I can hope the Florida Ethics Commission can step up to the plate here, on behalf of innocent victims of government everywhere. But there is nothing to be done for the Marcos of Marathon, who now will never escape their cages here to flourish in homes up North. Nothing to do but feel sad.
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Well Well Well… Look at Danny Coll’s campaign finances for his 2010 run… guess who was a financial contributor – Why it was none other than “Richard Boettger”.
There you have it, the relationship and connection he claims he doesn’t have, In Writing!
Good research, and thank you for using your name, Jane Taylor. I had remembered meeting Coll as I met with perhaps 20 other candidates in 2010, when I did most of the political analysis and voting endorsements for my former newspaper. I do not remember if I supported him in print, but I may have–four years ago. I think it would be stretching it even to say I “had” a “relationship” with him at that time. And I have certainly had no relationship with him whatsoever since then, unless he mailed me and my wife the cards to avoid the filing fee, which we sign for everyone.
Compare that with George going around saying I am currently Coll’s CAMPAIGN MANAGER, an extremely intense current relationship for anyone, in his only defense to the very serious charges I make against him. I actually have a case at libel against him for this bald-faced and self-serving lie, designed to impugn my reputation as an investigative reporter.
Note that no one has disputed a single factual allegation made above. Jane, you might ask George and his supporters the details of what George did and why, or you could go through Coll’s filing signatures to see if you can find one for me, or see whether I endorsed him in 2010. When there is no defense against the message, the only recourse is to take pot-shots at the messenger.