- May 1, 2024
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The Florida Commission on Ethics rejected a settlement with Flagler County Sheriff James Manfre at a Dec. 12 hearing, opting instead to reopen the investigation on all counts.
Under the settlement, called a “stipulation agreement,” Manfre would have been fined $1,500 and paid restitution of $850.50 for using an official Sheriff’s Office car on a personal out-of-state trip.
The commission’s investigation found that Manfre had violated the law in that case, and during the course of the investigation, Manfre had admitted taking the car, although he said he was not aware that doing so was a violation. He said that using the Sheriff’s Office car would have allowed him to return to Flagler County quickly in the case of an emergency.
But any admission Manfre may have made during the previous investigation, Sheriff’s Office attorney Sidney Nowell said in a Dec. 17 interview, “was made in the context of a negotiated agreement,” and is no longer applicable.
“We’re back to ground zero, and our position is that we’ve done nothing wrong,” Nowell said. “The sheriff is prepared to work with the commission to reach some sort of an agreement. Otherwise, if we’re unable to do so, then we’ll end up in a hearing before an administrative law judge.” If that happens, he said, the standard for establishing guilt is much higher.
“The standard for the commission is probable cause to believe that the events occurred,” he said, but for the administrative law judge, the investigation “would have to show that the sheriff engaged in conduct with corrupt intent, and that’s a very high standard to meet.”
Nowell said the commission’s rejection of a stipulation agreement from its own advocate was unusual, and that he suspected that a last-minute letter to the commission from former Sheriff’s Office Finance Director Linda Bolante, who had filed the complaints, swayed commissioners’ decision.
Under the terms of the rejected stipulation agreement, all ethics complaints against Manfre other than the one about unauthorized use of the car would have been dismissed, even though the commission’s investigator found probable cause for two more: that Manfre had used his agency credit card to buy meals for his wife and others, and that he had failed to properly report a free stay in Undersheriff Rick Staly’s cabin as a gift, as required by law.
Commission Chairwoman Linda Robison told Commission Advocate Melody Hadley at the hearing that she didn’t understand the reason for dropping counts three and four.
“I just thought it would be best at this point for a cost analysis in order to go with the stipulation,” Hadley said in a video of the hearing posted on FlaglerLive.com.
Commissioner Susan Maurer said making such a decision seemed like an abdication of responsibility.
“I think we’re charged with certain duties and responsibilities by the Legislature, and that’s how I try to vote on these things. … If it appears more than likely that there was inappropriate conduct, then we should move forward on that, and take the risk that it’s going to provable or not.” Commissioner and retired judge Tom Freeman disagreed, saying the criminal justice system would collapse if courts had to adjudicate every charge brought by every prosecutor.
“We have an advocate, a lawyer who represents us, and comes before us, and suggests that in regards to a particular count and complaint, she doesn’t know that she has sufficient evidence to go forward on it,” he said. He said he hoped the commission would “have the good common sense to take her recommendation.”
Several commissioners said they would like more information on the credit card policies in place when Manfre is alleged to have used the card inappropriately.
“I have some real credibility questions in my mind related to whether policy existed or not, whether rational folks, publicly elected to positions — a sheriff — would not be aware that they cannot freely spend on the credit card and hope that their budget officer notifies them when they’ve over their per diem,” Maurer said. “I don’t know anybody serving in government today who doesn’t understand that you need to turn in receipts, that you need to mark the itemized receipts — who you were with, what you spent it on. I mean, that occurs in government, that occurs in private practice. It just seems to me there was freewheeling expenditure going on here.”
Commissioner Matthew Carlucci agreed. “I think that most people that reach the level of becoming sheriff have common sense on what’s the appropriate use of credit cards, and what’s not, whether there’s any written guidelines or not.”
The commission voted 7-2 to reject the stipulation agreement and reopen the investigation. Florida Commission on Ethics Director Virlindia Doss said staff will look at commissioners’ questions, and invesigators will try to resolve them.
“We need to do some more investigation into those two counts,” Commissioner Martin Ford said. “Because we’re not talking here about the undersheriff, or a captain, or lieutenant. We’re talking about the sheriff, and I think that the sheriff has a higher obligation to adhere to.”
