Conflict of interest on Airport Advisory Board
Ya think maybe there's a problem here?
Allegations of conflict of interest voting by members of
the Airport Advisory Board come before council -- council promises to look into
the matter while the city attorney tries to put up every road block imaginable -- John Patten, 01/29/08
--jpatten@veniceflorida.com
Harassment Citizens Cathy Peterson,
Tom Brener, and Rod Crotty have made allegations to mayor and council that several conflict of
interest situations exist between the Airport Advisory Board and
VASI, the
pilot's lobbying organization. Specifically, two members of the AAB, Nick
Carlucci and Paul Hollowell, are also on the board of directors of VASI.
Peterson raises a very good, nay, an excellent question: how is it
possible not to have a Sunshine Law violation given that particular scenario?
One other allegation surfaced: that AAB board members had
voted on issues in which individual members of the board had a clear and direct
financial interest in. One such case involved AAB board members voting in favor of raising hangar rents by a few bucks a couple of years back
when several of the voting members were, by pure coincidence, hangar tenants.
Other similar conflicts have arisen in the meantime according to both Peterson
and Councilwoman Sue Lang. How is this legally possible?
The obvious answer is: if true, it ain't.
Councilman John Simmonds, tired of the whiney complaining emails, wrote to
City Attorney Bob Anderson. In his email, Simmonds accused Peterson and others
of "harassment" of public officials and, by implication, asked Anderson to look
into what could be done to stop the harassment. Simmonds stopped just short of
asking Anderson to take action against the citizens.
Peterson saw Simmonds' email and admitted it scared her --
well, I'm guessing that was its intended purpose. Welcome to Venice.
Here's a clip from the January 22 city council meeting:
Lang vs. Anderson cage match
That started a fiery confrontation between council and
City Attorney Bob Anderson. Anderson was asked what he thought of the
allegations raised in several emails received by council. Anderson repeatedly
stated he had never seen any emails raising the allegations and refused to
comment on charges that he viewed as "hypothetical."
After repeated hammering by Councilwoman Sue
Lang, Anderson finally conceded that an airport board member voting on an issue
in which that member had a vested financial interest (and in which that board
member had failed to disclose the financial interest) was impermissible.
But again, it's all hypothetical as Anderson had never
received any of the emails. Hold that thought for later.
Here's an edited down version of that showdown, edited down
to six or so minutes from the original twenty plus minutes of council dialog:
Anderson: "I am ill-equipped to render opinions on
emails that I'm not provided with, and especially if they don't have any
specifics" -- uhhhhh... eh?
Again, note that Anderson claims that he never received
any of the emails and that the emails that he did not receive lacked
specificity.
Anderson, by his own admission, would have sat in on the
airport board meetings in question. If there were voting conflicts,
a valid question is: Why didn't Anderson advise the board members on issues of
disclosure?
Another valid question: Is
Anderson's failure to advise the airport board about conflict and disclosure a
motive for his poo-pooing of the allegations (which of course he has never seen
because he states they were never forwarded to him)?
How specific do you want it? Cuz this looks pretty
darned specific Problem: Anderson was emailed
the specifics of at least part of the allegations. Mayor Ed Martin forwarded to
Anderson's secretary a copy of a complaining email sent in by Cathy Peterson.
But the smoking gun on Anderson's
denials comes from Councilwoman Vicki Noren's email outbox. Noren received an email from Rod Crotty
(reproduced below) that spelled out, in what most readers would agree is quite
detailed specificity, his concerns about conflict of interest voting by the AAB.
On January 13 at 8:28 PM, Noren forwarded Crotty's email to Anderson's email address with the following introductory text:
"Hi Bob. Is there any merit to these
allegations and if so, have they been discussed with the Mayor?"
Anderson never responded to Noren's inquiry.
From: Rod Crotty <crottyrojo@comcast.net>
To: Ed Martin <emartin@ci.venice.fl.us>
CC: [city council members]
Date: Sunday - January 13, 2008 6:29 PM
Subject: Conflicts on the Airport Board
Dear Mayor and Council:
I have not heard of any changes on the Airport Advisory Board since my last
correspondence. I am surprised, and concerned. Recently I reviewed some of the
minutes of this Board, and discovered that in addition to Sunshine Law issues,
there exist several apparent Conflicts of Interest on this Board. Guidelines (of
Ord. 2005-10) were provided to this board on 2/22/2005. Under: “Sunshine”,
Conflicts of Interest these state, “No board member shall vote in their official
capacity upon any measure which would immure to their special private gains, the
conflict must be noted at the meeting and the proper forms must be filed”. At
the meeting of June 8, 2005 Board Members Hollowell, Rand and Yurosko voted on
hangar leases in direct conflict with this ordinance. It is a matter of record
that Mr. Hollowell rents hangar #64., Mr. Rand #138 and Mr. Yurosko rents the
land for his private hangar from the airport. I would point out that each of
these members of the City’s AAB was/is also a member or an officer of VASI, the
private flying club in Venice.
The obvious conflict shown in 2005 is continued on the present Board. In
particular, a number of recommendations have been made regarding hangar rents
and fees that would have financial implications for anyone who keeps an airplane
at KVNC. On February 14 last year, this Board met and chose to place a
moratorium on hangar rents. The minutes show “Chair Paul Hollowell, Vice Chair
Joseph Rand (1:59), Susan Balsinger, Nick Carlucci, Jim Leis, John Yurosko and
Ex-Officio Council Member John Simmonds. Bart Bartanowicz was excused.”- met. A
discussion ensued, “Discussion followed regarding increase in t-hangar rents for
the last two years, imposing a moratorium on t-hangar rent increases, appraisals
and fair market values relating rental rates, strategy to increase other
rentals, board review of proposed rate increases and projected t-hangar income.”
(in addition to rentals shown above, note that Mr. Carlucci rents hangar #96)
The full minutes of this meeting are on the City’s web site at
http://www.venicegov.com/Files/Meetings/2007_Minutes/Airport/2.14.07.htm.
Interestingly, this was Mr. Rand’s (former President of VASI) last meeting on
the Board. He was replaced by Kim Stephens whose husband and business partner,
Bret Stephens rents a hanger at the airport. #71 – and, is on the board of VASI.
1. Election of Chair and Vice Chair
(1:31) Mr. Carlucci nominated Paul Hollowell to serve as Chair of the Airport
Advisory Board. Seconded by Ms. Balsinger. MOTION CARRIED ON VOICE VOTE
UNANIMOUSLY.
(1:32) Ms. Stephens nominated Nick Carlucci to serve as Vice Chair of the
Airport Advisory Board. Seconded by Mr. Leis. MOTION CARRIED ON VOICE VOTE
UNANIMOUSLY.
This particular changing of the guard is most telling. Here we have the current
president of VASI nominating the current treasurer of VASI to be the chairman of
the AAB. Then the new appointee to the board- who has served for exactly 2
minutes (and whose husband rents hangar #71 and is on the VASI Board) nominates
the current President of VASI to become the Vice Chair of the AAB. The former
President of VASI, Mr. Rand having retired from the AAB.
We need to have representation on this Board from citizens who care about the
City and who are not pilots or have their personal interests at stake I voted
for change. Common sense tells me change is needed now on the Airport Advisory
Board.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Rod Crotty
John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He
can also be incredibly rude at times.
