City officials broke ethics laws, won’t be punished

[Steve]

Posted: Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
By BETH KORMANIK
The Times-Union

Mayor John Peyton, members of the City Council and another administration official likely broke ethics laws by failing to report gifts â€" including Jaguars football tickets â€" but should not be punished, the Florida Commission on Ethics concluded in a statement released today.

The commission met in a closed session Feb. 29 and released its decision today. Sanctions are not necessary because the city policy on gift reporting was confusing and it has now been updated, according to the commission.

The panel found probable cause that Peyton, Councilmen Michael Corrigan and Art Shad, former Councilwoman Elaine Brown and former Chief Administrative Officer Dan Kleman violated the ethics laws.

The panel also cleared several of Peyton’s staff because they were not subject to the same reporting requirements.
Attorney Leslie Goller, who unsuccessfully ran against Shad last year, filed the ethics complaint after a Times-Union story that revealed that taxpayers spent at least $193,000 over a four-year period on entertainment and food at events at city-owned venues.

http://news.jacksonville.com/justin/2008/03/05/city-officials-broke-ethics-laws-wont-be-punsihed/

[Steve]

Call me shocked.

[Jason]

Does Peyton have buddies on the Ethics commitee as well?  If not, they probably have very similar dealings and they don't want to shine light on themselves...

On the other hand, if Peyton does have friends in high places then why can't he use them to get something done versus using them to get out of trouble?

[JeffreyS]

I think some of the perks such as Jag tix we could handle if they where reported as gifts.  To say the procedure is to confusing so they shouldn't be punished is the same as calling our city government stupid. I guess I just proved the point. 

Shad: "I love that we are given these Jag tickets. If they give them to us are they gifts?"
Peyton: "How the hell should I know. I'm a business man."
Shad: "Should we report them."
Peyton: "Well you told me so I guess you did."
Shad: "What tickets were we just talking about."
Peyton: "I hope it was a courthouse fund raiser."
Shad: "talking about stuff hurts my head.  Lets just watch some football then go dog punching."