Now, this is very interesting.
It involves entities and persons with
very close ties to Governor Jeb Bush.It involves investigations into the
Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority, involving conflicts of interest, ethics violations, public record law violations and suspicious billings by lobbyists.
Sounds typical for Jeb Bush's Florida, right?
It looks like Jeb's five appointees to the seven-membered Expressway Authority banded together to fire their legal counsel at the time,
Steven Anderson, after Anderson warned one of Jeb's appointees sitting on the Expressway Board,
Bob Clark, regarding a conflict of interest concerning Clark's planned vote on materials used for road projects, because of his ownership of Tampa Steel Erecting Company.
This vote by Clark would have benefited his own company. So, the legal counsel who issued the ethics warning to the panel was summarily fired. (Oh, and that sale of building materials went through without a hitch.)
After Anderson was fired by Jeb's appointees sitting on the Expressway board, another law firm with strong ties to Bush replaced Anderson. This law firm is
Gray Robinson.
Just par for the course for Jeb's Florida, right?
Another interesting fact that has emerged is that part of the FBI/DOT interest in this case is that the Expressway officials may have illegally steered this legal services contract to
Gray Robinson, which has close ties to Jeb Bush. So, before Gray Robinson was *selected* to provide services for the Expressway Authority, the lobbying firm of
John Beck was meeting with Gray Robinson to seal the deal.
And what a surprise to learn that there are now allegations of double-billing the Expressway by
Beck's lobbyist partner Cynthia Henderson, a
former top official in Jeb's administration.Another thread of Florida corruption to pull on that involves Jeb Bush.
Here are some links to this whole sordid mess. Wonder if we will find out next about similar allegations of corruption involving the Florida Turnpike....
FBI joins expressway inquiriesTollway Authority Under FBI ScrutinyFederal expressway inquiry puzzles some