Commissioner Who Billed City Faces Charges
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Florida’s Commission on Ethics has found probably cause to believe Margate Commissioner David McLean misused his office corruptly, had a voting conflict and violated laws governing employment conflicts.
Ethics Commissioners found they had probable cause to believe that McLean:
(1) Violated state law concerning his employment for representing his employer before the city commission on a rezoning for an alcohol license,
(2) Violated a second state law governing misusing his office corruptly for using a city credit card for personal purchases and
(3) Violated a third state law forbidding voting conflicts when he voted to censure himself for the credit card violations.
His own censure by the Margate Commission passed on his swing vote 3-2 in March, 2012.
McLean paid back the hundreds of dollars in charges to various bars and pubs in the city.
The commissioner did win one at the ethics commission at its Jan. 25 meeting: The body found no probable cause to believe that he had a voting conflict when he voted on measures in March, April, and May 2012 that concerned City credit card use.
There will now be a further probe of McLean to determine whether he did indeed violate the three state laws. The findings will be presented to the Commission on Ethics at a future meeting.
If commissioners find he violated state law, McLean faces everything from public censure to removal from office, plus fines that range up to $10,000 per charge. Many office holders negotiate a settlement once probable cause has been found to avoid large legal fees and a possible larger fine from the commission.
McLean could not be reached for comment.
January 30th, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Buddy, you write all this as if the Florida Ethics Commission had any actual power – what a joke!!!
Florida Ethics Commission, 1976-2013: 36 years of toothlessness and counting…
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http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1988-04-09/news/8801220402_1_ethics-commission-fines-financial-disclosure
Give `Toothless` Ethics Commission Fangs To Make It Effective Watchdog
April 9, 1988
When voters gave the commission constitutional status in 1976 by adopting the Sunshine Amendment, the intention clearly was to create a powerful watchdog agency to probe, uncover and punish misconduct, abuse of power and breach of the public trust by government officers and employees. […] Lawmakers forbade the commission to launch an investigation unless a member of the public files a complaint […] Lawmakers also denied the commission power to enforce punishment. […]
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http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-06-15/news/os-ethics-commission-wish-list-20120615_1_ethics-commission-fines-officeholders
Ethics commission wants power to collect fines – and respect
6:06 p.m. EST, June 15, 2012
[…] The commission voted Friday to again ask lawmakers for the power to enforce fines and to boost the maximum penalty it can impose from $10,000 to $25,000. Earlier this year, commissioners had made the power to collect fines their sole request of the 2012 session. Lawmakers’ response: a collective yawn.
“We’re a paper tiger,” said Commissioner Edwin Scales III. […]
January 30th, 2013 at 10:47 pm
thank you Buddy. shaming and embarrassing somebody or an entity responsible may get this corruption dealt with. I recall this margate elected a topic of your blog over a year ago (?)
January 31st, 2013 at 9:48 am
Is this guy really an Elvis Impersonator?
January 31st, 2013 at 12:49 pm
That the Commission didn’t address.
http://margatenews.net/margatenews/news/articles/article1342.asp
January 31st, 2013 at 4:43 pm
I am very fortunate . I do not see this crap going on w/ the “elected officals’ in Ft.Lau. Tell him to pay up, and don’t do it again. This nonsense he did not know, no money in other accounts etc. Come on.
January 31st, 2013 at 8:51 pm
@Shitty Activist…
I would have thought a fellow stealing money would have been “your people.”
Don’t excons stick together?
Coming soon — CityActivistRobertWalsh.com
February 1st, 2013 at 7:15 am
The city had to chase him down to pay the money back some took months.
He bounced checks for his water bills and managed to keep his water on when no one else could. Does the Commission know the meaning of abuse of power?
His business dealings are just as bad. He buys beer for his bar from local liquor stores, doesn’t pay his sales taxes and possibly gets free rent for helping his landlord get a permit. He will get out of this one too, he always does.
February 1st, 2013 at 8:21 am
Back in 1989 to 1990 I lived in NJ and was planing a relocation to SFLA. Part of my research was getting the Sunday Sun Sentinel every weekend, a week behind at the 42nd st newstore.
Two cities stood out over that period in the paper. Margate and Hollywood. Each had an endless stream of articles about corruption, kick backs, dangerous and abusing cops who screwed tax payers and poor citizen who were always screwed for living there.
Margate stood out for the corruption as it seemed that every elected official and city employee was an ex New Yorker who came to town with the same lack of ethics and swinishness which drove me out of the NYC/NJ area. I do recall the Margate cops always doing something abusive which ended up in civil lawsuits the town was involved in. Hollywwod not only had the lawsuits, but usually the FBI for very severe corruption of the force. The elected officials and dept heads always seemed to have some kickback or theft of services or funds scheme going on in Margate. I picked Coconut Creek to move to. One factor was a story I read about an angry old fart exNYer who lived in a trailer park in Margate I think who was angry at the other angry old fart exNYer who was the condo commando. The old guy pulled out a handgun and shot the condo commando in the head at his desk at a meeting about citations.
I shop in Margate at some local establishments, but living there would be by a court order.
February 1st, 2013 at 12:14 pm
(1) Violated state law concerning his employment for representing his employer before the city commission on a rezoning for an alcohol license,
and then a few days later he was the president of the company that he represented.
February 1st, 2013 at 1:30 pm
Really Buddy w/ this mess Chaz Stevens-realy Buddy. I’ll fix his fat ass, I’ll “copyright City Activist Robert Walsh”/ Then will see how smart he is. I don’t care for this guy, besides he is a hethen. Drink your ‘Pabst’ beer(enough said)…..
February 1st, 2013 at 2:32 pm
@Shitty Activist
1. First you want to kick my ass..
2. Now you want to try and copyright my URL (that’s live, by the way).
As I consul my clients, always buy your domain name. Never know what will happen.
Note to folks who troll me… Keep that in mind.
February 2nd, 2013 at 1:47 am
excompassionateconservative
Things have gotten better since those days, we keep trying. We have two new commissioners coming on soon Something we haven’t had for a long while.
Le
February 4th, 2013 at 12:38 pm
I do hope that new commissioners can help .Margate itself looks a lot nicer than it did 20 years ago. I still like shopping at some of the family businesses there and view residents more as innocent victims of a small town gone wild.
Hollywood to this day seems to have crazy cops and officials.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/crime/fl-dea-hollywood-clash-20130202,0,7073383.story
This reads like an “only in SFLA” event or comedy movie scene.