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Complaint against Gov. Rick Scott over on-duty police at Tampa event gets dismissed

 
Published Sept. 20, 2014

TALLAHASSEE — A state elections panel has tossed out a highly publicized complaint filed against Florida Gov. Rick Scott over the presence of on-duty police at a July campaign event in Tampa.

Without conducting an investigation, the Florida Elections Commission dismissed the complaint and called it hearsay because the person who filed the complaint had no direct knowledge of what happened.

The complaint was filed by Jeff Marano, president of the Broward County Police Benevolent Association. The state PBA has endorsed Scott's Democratic opponent, former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Marano accused the governor of illegally coercing uniformed officers from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and other agencies to go to a Scott campaign event in Tampa during work hours. A violation is a first-degree misdemeanor.

A colonel in the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office, Jim Previtera, said in July that he and other officers believed they were joining the governor at an official news conference on the success of crime-reduction strategies, not a political event promoting Scott's re-election. Previtera said officers would not have been there had they known it was a partisan event.

Scott's campaign said it posted signs at the event, held at a police uniform store, to alert everyone that it was a campaign function.

Amy McKeever Toman, executive director of the elections commission, dismissed the complaint in an Aug. 21 letter to Marano.

"You base your allegations on media reports," Toman wrote. "You do not, however, provide any personal information or information other than hearsay to support your allegation that respondent (Scott) either coerced state employees to participate in political events or used the services of state employees during work hours. As such, I find your complaint to be legally insufficient."

Video of the event, showing uniformed officers standing with Scott at a lectern featuring his "Let's Keep Working" logo, was widely broadcast, and the incident was a distraction for his campaign for at least a week. He repeatedly sidestepped questions about it and emphasized his endorsements from sheriffs across the state.

Marano criticized the elections commission's decision.

"I'm very disappointed that they're not going to investigate it," Marano said. "They should send investigators down there. I made the allegation and they need to conduct the investigation."

Marano's complaint is one of more than a dozen elections law or ethics complaints filed against the Scott and Crist campaigns by their opponents this year.

"It was a baseless complaint from a substanceless candidate," said Greg Blair, a spokesman for Scott's campaign.

Contact Steve Bousquet at bousquet@tampabay.com or (850) 224-7263.