Dr. Erwin Jackson spoke at the most recent Tallahassee City Commission meeting on the need for more stringent lobbyist regulations.
Dr. Jackson urged the city commission to adopt rules that would limit the lobbying activities of individuals who have been convicted of, or have participated in, criminal activity.
Dr. Jackson said, “Individuals with a criminal record and those who admit under oath to criminal activity should not be allowed to be a registered lobbyist before the City of Tallahassee.”
Jackson commented on the recent convictions of J.T Burnette, former City Commissioner Scott Maddox and Paige Carter-Smith.
Currently, there are no rules in place that would keep those individuals from registering to lobby the City of Tallahassee once they were released from prison.
Dr. Jackson also addressed the situation related to Gary Yordon.
Yordon is a former business partner of Scott Maddox who testified in the federal corruption trial. Yordon was never indicted.
However, Yordon testified that a client paid him $25,000 up front and $3,000 a month for lobbying services and that the money went immediately to a lobbying firm controlled by Scott Maddox.
Yordon also testified that the transfer of money took place to avoid any ethical complaints or perceived conflicts of interest since Maddox was a city commissioner at the time.
Yordon is currently registered to lobby the City of Tallahassee.
City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox has addressed the issue at a previous city commission meeting. During that meeting, City Attorney Cassandra Jackson noted that their are some jurisdictions that limit lobbying activities of convicted felons.
However, she said that limiting the lobbying privileges of someone who was not found guilty of a crime could be more problematic.
City staff was directed to research the issue and report back to the city commission.
Dr. Jackson Pushes for Lobbying Regulations Related to Criminal Activity added by Steve Stewart on
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Federal, state, & local chambers of crony socialism should be castigated for their deceptive naming, promotion of gigging/ temping/ bodyshopping of cheap, young, pliant foreign labor with “flexible” ethics (h/t “Grosse Point Blank”), and hence dishonest & deceptive lobbying about USA talent pool & job markets, ethics & quality failures of individual member firms being plastered over, etc.
EJackson pulled out his doctorate as a return jibe while & because the power-mad elitists were harassing him & trying to treat him as an ignorant rube, thinking they were, oh so much more sophisticated than any/all of us little people tax-victims.
I’ve seen good & bad in GY, city council, state legislature & exec branch, abetting by police focused on only certain kinds of law violations, U execs & admins, elections irregularities of various degrees, judges going through motions not conscientious, prosecutors who won’t prosecute blatant violations. People both make mistakes & slide over the line into fraud & force. “Lead us not into temptation, & deliver us from evil.” Eternal vigilance is required. Repentance, apology, restitution, reform are always possible, but often fall short into recidivism. Trust but verify.
…and furthermore…leftist Judge Hinkle is likely wondering why Maddox attorney is taking so long to file with his court for the early release of the former leader of Florida’s Democratic Party.
Its been long enough…the FBI wont mind.
The Bellamy contributors are exactly the Maddox supporters as are Dailey’s
A Ph.D. who calls himself “Doctor” is as narcissistic as a lawyer with a J.D. doing the same.
Curtis,
You and Snidely made a great point! As Snidely points out, Megg’s had his finger on the scale and where were all the charges from the local state attorney on all this corruption?
Voters have one chance to eradicate this little pack of chamber pots that only cater to developers so they can campaign 24/7… If we don’t vote them out we will have water quality problems, environmental problems, sewage problems higher crime rates and if you think it’s bad now it will get worse. Fortunately they are running in a city where the best governor in America happens to live. The state attorney, John Failey, and there Scott Maddox contributor Pawn David Bellamy are in a tight little threesome to continue the same old corruption to keep the paths open for developers and the politicians who cater to the special interests.
David Bellamy was recruited by the chamber, is being helped by the chamber, is pro-abortion, and was PRO Doak Campbell Stadium vote. If he was sincere he would be running against John Dailey.
Bellamy may as well wear flip-flops through his campaign as he will tell groups what they want to hear.
John Dailey is on the verge of losing his fiefdom so they brought in Bellamy to try to save it and voters need to wake up.
@Snidley IMO the current state attorney doesn’t seem any more interested than the previous one in pursuing locals with sticky fingers, lusting over the public purse. He as much said so at the Chamber’s last indoctrination session. Shhhh. š
I have great admiration for Dr. Jackson but registering lobbyist will solve nothing. If you want to eliminate deal making at the city and county commission elect better commissioners. Stop voting for candidates just because they are of a particular race or gender and start voting for people who have been successful in business and have demonstrated high moral character. A city or county commission office is not a place for on the job training in decision making. If the candidate has to accept a city or county salary and retirement benefits to serve we don’t need them. Commissioners who have been successful in business and want to serve and not be served they will not be swayed by a lobbyist looking to make deal.
Yordon facilitating Maddox’s shell game, which it sure seems like he did, now that looks like he got kind of immunity from the feds for “cooperating.” Either way, what a shocker the the Chamber hired the guy to MC the retreat! Does the word “smarmy” ring a bell? It shows the sense of entitlement, the arrogance of that crowd to carry forward….. All you who want to call this left vs right are playing a game with us. This is about corruption involving developers who control the majority along with their public servants. I say vote ’em all out… any of them that were on there with Maddox except Matlow because he calls them out.
@ Curtis in regards to Maddox being determined “ethical” by The Florida Ethics Commission I can tell you why that happened. But you gotta promise to keep it to yourself. Because this tidbit of local information is only whispered amoungst the most highly connected of the most connected leftist elite in the Tallahassee/Leon area. So “shhhhhh”:
“Curtis: its because well heeled, well connected, former State Attorney and dyed in the wool protector of corrupt local Democrat politicans Willie Meggs “somehow” found himself as kind of a “popup” from out of nowhere member of The Florida Ethics Commission just prior to Maddox’ situation coming before the Commission. That was intended to put all concern over Maddox to bed forever. However for the FBI to walk out of the investigation gracefully Maddox had to “go down”. Still a lot of corrupt locals were saved by the Maddox sacrifice in the end. So from the local leftist movers and shakers point of view the whole FBI probe final close-out was a roaring success. Even though it did not end as intended when Meggs played out his final political poker hand.
The End.
As usual, Dr. Jackson hits the nail on the head; we should not allow criminals anywhere near the public purse. Unfortunately, we do not know of those who are currently plying their trade and, if it had not been for Dr. Jackson, we would not have learned about Scott Maddox and his schemes. Now that we know, we should know better in the future and one way to institutionalize our learning is to prohibit him and others who have been convicted of breaching the public trust from ever again holding a public trust.
Should that apply to lobbying? Well certainly, in my opinion, it should in the near term. What does that mean? I am not sure, but I do not think it should be forever. After all, we hope that our “corrective” actions have not only been punitive but have also been corrective. If we believe in justice, we should still believe in the principle that once a person has served the time for their crime, their sentence is complete and they should be restored to freedom.
And at one point do we restore their freedom to lobby local government? Again, in my opinion, a reasonable term should apply. And what is “reasonable?” Obviously, it should include their term of incarceration, but it should be more. How much more? It should be at least as long as the original incarceration and maybe longer because not all criminals are confined. Therefore, the prohibited term should be at least the term of incarceration, if any, plus the entire term of probation and/or parole.
And what do we do about the “unethical” public official or lobbyist? That is an entirely different question and requires far more space than I have here. All I can do is leave you with a different question. For the time being, just remember this: Everything Scott Maddox did was determined to be “ethical” by the Florida Ethics Commission (FEC). According to the FEC, if nothing else, Scott Maddox was totally ethical. My departing question: How can that be?
Gary Yordon is a criminal. He is a liar and a thief. And the fact that the City of Tallahassee is still in cahoots with that dirt bag just means they are all corrupt as hell.
FLC,
Yes, and that should have ended his association with the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce. It is unconscionable that they propped him up as an MC.
That is the antithetical of who should be associated with an organization that represents businesses.
Not only does the Chamber embrace it, but the Tallahassee Democrat, elected officials use taxpayer dollars to pay for their weekends at this event, the state attorney, the mayor, the sheriffs, etc…
Finally, only one elected official has ever taken a stand and questioned this junket and that is City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow.
Wasn’t Gary Yordon arrested (maybe convicted?) of shoplifting way back?
I don’t know how Gary Yordon was able to escape indictments for his criminal activities and corruption.
WCTV, The Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, elected officials including Sheriffs, and the Tallahassee Democrat enable Yordon to continue his 30-year reign of terror upon Tallahassee and Leon County.
Questioning Yordon only results with him threatening someone or him threatening a person and making them lose their job.
Dr. Jackson is correct to question this. Blessings to him for his years and years of service to the citizens of Tallahassee and Leon County. More people should speak up.
There are candidates coming up in this election cycle who are/were involved in supporting the “Yordon” Chamber of Commerce and said nothing. This will make it easy for voters to easily disqualify these candidates at the polls… and we know who they are.