Imagine you are an employee in a large organization and you have a workplace complaint against the CEO. You follow procedures and take your complaint to the head of Human Resources. Your concerns are ignored. Later you find out that the CEO has arranged for the head of Human Resources to receive expensive gifts – […]
Tallahassee Reports recently published a story about a $4,700 discount on a catering bill from the Edison restaurant given to a family member of Tallahassee City Manager Rick Fernandez. The Edison restaurant, which was partly developed with city funds, has a contract with the City of Tallahassee to lease the old electric building in Cascades […]
TR has learned that the City of Tallahassee’s Independent Ethics Board has begun an investigation into the pension payments being made to former City Commissioner Debbie Lightsey. The Executive Director of the Ethics Board, Julie Meadows-Keefe, provides a status of complaints and investigations each month. This months report, which is part of the agenda to […]
The City’s independent ethics board is experiencing growing pains. The recent announcement of Chair Lila Jaber’s resignation after revelations of possible conflicts of interest with her law firm and the board’s controversial hiring of Julie Meadows-Keefe as the Board’s Ethic’s officer, has raised the level of scrutiny of the Board. And now, as ethics complaints […]
ThrowBackThursday : This article was originally published on November 3, 2014. Today, the City’s Ethics Board will discuss the hiring process for the Ethics Officer position. When the City Attorney and City Auditor filled the in-house ethics officer position last month, they passed on hiring the former General Counsel of the Florida Department of Law […]
The Chair of the City of Tallahassee Ethics Board, Lila Jaber, asked the recently hired counsel to the Board, Mr. Gerald Currington, “whether the Ethics Board has the discretion to hire an Ethics Officer without advertising.” Noting that the current Ethics Officer was hired under City policies, Mr. Currington wrote “it is my opinion that […]
Tallahassee Reports spoke with the City’s appointed Ethics Officer, Julie Meadows-Keefe, about the hiring of a law firm to serve as counsel to the Ethics Board that also does significant business with the City of Tallahassee. Tallahassee Reports wrote about the relationship here. Ms. Meadows-Keefe told Tallahassee Reports that she was aware of the relationship […]
When the City Attorney and City Auditor filled the in-house ethics officer position last month, they passed on hiring the former General Counsel of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who also served as the agency’s Chief Ethics Officer. Tallahassee Reports has learned that the City of Tallahassee narrowed the selection of the City’s Ethic […]