Florida Ethics Commission Dismisses Unrelated Complaints Against Three Flagler County and City Officials

The Florida Commission on Ethics has tossed out three complaints filed against three local officials: former Palm Coast Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston, Flagler County Airport Director Roy Sieger, and Bunnell Planning Board Co-Chair Lynn Lafferty. 

All three complaints were found to be legally insufficient. The commission reached its findings behind closed doors last Friday, and issued signed public orders on Wednesday. 

Complainants frequently file ethics complaints with a limited understanding of the commission’s jurisdiction. Put simply, unless a public official abuses his, her or their office for personal gain, or to advance someone else’s personal gain, the allegation is out of the commission’s jurisdiction. 

Since they cost nothing to file–though they can cost a great deal in legal fees, time and anxiety for their targets to defend–complaints are also at times filed to damage reputations or shroud them in suggestions of wrongdoing. Sieger at times and Johnston frequently during her nearly two-year tenure as the acting city manager of Palm Coast have weathered personal attacks and baseless accusations of corruption from a narrow segment of the public. Johnston’s tenure ended last December. Ovations for her service at the helm have not stopped since. Thursday evening, she received the Government Partner of the Year award from the local chamber of commerce. 

Leslie Johnson, a resident of Palm Coast’s P-Section, last August filed an ethics complaint against Lauren Johnston alleging that Johnston, among other city administrators, serves on several local nonprofits’ boards, creating conflicts of interest. The complainant cites the Margarita Society of Flagler Beach, the Flagler Education Foundation and the Palm Coast-Flagler Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The commission found no conflicts from Johnston’s voluntary, unpaid service on these boards. The fact that Johnston did not disclose her service on the boards on her required statement of financial interests was also found not to be an issue, since there are no financial interests in play. Johnson alleged that Johnston is playing favorites with those organizations. She did not provide substantive evidence. Without that, “these allegations are conclusory and cannot form a legally sufficient basis for investigation,” the commission’s advocate’s report and recommendation concluded. 

“Conclusory” means making a statement unsupported by fact. Public comment segments before the City Council provide ample examples of the word “conclusory.” 

Johnson vaguely accuses Johnston of violating the Sunshine Law, claiming that “some decisions or arrangements may have occurred outside public meeting requirements.” The commission found no specifics in the complaint. 

Darlene Shelley, a Kathleen Trail resident and a candidate for the District 4 seat on the Palm Coast City Council (the seat currently held by Charles Gambaro, who is running for Congress), filed a complaint against Sieger, the airport director, in August, alleging that he has “prioritized the interests of pilots, aircraft owners, and flight school operators (e.g., Phoenix East Aviation and Embry Riddle) over the safety, health, and welfare of Palm Coast residents, violating state and federal guidelines, engaging in retaliatory actions, and misleading the public.”

Shelley cites alleged violations of state transportation rules and Federal Aviation Administration regulations, neither of which falls within the Ethics Commission’s purview. She cites a court case Sieger indeed lost after attempting to evict a hangar lessee after the lessee had had a dispute with Sieger. She then claims that after her own complaints about airport noise, her property has become a “target of excessive numbers of low flying aircraft,” their noise and pollution. She also blames Sieger for poor management. 

“The complaint fails to allege any resulting benefits to [Sieger] or any other person or entity,” the Ethics Commission found. “Though [Shelley] indicates a number of detriments to herself and other Palm Coast residents, those alleged detriments, standing alone, do not form a sufficient basis to allege a violation of” law. Shelley’s claim that Sieger presented inaccurate or incomplete information to secure grants was found to be unspecific.

As to the claim that Sieger “failed to implement landing fees and maintains below-market hangar rental fees, the complaint fails to prove these decisions amount to a misuse of [Sieger’s] public position,” the Ethics Commission’s order concluded. “To the contrary, these business decisions appear to be squarely within [Sieger’s] job duties as the Director of the Flagler Executive Airport. For these reasons, the allegations in the complaint do not form a sufficient basis to initiate an investigation.” 

The commission dismissed all other allegations on similar grounds. 

Lynn Lafferty serves on the Bunnell Planning Board. She is also among the owners of large land holdings that were at the center of a public controversy last year when the Planning Board recommended, and the City Commission approved, the rezoning of more than 1,500 acres from agriculture to industrial zoning designations. 

Katherine Biancaniello, a County Road 304 resident, filed an ethics complaint in June, alleging that Lafferty, who participated in discussions but not in votes related to the rezoning, had a conflict of interest in the matter. But the commission dismissed the complaint based on its determination that the two properties under Lafferty’s name in Flagler County add up to less than 1 percent of the land in question.

The Ethics Commission’s inquiry appears to have neglected to note Lafferty’s other co-ownership of the entire land that was rezoned, under the corporate name of Brown & Johnston & Joly & Dursheimer, which referred to the several owners who do or have owned that land. Lafferty herself and her lawyer were at the forefront of the rezoning. 

“The Commission has often recognized a size of class exception to voting conflicts where the official’s interest in the vote represents less than 1% of the total affected assets or class,” the commission order reads. “Therefore, the facts as presented, fail to indicate a possible violation” of law.  But the facts as presented did not clearly reflect the facts on the ground.