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The Ethical Lapses of Andrew Gillum

September 7, 2018 - 6:00am
Andrew Gillum
Andrew Gillum

Now that Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is the Democratic Party nominee for governor, the press and voters need to take a much closer look into his service as our ceremonial mayor.

Gillum has been consistently involved in issues that the FBI is investigating as part of their work into corruption at City Hall and the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA).

While Gillum alleges he was told by the FBI that he’s not a subject of their investigation, no one has ever corroborated that statement.

First and foremost is the ethical concerns around the New York City trip that Gillum took for his former employer.  We now know, after persistent questioning by the Tallahassee Democrat, that Gillum stayed on after that meeting, relocating to a plush NYC hotel, the Millennium Hilton, attending the “Hamilton” Broadway play where tickets cost hundreds of dollars, and even going on a boat ride around Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty with Adam Corey and Mike Miller, where pictures were taken.

Barney Bishop
Barney Bishop

Gillum has recently told The Washington Post that sometimes his brother Marcus Gillum pays some of his expenses, and he has said that his brother paid his expenses in NYC.  

But where did Marcus get the money?

The money came from Miller and the FBI.  It appears they paid Marcus, who then paid Andrew’s expenses.

And Andrew didn’t ask who’s paying for all of this?  If you’re an elected official and you’re not asking about the source of the money, then you're also guilty of stupidity.

Hint:  Andrew, even if the FBI gave the money to your mother to pay your expenses, it’s still a bribe.

So, while Andrew may not get indicted initially, we can certainly expect Marcus to be indicted and then eventually roll over on his brother, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee.  

However, that’s not Andrew’s only ethical indiscretion.  

He also vacationed in Costa Rica with Corey, a lobbyist who did business with the city, and with Sean Pittman, a lawyer/lobbyist who represents the city of Tallahassee as a lobbyist. 

Oh, how so cozy for two lobbyists who do business with the city also spending “down time” with Andrew and his wife in a $1,400-a-night villa. Except it wasn’t really down time, because Corey has admitted doing business with Andrew there and emailing meeting requests for Andrew's calendar.

Finally, after promising for months he would release the Costa Rica receipts, Andrew gave the press some receipts -- not all, because allegedly, that’s all he could get his hands on at the time. 

Ethical red flags.  Again.

Andrew claims to have paid Corey $400 in cash -- how convenient, because there’s no receipt -- yet Corey’s attorney has said publicly and on the record that Corey never received any money from Andrew for that trip.  As if $400 would be his and his wife’s appropriate share of the villa cost each night.

Who to believe?

Gillum also provided receipts for an airplane ticket to Costa Rica, but without any documentation on who paid for the ticket. Is Andrew that stupid to think that reporters aren’t going to press him on who paid?  They did press him, and his campaign spokesperson says that’s all he has.

How convenient.

What’s that old saying that the cover-up becomes a worse crime than the crime originally committed?

Let the stonewalling begin.  

But, wait, there’s more.

Andrew started his campaign by illegally using city tax dollars to pay part of the cost for a political software program that was then used to send his political emails to city taxpayers.

And it was done on city computers, by city employees, during work hours.  A clear violation of the law.

Andrew and his chief of staff Dustin Daniels (who is running for Tallahassee mayor, but that’s another story I’ll tell you about soon), had Andrew's campaign pay part of the cost of the software.

Yet, no one on senior city staff, not the city manager, not the city attorney, not even the city auditor, had any questions, concerns or problems with a private campaign paying some and the city paying some of the cost?

How convenient.

Andrew finally was embarrassed enough when this came out to pay back the citizens for the $5,000 in tax dollars used, but he failed to pay for the use of the computers and city staff.  And Dustin was never docked any pay, suspended, or even reprimanded.

How convenient.

Another ethical issue is that Andrew has hired at least 10 people to work for him in the office of mayor. Remember that this is a ceremonial job.

And he paid them over $500,000 in tax dollars, with benefits too, to do exactly what?

Then we discover that Andrew and his fellow city commissioners spent over $100,000 on meals and entertainment in just one year.  After that hit the fan, the commission promised to adopt a city policy, but none has ever been created.  Another waste of taxpayer dollars so Andrew and city commissioners could live high on the hog at taxpayers’ expense.

How convenient. 

Then there’s the ethical issue involving the Edison Restaurant.
Andrew and the commission put out a bid to refurbish the old power plant building and turn it into a restaurant.  On city land.  With Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) monies.

Guess who won the bid?  Corey, of course.  The contract required that the owners/investors of the restaurant put up $1.5 million to match the city’s investment.
The contract said that the kitchen equipment couldn’t be used as collateral for a loan because the city owned that equipment and it was to remain free and clear.

During an audit last year, it was revealed that the $1.5 million the owners/investors gave to the city was actually the kitchen equipment which was collateralized for a loan.  Nothing was ever done about this gross example of incompetence by city lawyers who worked on this deal.

The owners/investors also received CRA money.  Who was the Vice Chair of the CRA – Mr. Corey of course.

How convenient.

This is the guy some want to be our governor?

Barney Bishop III, a conservative, is a former executive director of the Florida Democratic Party and is the president & CEO of Barney Bishop Consulting, LLC, a strategic public affairs firm based in Tallahassee.  

Comments

Thank you Mr. Bishop. Liberal heads are exploding as they attempt to process your truth. At this time we have just a few lame liberal responses consisting of nonsense liberal "talking points". Great article Mr. Bishop!!!!

This is just wrong behavior from a political figure. That said, we elected the country's biggest Medicare crook TWICE to the state's top seat. This will not ruin Gillum's chances - Scott's election proved that.

Dear Annoymous I know Rick Scott his history was bad in the being we have the third largest economy in all 50 states! So you need to rethink we have record low unemployment look we are exceeding G D P #.4% and new jobs today 204,455 millions more new job we are successful with Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis low Unemployment in the History of the Country!

And Trump's election just doubled, tripled, quadrupled, and quintupled Scott's corruption. Scott's company stole at least $2.3 billion from Medicare and Medicaid ... and paid a $1.7 billion fine. Scott weaseled off the hook ... but he should have been a convicted felon! Him getting off wasn't much different than O.J. getting off!

So? Avowed racist George Wallace was once head of the Alabama Democratic Party. Strom Thurmond was a Democratic senator.

Barney Bishop, Sunshine State News Retract and Apologize to John Morgan By SUNSHINE STATE NEWS August 31, 2017 - 1:30pm On Aug. 21, Sunshine State News published a guest column by Barney Bishop headlined "A Conservative Democrat Handicaps the Dem Gubernatorial Primary." Keith R. Mitnik, attorney for potential candidate John Morgan, advised author Bishop and SSN that the following statements about Morgan within the column's text are "false and defamatory": "He lost his driver's license and thus must be driven everywhere." "He wants everyone else to enjoy toking as much as he does." Says Mitnik, "John Morgan is not a marijuana smoker. John Morgan does have a driver license and drives himself nearly every day." SSN apologizes to attorney Morgan for any incorrect statements it published about him and has expunged the above remarks from the archived column. Barney Bishop also issues this statement of apology to Morgan: "I apologize and retract comments I made about John Morgan in an article I authored about Democratic candidates who are or may be running for governor. His lawyer tells me that he doesn’t smoke marijuana, he has a driver’s license and he “drives himself nearly every day.”

Your attempt to discredit Mr. Bishop is noted, however I am not amused. The information he has given is fairly accurate as far as I can see.

Looks like Bishop discredited himself. He had to publicly apologize. I looked the actual article up after reading the post. It’s legit. There was a public apology after false statements by Bishop. I’m sure if others took the time to go after Bishop, as John Morgan obviously did, there would be more public apologies! Ha! Morgan spanked Bishop!

AS a result of the apology, we got MORE hits on the original story...what a great way to do business!!

The night he won, the liberal media reported that his acquaintance and not him was under FBI investigation. More bias news. Gillmun is a bad guy, I hope the FBI doesn't drop the ball on this one.

You are cherry picking. Gillum's trouble has been widely reported, liberal media and otherwise.

WHOOPS..!!!!!!!! MY BAD !!!!!!!!!

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