Haynie
Criminal charges against former Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie were resolved by a plea deal nearly five years ago, but related ethics charges have remained open.
Now, the state Commission on Ethics has dismissed three of the most serious of those charges, but did not do so based on their merit.
Rather, commissioners had to dismiss them because of a new state law that took effect this year. It says that complaints filed against an official must be based on personal knowledge rather than hearsay.
Parts of the complaint against Haynie by Al Zucaro, publisher of the now-defunct BocaWatch blog, were based on news reports and not on his personal knowledge.
As a result, three of eight charges had to be dropped, according to ethics officials. Ethics commissioners unanimously did so at their Nov. 14 meeting without commenting.
Eliminated are charges that Haynie violated state law by concealing a business relationship with commercial property owners James and Marta Batmasian, and by voting on matters that financially benefited herself or the Batmasians.
The remaining charges accuse Haynie of filing inaccurate financial disclosure statements in 2012 through 2016. Those statements also concealed the relationship and her votes.
Haynie faces a reprimand and fines of up to $20,000 per violation, although she and the commission could reach an agreement on the penalty.
The ethics commission still must act on these charges, but has not set a date for doing so.
In the criminal case, Haynie pleaded guilty on April 1, 2021, to two misdemeanor counts of misuse of public office and failure to disclose voting conflicts. She was placed on probation for 12 months.
By happenstance, one of the ethics commissioners who voted at the November meeting is former Boca Raton Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers, who resigned from the council in 2020 and now is a field chief technology officer for Armis, a cybersecurity company headquartered in San Francisco.
Rodgers, who was appointed to the commission in June by Gov. Ron DeSantis, told commissioners that the agency’s general counsel had determined that he had no conflict of interest and could vote.
— Mary Hladky
Comments