- November 16, 2024
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The Florida Ethics Commission voted 6-1 in a hearing Friday, July 24 to find that there was probable cause that Flagler County Sheriff James L. Manfre violated Florida ethics on three charges. A fourth charge was dropped.
“As your sheriff, I do take full responsibility for all of my actions and acknowledge that I could have made better choices,” Manfre said in a news conference Friday afternoon, reading from a prepared statement. But, he said, “I never violated any law, internal sheriff's policy or practice. Let me reiterate, I have not violated any policy, practice procedure or law. I am very sorry and apologize for the distractions this has caused to the community and the sheriff’s office. … I only acted in accordance with the established practices and procedures that were in place when I took office.”
Manfre said he'd since told staff to "institute new policies and procedures to prevent these types of incidents from occurring in the future."
The commission’s vote followed the recommendations of a commission advocate, who recommended a finding of probable cause that Manfre had violated ethics by using an agency-issued credit card for personal purchases, by taking Sheriff’s Office cars on personal trips out of the county and the state and by failing to properly report a gift of a free stay in then-undersheriff Rick Staly’s cabin.
Of the credit card charges, Manfre said at the news conference, “I was told by my chief of finance that the practice was to use the credit card when I went away on official business. … The practice as I was told was that any personal charges that were put on that card … would be deducted from my per diem,” which was $40 per day.
The commission’s position that the credit card charges were an ethical violation, Manfre said, is “a complete, made up position that the ethics commission is taking.”
Manfre said that in each instance he’d used the credit card, he had been on official business, and said of the stay in Staly’s cabin that both he and Staly were unaware at the time that Manfre would be required to report the visit as a gift. They found that out months later, in an ethics training seminar, Manfre said.
Manfre said he had not been given proper notice by staff of potential ethics issues before formal complaints were filed. “It’s not as if I didn’t ask them, or I asked them for the information and I did the opposite,” he said.
Manfre said he takes responsibility for hiring staff members he said undermined him, mentioning by name Linda Bolante, his former financial chief and the one who had filed the ethics charge, and Rick Staly, the former undersheriff. “Hostility was prevalent throughout the agency at this administration,” Manfre said.
The commission advocate’s recommendation of a finding of probable cause on three counts without a recommendation for a settlement was a turnaround from a hearing last year, when the commission advocate had recommended a settlement that would drop two of the three charges and fine Manfre $1,500. Manfre had agreed to the settlement without admitting wrongdoing. But the commission, at that hearing, had rejected that recommendation and instead asked for further investigation.
That investigation again showed that Manfre had likely violated ethics laws on three counts, according to the new recommendation, but this time the advocate did not recommend settlement. Manfre said at the news conference that he would no longer be willing to agree to a settlement anyway.
The case will be heard by an administrative judge, without a jury.
To read a formal statement from Manfre issued throgh the Sheriff's Office July 24, click HERE.
