A state ethics board recently dismissed separate and unrelated ethics complaints filed against two Key West city commissioners, finding no probable cause to believe that either commissioner had violated any ethics rules.
The Florida Commission on Ethics is the state’s constitutionally created independent agency tasked with interpreting and enforcing the state’s ethics laws. The commission met on July 25 and “took action on a myriad of matters involving governmental officials.”
Two of those officials were Key West city commissioners Monica Haskell and Sam Kaufman.
With regard to Haskell, the commission “found no probable cause to believe that Haskell had a voting conflict when she voted on a measure affecting dock usage that could impact her son’s business,” states a summary of the ethics commission’s July 25 hearing.
The complaint, which Haskell said had been filed by the Key West Chamber of Commerce, claimed that by voting on a dockage agreement for American Cruise Line, she had taken official action that could financially benefit her son, Arlo Haskell, who works for the nonprofit Key West Literary Seminar, which offers walking tours to Key West cruise ship visitors.
In speaking with the Keys Weekly on Aug. 26, Haskell called the complaint “malicious and scurrilous.”
“The investigation took five months and I had to hire an attorney for it,” she said, adding that before she had voted last year on the American Cruise Lines docking agreement at Mallory Square, she had consulted with then-city attorney Ron Ramsingh.
“I even asked our then-attorney whether I should recuse myself,” Haskell said. “He asked me whether I or my son stood to benefit financially and I said no, so he told me I didn’t have to recuse myself.”
Haskell’s son is an employee, not an owner, of the Key West Literary Seminar and its walking tours. As such, his salary is not affected by the number of walking tour participants, the commissioner said.
Complaint against Kaufman dismissed
As for Kaufman, “the commission found no probable cause to believe Mr. Kaufman had a prohibited business relationship or a conflicting contractual relationship that created a continuing or frequently recurring conflict between his private interests and the performance of his public duties, or had a voting conflict when the City Commission allocated funds to 18 nonprofit service providers, including the Florida Keys Outreach Coalition where Mr. Kaufman serves as a board member.”
Kaufman told the Keys Weekly, “I am grateful the Florida Commission on Ethics dismissed this baseless complaint after the Attorney General’s Office found it had no merit. From the beginning, I acted in good faith, relied on legal advice and had no personal or financial interest in the matter. It is unfortunate that political motivations led to this complaint, but I’m pleased that the independent review process confirmed what I have maintained all along — that my actions were proper, lawful and in the best interests of the people of Key West.”
The complaint stemmed from Kaufman’s voting to support funding for housing at Poinciana Plaza on Duck Avenue while he was an unpaid board member of one of the nonprofit agencies that stood to receive public funding to increase affordable housing.
