⚖️ Ethics and fraud
Season's greetings! For you today, ethics board closes Mayor James' case; sentencing is near in historic drug fraud; doors open at FAU brain center; a Brightline quiz; and keeping it clean in Jupiter.
Ethics Commission clears Mayor James
After four years, West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James has been cleared of an ethics charge against him relating to the city’s award of a $7.9 million, no-bid security contract to a company headed locally by his friend, Willie Perez.
The Florida Commission on Ethics accepted its advocate’s recommendation Friday and voted unanimously to dismiss the complaint, which was filed in 2019 by the company that lost the contract to Perez’ company, PSC.
While PSC still holds the contract to patrol downtown streets, Perez is gone, WPBF’s Terri Parker reported Friday.
Perez left in September and started Absolute Security Professionals, Parker reported Monday night.
Perez’ Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard office is next to the law office of City Commissioner Joe Peduzzi, and Peduzzi told Parker he invested in Perez’ new company, but not until Perez left PSC and its city contracts.
Absolute’s website, calling the company A Security Pro, features an Oct. 3 letter of recommendation from Mayor James.
Perez, Peduzzi, James and former City Administrator Jeff Green socialized weekly with other city employees at a CityPlace bar before the city canceled competitive bids for the security contract in April 2019, just two weeks after James took office.
The city disqualified PSC from bidding just three days before the competitive bids were canceled.
The Ethics Commission made a finding of probable cause against James in July 2020 and refused to dismiss the case in April 2022. But board terms are limited, and just one of the nine members who voted in 2022 was still on the board Friday.
The commission acted with little discussion on the recommendation to dismiss from its advocate, Elizabeth Miller, an employee of the Florida Attorney General’s Office.
“There is insufficient evidence that respondent’s (James’) actions were to secure a special privilege, benefit or exemption for himself or others, specifically Willie Perez,” Miller told the Ethics Commission. “There is insufficient evidence that the respondent acted corruptly.
In a statement to WPBF from Dubai, where he is attending the UN Climate Change Conference, James wrongfully asserted that the Ethics Commission never found probable cause against him. The July 2020 commission probable cause finding is cited here.
Since April 2022, the only new evidence introduced in the case was a sworn interview Miller conducted with former Administrator Green. Perez refused Miller’s request for an interview and did not respond to Parker’s requests for comment. Both men had given sworn testimony during the initial investigation.
Green repeated his testimony that the decision to cancel competitive bids came in consultation with James and the new police chief, Frank Adderley.
Yes, but: Miller’s report to the Ethics Commission failed to note that Adderley didn’t become police chief until two months later, in June 2019.
Read Stet Palm Beach’s three-part story documenting the investigation here.
✂️ Feds seek cut in prison time for disgraced doctor
Prosecutors are looking to shave years from a two-decade prison sentence handed down to the man at the heart of a $746 million addiction treatment fraud.
Delray Beach osteopath Michael Ligotti’s arrest and conviction represented the largest such case ever charged by the Department of Justice, the agency wrote in a press release following his January sentencing.
Ligotti, though, has remained free until recently, helping DOJ investigate and prosecute other fraudsters. He entered prison Dec. 1.
Now, prosecutors are asking a federal judge in Miami to shave his 20-year prison term by 40 percent, citing his cooperation. Ligotti’s attorney is asking for a bigger, unspecified reduction.
Ligotti’s prescriptions and standing orders for unnecessary drug tests put him at the center of a sprawling scheme that exploited drug users and defrauded insurance companies.
In addition to ordering millions of dollars in tests, they said Ligotti prescribed addictive drugs to patients from his Whole Health clinic in Delray Beach. That included benzodiazepines, a drug known to be lethally mixed with opioids by people who are addicted.
Even after a federal subpoena issued in 2016 put Ligotti on notice that he was under investigation, he continued ordering tests, an FBI agent testified.
A court hearing in Miami on his sentence reduction is scheduled for Dec. 8.
Lisa Daniels-Goldman, whose son died in a Palm Beach County sober home, said prosecutors told her Ligotti’s cooperation would delay his entering prison and hasten his exit.
She can’t travel to the hearing in Miami. But she intends to make a victim’s statement on her son’s behalf.
“He doesn’t deserve a quiet entrance to prison,” she said of Ligotti. “He doesn’t deserve to be forgotten.”
🚪 Shuttered FAU brain center reopens
After a four-month shutdown, the Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute in Jupiter reopened Monday — sort of.
Florida Atlantic University closed its prized $35 million building on the Abacoa campus on July 30, about six months after it opened, as Stet Palm Beach and the student-run University Press first reported in August.
The building is accessible by key card only and with the fall term over no one was around Monday for its reopening. Still, university workers forced out in July can begin moving back.
Yes, but: The building is not yet open for research.
Permitting to allow research and the reintroduction of lab animals is expected to take up to eight-and-a-half months, the email provided by the university said.
“All efforts will be made to shorten that timeframe to allow earlier reintroduction of both research and animals,” wrote Wendy Ash Graves, director of the FAU Office of Environmental Health and Safety.
The email did not explain why research requires a separate permit or what thresholds must be met. It did not detail the costs of the building repairs or say who is paying for those repairs.
It did express relief, however, that the building reopened, calling the closure “this very challenging time.”
“I am pleased to report that the life safety concerns within the building have been permanently resolved,” Ash Graves wrote.
Internal FAU emails obtained by the University Press in August referenced unstable building pressurization that knocked the air-conditioning system offline and caused “the potential for entrapment.”
While university officials would not explain the memo, experts suggested that “entrapment” meant fire doors could slam shut and airless rooms could suffocate inhabitants, including lab rats.
Stet and the University Press tried for months to get more information. Despite state laws requiring access to public records, the university stonewalled the reporters. A story detailing our efforts and the university’s responses is coming Wednesday to Stet.
🌳 The juice
Headlines with zest
🌞 SunFest will cut its music budget by more than $1 million, bring in local bands and even try to book high-schoolers to fill out its lineup in 2024. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🚓 The 2018 constitutional amendment known as Marsy’s Law does not shield the identities of police officers — or others — from disclosure, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday. (The News Service of Florida via WUSF)
🗳️ Riviera Beach City Council incumbent Julia Botel and candidate Leroy Kelson cry foul as the clerk who kept them off the ballot abruptly resigns. (WPTV)
🔬Bolstered by donor support, Cox Science Center & Aquarium is moving the goalposts on its fund-raising goal from $85 million to $115 million. Spending plans are just as ambitious: a new science building, an expanded STEM education center, a biology lab for local medical magnet schools and an immersive learning lab/ homebase for First LEGO League competitions. Look for groundbreaking next Spring. (Cox Science Center)
🍽️ Fondu Hospitality plans Jupiter restaurant led by French Laundry alum. (The Real Deal)
💵 A $100,000 boost for 100 lucky prospective Palm Beach County homeowners is in the works. The county is offering the forgivable loans to buyers meeting certain criteria. Online applications will be accepted beginning at 8 am on Dec. 27. (PBC Housing and Economic Development)
⛪️ Demand for food handouts is so great at the Church by the Glades, 127 South M St. in Lake Worth Beach, that the city wants the charity Restoration Bridge International to move its wildly popular Saturday morning food distribution program. (ByJoeCapozzi.com)
🚞 Quiz: Brightline, tooting its own horn
Relief can’t come soon enough for a Stuart couple whose home is being bombarded by Brightline train horns, according to published reports.
Martin County may — or may not — petition the state for a quiet zone designation, a move that could also benefit Tequesta and Jupiter residents.
Until then, how many train toots per week is the couple subjected to?
🐶 561 insider: Friends of Jupiter Beach keep it clean and dog-friendly
Friends of Jupiter Beach started with one woman’s idea and today inspires a tight-knit community.
In 2024, the organization will mark 30 years.
What happened: The threat in 1994 of closing a stretch of beach to pets led the late Anita Lankler of Jupiter to rally her neighbors to preserve a space for dog lovers and non-dog lovers to enjoy in harmony.
The result must be beyond her wildest dreams: Jupiter is third on U.S. News and World Report’s list of best dog-friendly beaches.
“The thousands of people who visit the beach each year may not realize the volunteer drive, commitment and countless hours behind the scenes,” Mary Aguiar, the organization’s executive director and its only staff member, told Stet Palm Beach.
Flash forward: The magic happens when volunteers gather every month in a morning operation admirable for its precision.
Geoff Jones of Jupiter has served on the Friends board for 25 years. Geoff rises with the sun to make sure beach clearers are equipped with grabbers, bags and gloves.- About 150 people meet under the shade of the breezy pavilion at Ocean Cay Park.- Volunteer cleanup captains split sections of the cleanup area from Juno Beach Pier north to Carlin Park. They lead groups to their assigned zones along the 2.5-mile cleanup area.
John Logan, a retired teacher and one of the original Friends, has served as a captain for 27 years.
“I have had people come to this beach cleanups from as far as Canada, as far south as Key West and as far west as Colorado,” he said.
By the numbers: A typical cleanup removes about 320 pounds of debris. - Since 2006 when the Friends started keeping records, they have collected 82,000 pounds of refuse from the sand, the sea grapes, the sidewalk, the State Road A1A roadside and Ocean Cay Park.
If you would like to join the next cleanup on Jan. 6, you can find more information at the organization’s website: www.friendsofjupiterbeach.org.
🦬 Stet Sports: At the beginning of the season, most NFL prognosticators picked the Buffalo Bills (or the New York Jets — hah!) to win the Dolphins’ division. After Sunday’s decimation of the Washington Commanders, the Dolphins are in first place, three games ahead of the Bills with five to play. Next up for Miami: A Monday night home game against yet another opponent with a losing record, the Tennessee Titans. Buffalo has to win on the road against last year’s Super Bowl winner, the Kansas City Chiefs, just to keep up. Poor Buffalo (and don’t ask about the Jets).
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