The Florida Commission on Ethics today approved a joint settlement agreement with 2018 gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum for accepting a gift over $100 from a city lobbyist while he was mayor of Tallahassee. After about five minutes of discussion, the commission by voice vote accepted the joint stipulated agreement announced in April, that dropped four of the five charges against Gillum in exchange for his payment of a $5,000 civil fine. One commissioner, Kimberly Rezanka, said she thought the amount was not enough. She and fellow commissioner JoAnne Leznoff voted against the settlement agreement. The agreement goes to the governor for final approval. “I’ve never known a governor not to accept a commission recommendation,” said Barry Richard, Gillum’s lawyer, immediately after the hearing ended. The agreement was the result of a 2-hour behind closed door hearing, thus avoiding a potentially lengthy administrative hearing. “The advocate had proposed the settlement” once she realized her case was falling apart for lack of evidence, Richard said. The evidence was based largely on an affidavit by entrepreneur and lobbyist Adam Corey, who did not make himself available to the Ethics Commission’s investigators for questioning. The advocate had asked the commission for a delay but the two parties hashed out an agreement acceptable to Gillum, Richard said. Gillum conceded that he should have filled out a gift report for the August 2016 New York trip for a boat trip around Liberty Island with Corey and clients of his who turned out to be undercover FBI agents. The Ethics Commission didn’t specify whether the violation was for that or for accepting tickets to the Broadway hit “Hamilton.”
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