Bill Segal Howls at the [Ethics] Full Moon

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Lynette Reynolds
407-480-9676

ORLANDO, Florida (April 29, 2010) - Bill Segal accused Teresa Jacobs yesterday of unethical conduct.

Bill Segal? Accusing Teresa Jacobs? Ethics?

Was there a full moon yesterday? Well, now that you ask… yes, there was.

Bill Segal is trying to reinvent himself on ethics. It is an obvious attempt to distract the press and the public from what he has done - or, failed to do - and from what is really happening.

When Jacobs' proposed higher ethics standards in 2006, Segal not only refused to support her reforms, he also insulted the public and press by referring to ethics as nothing more than an issue for the "chattering class". In 2008, when it came time to vote on Jacobs' reforms, Segal inserted several loopholes that would make it easy for elected officials to conceal from the public their business relationships.

In spite of his efforts to water down Jacobs' reforms, state law, county ordinance, and Jacobs' 2008 Ethics Charter Amendment, which was approved by 87% of the voters, require county commissioners to disclose the identity of their business partners. Segal has thumbed his nose at all three, and for that he may be under investigation.

Teresa Jacobs has correctly pointed to his refusal to comply with state and county ethics laws. In response, Segal is trying two tactics: reinventing himself on ethics and lashing out at her on … ethics. This is a common political strategy termed "the art of distraction".

In his reinvention, Segal first proclaimed that he would do what no other county official - according to him - had ever done: he would release his income-tax returns.

Note to Bill: You are hardly the first. A number have done that … for years. Rich Crotty is one example. Linda Stewart is another.

Of course, releasing tax returns is just another attempt to divert attention. The public does not care especially about how much money a politician is making. The public does care about with whom the politician is making his money. Tax returns don't tell us that.

Segal's next reinvention is to propose a ban on commissioners working for a company that has a county contract. In his April 28th memo to Mayor Crotty, Segal hints that Jacobs cast votes to help her future employer to get its current county contract, and then went to work for them "right after leaving office".

He is wrong - very wrong - on both counts.

Teresa was absent and did not vote on August 5, 2008, when the commission approved a contract to provide alternative-impact-fee studies and monitoring with the firm she would later work for. In contrast, Bill Segal himself served on the procurement-selection committee and ranked the firm number one. Segal then made the motion at the Commission meeting in 2008 to award the contract.

The only vote Teresa ever cast for her current employer was in 2005, some five years before she went to work for them. That 2005 contract expired before Teresa left office.

In taking her job, Teresa violated no state ethics law, no county ethics ordinance, and no principle of ethical behavior.

Bill Segal hoping, wishing, and claiming otherwise does not make it so.

A full moon yesterday. It may explain a lot.