Maddox Gets More Baggage (or maybe it's a monkey on the back)

The Lakeland Ledger ^ | Tuesday, July 5, 2005 | Ledger Editorial Staff

[ChildOfThe60s]

Maddox Gets More Baggage

No question about it, Scott Maddox has name recognition. Lots of it. The kind no other candidate for governor wants. Maddox is pulling more baggage than the Amtrak Silver Meteor.

Revelations in mid-June of how Maddox handled the financial affairs of the Florida Democratic Party, which he chaired until his May departure to run for office, were bad enough.

His explanation that it was all the fault of the party comptroller, Debbie Griffin-Bruton, was lame, even though she accepted the blame.

Her admission also was accompanied by a news story that Maddox's real estate company had purchased Griffin-Bruton's house in 2002 to help her and her ailing husband.

And last week, there were more news stories about fines and unpaid personal property taxes.

It's time he withdrew from the race for the Democratic nomination and give viable candidates a chance. Here's a look into the Maddox baggage car thus far:

# The newest piece of Samsonite came Thursday from The Ledger's Tallahassee bureau. While Maddox was chairman of the Leon County Democratic Executive Committee, the committee failed to file a bond and an audit with the county supervisor of elections as required by law.

The Leon County DEC had already paid a $10,500 fine to the county supervisor's office for filing a campaign-expense report past the deadline while under Maddox's watch.

# The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper reported Wednesday that Maddox paid $2,632.47 in overdue Leon County property taxes on a home his company, Spectrum Resources, purchased three years ago from GriffinBruton. The taxes were paid after the newspaper asked Maddox about them.

The newspaper also reported that the 2002 purchase of the home by a company controlled by Maddox and his wife came at a time when Maddox was mayor of Tallahassee, and Griffin-Bruton was financial director of the city's Parks and Recreation Department. He said John Bruton, her husband, was a former city policeman suffering from Alzheimer's and he has allowed them to live in the home by paying a token rent, which he waived last year when Bruton went into long-term care.

While the city is run by a city manager, the mayor helps set city policies governing the city's departments and its employees. That Maddox would enter into such an agreement with an upper-level

city employee -- no matter how kind-hearted -- raises ethical questions.

Maddox said the county sent tax bills to his previous address, from where he moved last June and sold this April.

# Maddox released a letter from Griffin-Bruton on Wednesday in which she said she made "several honest mistakes" as the state party controller. She was resigning that position and her position with the Leon County DEC last week.

Stress over her husband's health distracted her and resulted in mistakes "including the nonpayment of payroll taxes for the Florida Democratic Party and delinquency in filing reports, and late fees for the Leon County DEC."

# Those mistakes were reported two weeks ago when the IRS slapped a lien on the state party for failing to pay $200,000 in payroll taxes.

# An audit by the state party found $900,000 that was previously thought missing from party coffers. The audit found GriffinBruton had rudimentary skills for the job, and was "in over her head." Maddox had no knowledge of the bookkeeping mistakes, the audit found.

Maddox responded by saying the audit proved the attacks on him were "false, inaccurate or overblown."

But the audit hardly vindicated Maddox's two-year job as party head. "It is clear that the problems occurred because of a poor hiring decision, a lack of internal controls and a lack of strong oversight," said Mealin Hines, a former statewide prosecutor who supervised the weeklong audit.

Karen Thurman, who was named state Democratic Party chairwoman after Maddox left in May, said the party's accountants warned of severe internal control problems in a March letter, and the audit had found those controls to be "absolutely, unequivocally the worst."

Meanwhile, Maddox told a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times last week, "I've got a record of achievement at the city of Tallahassee, and I took a very bad situation at the state party and made it better. . . . I'm going to move forward and talk about the issues that affect Floridians."

Like what? What kind of people he'll hire to help him manage a state with a $65 billion budget?

It's time for this lumbering baggage hauler to get on a side spur and let some express trains by.

[ChildOfThe60s]

If you want to get an accurate picture of how bad this really is, consider this. The Lakeland Ledger is the biggest wh*re for the democrats in this part of the state. Even more so than the Tampa Tribune.

For the Ledger to write this, they have to be extremely nervous about the next election for governor.

I admit it is a little petty, but I am thoroughly enjoying this. These people are so low on the ethics evolutionary scale.

[commonasdirt]

"I admit it is a little petty, but I am thoroughly enjoying this."

You are right it may be petty but what a hoot. Definatly my laugh 'o'the day.

[Dutchgirl]

I am thoroughly enjoying this...

I enjoyed JEB's comments more. That voters deserved a two party system in Florida and that the dems were becoming so lame that they couldn't launch a real challenge. Who could they run that wouldn't be a joke?

[Terpfen]

When I read the headline, I was thinking of the Internet's Maddox.