Fla. Gov. Rick Scott's chief of staff resigns amid scrutiny of state contracts awarded friends
Fla. Gov. Rick Scott's chief of staff resigns amid scrutiny of state contracts awarded friends
Mary Ellen Klas | McClatchy Newspapers
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Rick Scott's chief of staff Steve MacNamara resigned Saturday afternoon, ending what has been a tumultuous week of news reports about his steering no-bid contracts to friends and interfering in staffing and decisions throughout state government.
snip//
In the Senate, MacNamara steered a $5.5 million contract with Spider Data Systems for a software platform to improve public access to state budgets. The developer of the patented system, Anna Mattson, was a partner of lobbyist Jim Eaton, also a close friend of MacNamara's. He also handed over a project to shift the Senate's computer system from mainframe computers to another longtime acquaintance, Abe Uccello, at a cost of $380,000.
In the governor's office, MacNamara overruled an agency head and allowed the film commissioner, whom he previously had helped get a job in the state Senate, to travel to the Sundance film festival. He was also accused of attempting to influence contracting outcomes and a controversial decision to allow barrel racing to be considered a parimutuel sport.
On Thursday, an ethics complaint filed against MacNamara accused him of using his staff time and state e-mail to apply for a job at a Catholic liberal arts college in Montana, where he had hoped to move after leaving the governor's office. Public-records requests by The Herald/Times made to the governor's office omitted the letter from MacNamara's state e-mail account to the woman heading the presidential search effort for Carroll College in Helena.
MacNamara defended his actions and said that in each of the incidents he had been wrongly accused. He said he did not know at the time that he hired Mattson that she was Eaton's business partner. He said he had known Uccello, but had not spoken to him in four years when he chose him for the job because of his extraordinary skills in spotting efficiencies. He said he overruled the agency head, Doug Darling, because Darling had been unreasonable in restricting travel for the film commissioner.
more...
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/12/148636/fla-gov-rick-scotts-chief-of-staff.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
So they could make sure their friends got the goodies.
