Ex-mayor files complaint with ethics commission
By HARLAN WEIKLE
Article published on Wednesday, March 26, 2008  |
INDIAN ROCKS BEACH – Former Indian Rocks Beach Mayor Bill Ockunzzi has filed a more than 40-page complaint with the State Ethics Commission.
The complaints charges City Commissioners Terry Hamilton Wollin and Bert Valery with a total, according to Wollin, of 41 alleged instances of irregularities in their voting practices on the commission.
Asked if the charges included incidences of collusion and or ex parte communications between commission members Wollin said, “The (ethics) commission has the absolute authority to dismiss the complaint if they find it has no merit.”
It could not be determined by press time if any other individuals are named in the complaint.
Ockunzzi, when asked Tuesday evening about the ethics filing, produced the following prepared statement:
“The commission should have investigated the source of the ugly rumors regarding the false sexual harassment allegations out of respect for the alleged victim, Art Center and integrity of the City Commission and staff. The motives and reason for tampering with a ‘witness’ should have also been uncovered. Those clamoring the loudest for ‘civility’ should have led the charge. Now an outside agency, independent of IRB politics, will investigate and clear the air.”
In December, allegations of sexual harassment of Beach Art Center Director Grace Dimm by Ockunzzi prompted a verbal confrontation before a commission meeting in which Dimm denied such an incident had ever transpired.
Facing her inquisitor, Lee Drury DeCesare, wife of former Madeira Beach Mayor Tom DeCesare, Dimm said, “The mayor has not made any inappropriate, um, actions toward me ... I just, you know, I live here and I work here and the mayor does a good job and the commission does a good job. But you have to understand what it’s like. For someone like you to come out here and speak for me, I don’t think so. I’m sorry, no one speaks for me.”
At the time Ockunzzi, who had been the subject of DeCesare’s accusations, called for a thorough investigation by the commission into the source of the rumors, which had led to the accusations and confrontation. No such inquiry was ever officially conducted.
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Article published on Wednesday, March 26, 2008
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