TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Part of the Florida Commission on Ethics met for the first time since Tallahassee city manager Rick Fernandez took a temporary leave of absence in light of an ongoing ethics investigation.
The commission's ethics legislative committee met Tuesday morning but didn't discuss Fernandez. The executive director says the commission is on pace to receive 187 complaints this year.
The city manager's case is not part of public record, but if the commission finds probable cause that he has breached public trust, then he will be disciplined accordingly.
"There's no possible jail time. We're an administrative agency, so we don't have any criminal powers whatsoever," said Virlinda Ross. "The penalties are removal from office, fines of up to $10,000 per violation, public censure and reprimand, restitution -- those are the penalties that we have."
The committee went over a plan with city commissioner Gil Ziffer to encourage the Florida League of Cities to support local governments filing more transparent financial records.
