Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 23, 2009, at 10:29 am
UPDATE: It was Judge Stringer! Feds announced the charges today. Our condolences to all the Buddy haters out there.
The St. Petersburg Times blows up the buzz in downtown Tampa today with the revelation that a federal public corruption case is just about to pop.
From the story:
During a public interview Wednesday for his office’s top job, a high-ranking federal prosecutor from Tampa said he is close to charging a public official with public corruption.
The person has agreed to plead guilty, said Robert O’Neill, chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa.
He did not name the public official. He noted that the case resulted from allegations he learned about in the newspaper.
Find out the leading suspects and take our poll about who you think it is, after the jump:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 1, 2009, at 11:00 am
Holy crap, just when you thought the Buddy Johnson saga couldn’t get any worse, Jeff Testerman over at the Times’ Tampa office digs up a new low: Johnson hired an ex-con as special assistant to the woman who was responsible his office’s budget. A man convicted of arson, cocaine possession and violating his probation. A man who was a “person of interest” in a series of Brandon arsons that stopped after his arrest. A man who refused to talk with the St. Petersburg Times about what he did for his $21,000 salary over 3.5 months of work.
[William Gaskin] worked briefly as a telephone solicitor before [Johnson's chief of staff and general counsel Kathy] Harris hired him as her special assistant. He had been out of prison eight months.
Gaskin accompanied the elections general counsel to court, handled troubleshooting at early voting sites and acted as a gatekeeper for outsiders who wanted access to Harris, according to the elections staff.
“I knew nothing about his background, but I saw him during early voting at the College Hill voting site, and after early voting started, he was like a buffer between me and Kathy Harris whenever I wanted to reach her,” recalled Sharon Samek, a Tampa lawyer with the Florida Democratic Lawyers Council, a voting rights organization.
Gaskin’s employment ended Nov. 8, two days after a manual vote count determined that Johnson had lost the supervisor of elections job to Phyllis Busansky.
Neither Harris nor Gaskin would discuss his job duties, but the Times points out that Gaskin had been a CPA and had worked for Ernst & Young, the auditing firm that was checking on the office’s finances when Gaskin was hired.
Trouble does not seem to be going away for former Hillsborough elections chief Buddy Johnson.
The FBI is already digging around the finances during his time in office. Now his personal real estate dealings are gaining scrutiny.
Johnson is facing a lawsuit filed by a retired couple accusing him of swindling them in a land deal completed in 2007. But now, according to Bay News 9’s partner newspaper the St. Petersburg Times, federal agents are investigating the deal.
A Plant City property appraiser who looked at the land deal confirms the FBI contacted him this month.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 4, 2009, at 7:39 am
From ABC Action News:
In an audit released Tuesday, former Hillsborough County Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson went over his budget by almost one million dollars last year. The report says he then violated a state law for failing to reimburse the county.
The audit was conducted by the accounting firm Ernst and Young.
According to the audit, Johnson spent more than he was allotted for elections equipment and operations. It’s not clear how the $940,000 was spent.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 27, 2009, at 8:40 am
Today’s installment of the St. PetersburgTimes deconstructing former Hillsborough Supervisor Buddy Johnson goes like this:
Hillsborough elections officials knew about missing ballots that could swing a close Temple Terrace race a month earlier than previously disclosed.
The discovery came during the week of Dec. 12, when a temporary worker found 440 ballots from two precincts in a ballot box stored in a warehouse, according to a memo obtained Monday by the St. Petersburg Times.
Although a top deputy for then-Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson was told about the find, nothing was said publicly until mid January.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 14, 2009, at 7:10 am
The state’s top elections chief says former Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson’s $2.3 million cost overrun has caught his eye and might warrant a probe:
Secretary of State Kurt Browning said he was surprised when Buddy Johnson’s office told commissioners in December that the office had more than $2.3-million in cost overruns.
Browning said there should be no deficit, considering that Hillsborough received a federal grant meant to cover many of the costs associated with a new voting system.
“We keep hearing that he’s short $2.3-million, and I wonder, ‘What did he spend it on?’ ” Browning said. “I don’t understand.”
Johnson was supposed to provide a full accounting of how he spent the $2.5-million grant by Dec. 31, but Browning said the form explaining the expenditures wasn’t filled out completely. So Johnson’s successor, Phyllis Busansky, has inherited the job of explaining how the money was spent.
Browning said he’ll wait for audits already under way before he calls for a state inquiry. He said he’ll also hold off until Busansky wraps up her own inquiries into the deficit.
The news comes a few days after the St. Petersburg Times called for a criminal investigation into the office.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Dec. 19, 2008, at 5:17 pm
This just in:
From: Buddy Johnson
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 3:41 PM
To: (HaganK@HillsboroughCounty.ORG); (NormanJ@HillsboroughCounty.ORG); (SharpeM@HillsboroughCounty.ORG); (FerlitaR@HillsboroughCounty.ORG); (WhiteK@HillsboroughCounty.ORG); (HigginbothamA@HillsboroughCounty.ORG); BecknerK@hillsboroughCounty.ORG
Cc: (BeanP@HillsboroughCounty.ORG); (LeeR@HillsboroughCounty.ORG); (JohnsonE@HillsboroughCounty.ORG); Daniel Klein; Kathy Harris; David Parks; Stacie Poppell; Mia McCormick
Subject: Withdrawal of SOE Budget Amendment
The purpose of this letter is to formally withdraw the request for a budget amendment to the Supervisor of Elections FY 09 Budget.
As you know when we submitted the 2008 and 2009 budgets we could not predict the full impact of transitioning to a new voting system during a presidential election year. We trusted the County Budget director and staff when throughout the budget process we were assured they understood we were submitting our best estimate. We were told by your staff we could not add a contingency to our budget but would need to request a countywide fund budget amendment when we could define the actual expenses. As your staff is aware throughout the Election Cycle we used the required county process to adjust our 2008 and 2009 budgets several times to cover unforeseen election expenses. We were extremely transparent in all of our dealings with the budget office and with the Office of the Clerk regarding these budget adjustments during these difficult economic times.
Our goal in submitting the budget request was to finalize the election cycle before leaving office so that the incoming Supervisor could focus on the future. I feel it is best to withdraw the request so that Mrs. Busansky can review the budget and make her own decision about the amendment. Any delay in making the request is attributed to carrying out the 2008 yearend audit and finalizing all expenditures related to the election cycle. There is a very short period of time between Election Day and the end of the year.
Also, unbeknownst to me, without the knowledge of my general counsel or Sr. Chief Deputy Supervisor of Elections, I found out today that Mrs. Busansky and the County Attorney have initiated an investigation into the current voting system provider. This matter needs to be completely transparent and reviewed by the Board of County Commissioners. I have not been made privy to these discussions but have complete confidence in the current provider’s willingness and the current CIO and general counsel’s ability to respond to any technical or legal questions raised during this surreptitious investigation.
Finally, I want to express my appreciation to the Board for the elections partnership we shared these past years. It was my pleasure to serve this community.
Respectfully submitted Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Buddy Johnson
Posted by David Warner on Nov. 6, 2008, at 9:37 pm
The votes have finally been counted in Hillsborough County, and shockingly enough, the good guys (or rather, the good guy and gal) won. And both wins could pretty much be considered upsets. Kevin Beckner, whose lead in the county commission race had been evident since election night, pulled ahead of incumbent Brian Blair for good with the final count: 55.26% to Blair’s 44.74% (259,831 to 210,399 votes). Yup, he trounced him.
And, with a justice that can only be called poetic, incumbent incompetent Buddy Johnson — the man who presided over the Hillsborough vote-count debacle — lost to Phyllis Busansky in the race for Supervisor of Elections.
Ya think Buddy will call for a recount?
UPDATE: The answer appears to be no. Johnson conceded defeat at about 6 p.m., according to TBO.com:
“Anything we can do to make her transition smooth, we will,” Johnson told reporters. “There’s a lot of big issues to deal with.”
The supervisor dodged questions about his handling of the election but praised his staff.
“The pressure they have been under in this election is tremendous.”
The Timesreported that Johnson also said: “You may not have seen the last of Buddy Johnson.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Nov. 5, 2008, at 9:56 pm
In 25 years in politics and journalism I have never seen such a surreal scene as the “counting” of votes going on at the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Office Wednesday. I visited the elections counting office out on Faulkenberg Road in Brandon late in the afternoon, nearly 24 hours after the close of the polls and tens of thousands of votes away from having final results in Hillsborough’s elections, including the close race between incumbent Buddy Johnson and challenger Phyllis Busansky.
The veteran reporters there were just shaking their heads as the hours dragged on, watching through panes of glass as elections workers carefully took absentee ballots out of large envelopes and fed them through a counting machine. This happened only intermittently. Meanwhile, there was no Johnson, the elected supervisor, or his chief PR flak in sight. Johnson had not been seen since the night before. The situation was so exempt of information, the elections office so weird and unresponsive, that one TV reporter remarked loudly that the supervisor’s PIO’s (public information officers) were horrible — as one of them sat in the room silently against a wall.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Nov. 5, 2008, at 2:41 pm
The elections office in Hillsborough has started its task of resuming the count this afternoon, but it could take until tomorrow before we have final numbers out of that county. The St. Petersburg Times reports:
A final tally of votes in Hillsborough County may not be finished until sometime tomorrow, says canvassing board member Judge James Dominguez. Technical difficulties stopped the counting of votes early this morning with tens of thousands of ballots cast during early voting still not tabulated. At about 12:30 p.m. today, the vote counting began again. Dominguez said the task will start with counting about 6,000 absentee ballots cast Tuesday.
Three Democratic challengers’ efforts hang in the balance: Kevin Beckner, who we project has beaten incumbent Commissioner Brian Blair; Phyllis Busansky, who is a few thousand votes behind incumbent Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson; and Stephen Gorham, who is some 15,000 votes behind incumbent School Board member Carol Kurdell and faces a tough task to make up that many votes.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Nov. 4, 2008, at 11:19 am
This from Buddy Johnson’s office at 12:14 p.m. A font of detailed information it is not:
Election Day Report
Hillsborough County- The Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections (SOE) office announces a busy but smooth morning at polling locations around the County. While lines have been reported at a number of locations, wait times have been reasonable and voting is proceeding at every polling location.
The Elections Office anticipated a large turnout and pre-planned for all conceivable issues that might arise with an election of this size. The SOE has experienced minor issues, all of which have been promptly resolved. Precinct Election Officials (PEO’s) have been well-trained to resolve issues at the polls and are knowledgeable of the proper procedural response to ensure a smooth voting process. The Elections Office has an extensive telephone support team designed to facilitate this process.
In the event of an optical scanner malfunction, the Supervisor of Elections office has 15 roving technical support crews to speedily resolve any equipment problems. When confronted with technical problems, all PEO’s have been trained on back-up procedures to ensure that voting can continue uninterrupted until the technical crew arrives. In the event of a machine malfunction, the protocol is to place the paper ballots in the emergency ballot bin. After the polls close, those ballots will be removed by two PEO’s of different political party affiliation and placed in a secure case. Those ballots are then scanned into a fully-functioning optical scan voting machine to be tabulated after the polls close.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 14, 2008, at 10:17 am
Embattled (yes, it’s reached that point) Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson got his head handed to him on this morning’s Tampa Tribune editorial page, in a piece that proclaims Johnson’s credibility is (in the immortal words of Lili Von Shtupp) kaput:
It’s one thing to shrug your shoulders at paying your taxes on time or defending your tax loophole because everyone else tries it, too. But it’s quite another to treat the election process so cavalierly.
Shortly after former Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Johnson to fill former Supervisor Pam Iorio’s term after she quit to run for mayor, Johnson traveled around the country spending taxpayer money to become certified in his job and, theoretically, good at it. For a while, he even wore a two-inch lapel pin that proclaimed his certification.
Judging by the ignorance he recently showed in sworn testimony, it appears taxpayers got little value for his travels.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 12, 2008, at 12:00 pm
Buddy Johnson recently addressing Plant High School students in Tampa, doubtless seeking an answer to the question: What do I do for a living?
Jeff Testerman at the St. Petersburg Times has been hammering away at the Hillsborough elections chief Buddy Johnson for months now, revealing all kinds of unsavory details, from Johnson’s multiple mortgages, his attempt to get greenbelt exemption for his land that is grazed by a handful of rent-a-cows, and his failure to pay property taxes in a timely manner.
This weekend, the latest one-two punch: Process servers say Johnson ducked them for 18 days in a case involving his official duties as supervisor of elections, and depositions in two court cases seem to show that Johnson has, at best, a passing familiarity with the machinations of his County Center operations:
He was unable to describe details of the voter registration process and unwilling to respond to routine questions, including the degrees he held and where he lived. Johnson complained that an NAACP lawyer treated him with condescension, and he briefly donned a football helmet before beginning the second day of testimony.
“I don’t like these (questions),” Johnson told the NAACP attorney at one point. “You have no idea. That language is really bothersome to me, really is offensive, I’ll be honest with you.”
Then there is this gem from the depositions that didn’t make it into the Times, with NAACP lawyer Thomas Abt of New York trying to find out if Johnson’s office allowed people to correct faulty voter registration applications in 2004 after the close of books for the election (by law, 29 days before balloting):
Q. No. My question is simply between the close of books and
election day, did your office allow voters who submitted a
correction after the close of books to make corrections?
A. Well, if they submitted a correction, that would have been
the correction — the correction wouldn’t have been to allow a
correction. So to answer your question, I would say no.
Q. So your answer is no?
A. As I understand your question, the answer is no,
but there were corrections made by virtue of a voter sending in
information directly. That would be the correction.
I’m guessing the real problem here is a failure to communicate between that nosy big-city lawyer and the simple, God-fearing values of Plant City as instilled in Supervisor Johnson.
(Full disclosure: as a political consultant in 1996-98, I worked for Johnson’s opponent in this year’s election, Phyllis Busanksy, on two occasions.)
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 6, 2008, at 10:30 am
Phyllis Busansky, a Democratic Hillsborough County commissioner in the 1980s and ’90s, is set to announce her bid for Supervisor of Elections on Thursday.
Busansky would take on incumbent Supervisor Buddy Johnson if she wins an expected primary contest against fellow Democrat Lee Nelson. Johnson, although a frequent target of news reports about screw-ups in his office, is expected to be a tough pol to dislodge, given Hillsborough County’s skew toward GOP candidates.
Busansky confirmed her candidacy in a conversation with PoHo last night. She is recovered from lung cancer surgery and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2006.
(Full disclosure: I previously worked in Busansksy’s 1996 congressional campaign and worked for her when she was the director of the state’s welfare-to-work program, WAGES.)
Embattled (yes, it’s reached that point) Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections 
for Supervisor of Elections on Thursday.
