Andrew Gillum’s ethics fine: Is $5,000 a lot or not?

By.Steve Contorno


Photos of Gillum's trip in NYC. Andrew Gillum, Adam Corey Undercover FBI agents were the ones who gave Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum a ticket to the Broadway show Hamilton during a trip to New York City in 2016, according to a trove of records given to the ethics commission and released to the public today. Text messages between Gillum and former lobbyist Adam Corey, who arranged outings with undercover agents looking into city corruption, were among more than 100 pages of records Corey gave the ethics commission, which is investigating trips to Costa Rica and New York that Gillum took in 2016. Corey's lawyer, Chris Kise, released the records today, just two weeks before the election, because the state ethics commission issued a subpoena for the records just last week.

There was Frank Peterman, Jr., a state secretary whose excessive travelbetween Tallahassee and his St. Petersburg home cost taxpayers thousands of dollars.

And John “Jack” London, an ex-Mornoe County commissioner who illegally lobbied his former colleagues to approve a controversial and scandal-plagued sewage deal.

What do these former public officials have in common with former Tallahassee mayor and Democratic nominee for governor Andrew Gillum? A $5,000 fine from the Florida Commission on Ethics.

On Wednesday, Gillum agreed to settle his state ethics case stemming from the investigation into trips with a Tallahassee businessman to Costa Rica and New York for the Broadway hit Hamilton. In reaching an agreement, a state ethics commission lawyer said she would drop four of five charges if Gillum paid a $5,000 fine.

RELATED: Andrew Gillum agrees to $5,000 ethics fine.

Records show FBI agents gave Andrew Gillum tickets to ‘Hamilton’

Andrew Gillum’s ethics case continues after Florida commission finds cause

Gillum said the settlement was “vindication” that he never knowingly broke the law, but the size of the fine was much higher than the typical penalty from the state’s ethics watchdog.

Since 1975, the Florida Commission on Ethics has found violations of state and local laws in 929 cases, according to a Tampa Bay Times review of a state database of fines. Of those cases, Gillum’s fine was in the top 8 percent.

Half the cases with fines were for less than $630. That median rose in the last decade — to about $1,000 — but that’s still a fraction of what Gillum agreed to pay.

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