Touart proposed bribe on tape
A tape obtained by the Pensacola News Journal shows former Escambia County Administrator George Touart, speaking with County Commissioner Gene Valentino, offered to arrange a land deal if Commissioner Valentino would vote to allow Mr. Touart to collect generous retirement benefits.
Mr. Touart is currently challenging Mr. Valentino for the District 2 seat on the County Commission.
The phone call was recorded without Mr. Touart’s knowledge in 2007 as part of a State Attorney’s investigation into his actions; Commissioner Valentino was cooperating with the investigation. Mr. Touart was eventually forced to resign in disgrace after a 3-2 Commission vote, with Commissioners Valentino, Marie Young, and Kevin White voting against allowing Mr. Touart to keep his job long enough to qualify for retirement benefits.
In the call, Mr. Touart tells Commissioner Valentino that he will get his friend and business partner Neal Nash to sell land to the County, but only if Commissioner Valentino supports allowing him to collect retirement benefits:
Mr. Valentino: Well how am I going to get the ballpark? How am I going to get the ballpark? It shouldn’t be linked to your compensation.
Mr. Touart: It’s not! The ballpark’s not linked to my compensation at all, but I’ve got to get that out of the way before you can get the ballpark…
Mr. Valentino: OK, if I vote for option two to figure out how to get you to retirement, how do I get to the ballpark?
Mr. Touart: The ballpark? If I can get that retirement, and the damn thing’s done — and Gene, we didn’t have this conversation — then I’ll go to Neal Nash and get the ballpark.
The State Attorney’s office didn’t prosecute Mr. Touart because the proposed bribe never came to fruition.
Audio: Valentino-Touart conversation
Links
- Pensacola News Journal: “Taped call dials up race for Touart, Valentino”
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Oh, Pensacola… ::facepalm::
The only people we can really blame is ourselves for putting these two in office.
The sad thing is, this is not a surprise at all to anyone familiar with Escambia county politics. If you want to be a successful politician you have to play politics. Its unfortunate that in order to succeed you have to resort to dirty tricks but thats the nature of the game.
It’s how the politicians of Pensacola CHOOSE to play the game. Pensacola’s long standing reputation of corruption is known far and wide, and it hold this community back. I have friends and family that won’t vacation in the panhandle, for a long time now we’ve congregated elsewhere in the state to spend our time together. This year we will go elsewhere and it’s not because of the oil.
Of course Touart could negotiate to buy that land from Nash .
Who wouldn’t jump at a chance to unload that property at that price.
Everytime the government buys property it’s always at an inflated price and they can get an appraisal to back it up . Just like the soccer complex fiasco.