Sink: ‘breakfasting’ DOT officials should resign
by Dara Kam | December 14th, 2009Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is outraged over high-ranking transportation officials’ use of code words in e-mails, possibly to avoid being captured by public records requests.
The Palm Beach Post reported this weekend that Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos and Deputy Secretary Kevin Thibault exchanged messages in November with “pancakes” and “french toast” as the subject lines in e-mails crafting the sweeping rail bill lawmakers approved last week.
The messages had nothing to do with breakfast.
The officials should quit if the messages were intended to subvert the state’s broad public records laws, Sink said.
“We live in the Sunshine State, and this is not the way the people’s business should be done. Those who acted this way should be held accountable, which is why if anyone at the Department of Transportation was involved in this activity, including Secretary Kopelousos, they should immediately resign,” Sink, a Democrat who is running for governor, said in a statement this morning.
In another message, FDOT attorney Bruce Conroy advises FDOT general counsel Alexis Yarbrough not to reply to a chain of messages concerning whether the department needed to change state law to broaden its powers over high speed rail projects.
“Fyi below to discuss in lieu of emails,” Conroy wrote on Oct. 19.
Thousands of e-mails from state transportation officials revealed that CSX - the transportation giant that stands to get at least $432 million from taxpayers in a deal to build a Central Florida commuter rail line - played a major role in crafting the legislation.
Tags: Alex Sink, CSX, FDOT, Florida Department of Transportation, special session, Stephanie Kopelousos
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December 14th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Wait???? CSX “played a major role in crafting the legislation.” How can that be???? I recall those who were pushing this bill in the Senate telling anyone who questioned the CSX deal: “This is not a CSX bill.”
December 14th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Well, Duhhh, they knew exactly what they
were doing. If the state had any balls,
it would just take the money back, but
we all know they won’t. You’ll never hear another word about any kind of equity in this.
December 14th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Does it surprise anyone that the politicians’ motto is PLAY TO PAY. The problem is with the citizenry who choose to forget these shenanigans on election day.
Crist is a fiscal terrorist!
December 14th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
OOPS! Need to correct - the motto is PAY TO PLAY
December 14th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Since the FDOT bigshots work directly under the Governor’s direction. I do not remember voting in the crooked leaders of the FDOT. I do remember voting against a crook who was subsequently elected Governor of Florida. Crits appears to be a magnet of the corrupt deal cutters. Anyone who gets close to him is eventually indicted or arrested for some crime. This culture of corruption has spread all over the state. Any agency that comes under the jurisdiction of the Governor knows they are free to do as they please because their actions will not be investigated and will actually be covered up by these organized crooks.
Hopefully the Feds are looking into all this corruption before more people have to move out of state to get away from it.
December 14th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Why do you think Warren Buffet invested in rails?!!!
More robbery from the taxpayers.
Vote in the next elections!
No more TAXERS and SPENDERS!
December 14th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” - Edward R. Murrow
Join “Campaign for Liberty” We must stop this spending.
December 14th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
[...] About Post On Politics Contact the bloggers Across Florida What’s happening on other political blogs? « Sink: ‘breakfasting’ DOT officials should resign [...]
December 14th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
“Alex Sink’s record as a banker is clear - millions for her own pockets, thousands laid off from their jobs and taxpayers bailing out her subprime mortgages. It’s no wonder she won’t talk about it.”
December 14th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Throw them out of office and IMPRISON THEM!!
This is CORRUPTION BY PUBLIC OFFICIALS!!
December 14th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
cink is right…the problem is after her request….all will go away…..someone needs to stay on it and make sure IT HAPPENS!
December 14th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Anyone surprised? This is just the next government ripoff of the tax paying public, to benefit wealthy special interest groups.
Demand a Federal investigation of this obvious corruption.
December 14th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
WHY ALL THE FUSS??????? the DOT needs Right of Way for the rail, of course they have to pay for it. using the existing RR R/W is much faster and easier than to create their own for the sunrail.
December 15th, 2009 at 8:49 am
[...] The code words prompted Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat running for governor, to ask Kopelousos and Thibault to resign. [...]
December 15th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
After Crist took his Atty General counsel with him, and created a duplication of the Atty general’s duties in his Governor’s “Open Gvt” commission, I find this commical.
MCCullom is saying to the State, let Crist explain this problem and defend his DOT pick.
As Pat Gleason REFUSED to do for me, when I asked for PSC emails and GC Harold McLean’s “missing computer” (2003) when he left the PSC after my Fla Bar complaint, Gleason’s own office refused to push the matter.
Only when the General Counsel atty general Gleason in 2003-5 was given emails from the Ethics commission from her own Attys Bogan and Peterman that they fixed things for PSC lila Jaber, but she still refused.
Basically, Jaber first Ethics commission complaint that she changed staff rec drafts before hearings without other comimssioners knowing. They included SPECIFIC emails from staff attys and HERSELF from a PSC record request by Supra, a phone company challenging Bellsouth’s (Marshall Criser helped Jaber move into her new home FDLE complaint and investigation) now AT&T deals.
What you should be looking into? The GAMING of investigations by gatekeeper GOP friends of Crist and Jeb…The Advocate office reviews the Ethics commission investigations. Then Bogan and Peterman provide the Ethics comission panel review board with a determination for their VOTE…
McCullom has his own skeletons in the closet…These men are still working for him, now.
December 15th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
[...] provide public service. But I expected them to somewhat competently sell out their state to CSX. Instead, we find Kopelousos and another top DOT official, Kevin Thibault, using goofy comfort food … This would, critics say, help them avoid detection when public records requests sought to search [...]
December 30th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
[...] we find Kopelousos and another top DOT official, Kevin Thibault, using goofy comfort food codewords like “french toast” and “pancakes” in the… related to controversial elements of the CSX deal. This would, critics say, help them avoid [...]