Mandy Dawson, a former state senator whose district included part of Palm Beach County, was arrested yesterday on a federal income tax charge, the Sun Sentinel is reporting.

Dawson was implicated in a federal public corruption probe into Alan Mendelsohn, a Hollywood eye doctor and major political fundraiser with ties to politicians in both parties.

Mendelsohn told federal investigators that he paid Dawson $82,000 through an intermediary in 2003 and 2005 in an effort to persuade her to support legislation he was backing. Dawson left office in 2008 due to term limits.

Dawson, 55, now lives in Daytona Beach, where she was arrested Wednesday morning.

Read the Sun Sentinel story here.

The fate of a grand jury’s call for tougher sanctions against political corruption now goes to the politicians — with legislation pending in the House and Senate.

Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, filed legislation (SB 1484)  this week that would allow as much as $100,000 in civil fines for some ethics violations — a tenfold increase in currrent penalties. Also, a new $5,000 penalty would be imposed on lobbyists who fail to accurately submit financial disclosure reports.

“Public officials need to be held to a high standard,” Fasano said Thursday.

Fasano, one of former Gov. Charlie Crist’s last allies in the Leigslature, if following through on the recommendations of a statewide grand jury examining public corruption in Florida. Crist sought the grand jury investigation following a string of high-profile corruption cases.

Rep. Lori Berman, D-Delray Beach, filed legislation (HB 249) in January that would boost penalties on public officials convicted in criminal cases of corruption. In addition to the statewide grand jury report, two Palm Beach County grand juries also recommended additional public corruption laws.

The statewide grand jury looking into public corruption issued its preliminary report today and called on the legislature to beef up Florida’s ethics laws.

The 127-page preliminary report suggests that lawmakers take a page from Palm Beach County’s anti-corruption measures enacted after three county commissioners wound up behind bars for misusing their office.

The statewide grand jury, at work for nearly a year and set to expire in February, report recommended requiring employees at private businesses that have government contracts to be subject to the same ethics laws as public employees.

Other recommendations include:
- Tougher sentences for officials who use their public office to commit crimes;
- Creating an independent Inspector General to oversee agency inspectors general;
- Expanding bid-tampering laws to include bid-rigging schemes;
- Giving the Ethics Commission the power to initiate investigations.

The Senate gave final approval to a measure pushed by the Palm Beach County Commission that would allow counties and cities to go beyond current state law in fines and jail time for county officials and staff who violate local ethics ordinances or financial disclosure requirements.

The measure now heads to Gov. Charlie Crist.

Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat running for attorney general, said he sponsored the bill (SB 1980) on behalf of county officials after “three of the seven county commissioners ended up in jail” on public corruption charges.

Under the measure, counties like Palm Beach could double the current fine from $500 to $1,000 and extend jail time from 60 days to one year for corrupt officials.

The House refused to pass a harsher public corruption measure (SB 902) pushed by Palm Beach County’s State Attorney Michael McAuliffe.

His anti-corruption proposals, sponsored by former federal prosecutor and Aronberg primary opponent Sen. Dan Gelber, would have made it a crime for any public official to knowingly withhold information about a financial interest in something on they vote or cause to take place. It would would also have required disclosure of financial interests that could benefit a family member.

Another would enhance penalties for crimes, such as official misconduct, that public officials commit in their official capacity.

The Florida Supreme Court rejected Gov. Charlie Crist’s request for a statewide grand jury to look into corruption.

Crist’s request did not meet the “minimal requirements” necessary to determine that a grand jury is needed, the high court ruled today, by failing to specify what crimes or wrongs occurred and where they took place.

Crist last month petitioned the court to empanel a statewide grand jury to focus on public corruption in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties and the judicial circuit that includes Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties.

The assignment – that the panel investigate public corruption from bribery to other seemingly unrelated crimes such as child pornography and drug offenses – sets forth a “monumental task” so broad as to possibly be untenable, former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald Kogan, a veteran of anti-corruption efforts in Miami-Dade County, said when Crist filed the petition.
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State Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, questioned the need for Gov. Charlie Crist’s grand jury, which would probably recommend a host of laws to smother public corruption.

“The problem is not a lack of ideas,” Gelber said. “It’s the lack of political will to address this issue directly.”

Gelber, a state attorney general candidate, said has been searching for a House Republican to help sponsor his proposal to let state attoneys prosecute under the theft of honest services, which was one of the recommendations from Palm Beach County’s grand jury. Gelber introduced a similar bill last year but it did not receive a hearing.

Gelber also pointed to a constitutional amendment he plans to run this year that would tighten the open records laws for the state’s budgeting process. “If you want to clean up government, let the sun shine on it,” he said.

UPDATE: Crist’s office says the state received a check today for $310,000 from Northwest Florida State College. That’s the balance of the $6 million the school was supposed to receive.

“Anyone is innocent until proven guilty,” Republican Gov. Charlie Crist said today when asked about a Leon County judge’s decision to dismiss key charges against former House Speaker Ray Sansom.

But Crist saw no problem between that statement and his own decision earlier this year to demand the college involved in Sansom’s trial return the $6 million in question.

Crist said his decision was appropriate and pointed out the entire case against Sansom has not been dismissed.

“There are more outstanding issues as I understand,” Crist said.

Asked if state Attorney General Bill McCollum should appeal the judge’s decision, Crist said, “that’s up to the attorney general.”

“I got enough on my plate,” he said.

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After seeing three of their own go to federal prison on corruption charges in less than three years, a majority of Palm Beach County commissioners say they support creating a politically independent watchdog to monitor county government.

A county grand jury recommended such an entity in a report last month, suggesting as a model the Office of Inspector General that Miami-Dade County created after corruption scandals there in the 1990s.

Four Palm Beach County commissioners — Steven Abrams, Karen Marcus, Jess Santamaria and Shelley Vana — say they support the concept of an inspector general.

Commission Chairman Jeff Koons has said he opposes the idea. Commissioner Burt Aaronson said the idea “merits discussion” and he hasn’t taken a final position.

Commissioners are scheduled to discuss the grand jury report July 21.

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Send cards, letters, certain types of books and subscriptions to magazines or newspapers — but don’t send care packages — if you want to ease Kevin McCarty’s eight-month federal prison sentence.

So advises McCarty’s wife, former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, in an e-mail to friends this week as Kevin McCarty reported to a federal lockup in Miami for his role in his wife’s public corruption.

In her e-mail, Mary McCarty called it a “tough day” as her husband went to prison.

More tough days are coming soon. McCarty, who resigned in January and pleaded guilty in March to honest-services fraud, is to be sentenced next week for her misdeeds. She could face five years in prison, but has asked that she be incarcerated for no more than a year and a day.

Mary McCarty’s e-mail advised friends of some dos and don’ts now that Kevin McCarty is in prison.

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