NEW:
Investigation found Joel Greenberg paid politicos - Sabatini, Ertel, former WWE wrestler Matt Morgan - for consulting services, but auditors couldn't find they produced any work product.
Taxpayers also funded a trip to 4 Seasons to meet Matt Gaetz.
orlandosentinel.com/news/os-prem-n…
.@Jason_Garcia finds ...

"credit card records show that Greenberg used an office Visa to make two $3,500 payments ... to a company called 'MZ Strategy Group'"

The founder appears to be a model-turned-employee for Jason Pirizzolo's medical marijuana organization.
"Records show that Greenberg also used an office credit card to pay $10,000 in late 2017 to Eric Foglesong, a longtime local political consultant...who pleaded guilty last year to grand theft.

Auditors described them as “unknown payments... for ‘community relations consulting.’”
"Foglesong was also one of the only donors last year to Jestine Iannotti, a woman who filed to run as an independent candidate in a Seminole and Volusia-based Senate district."
She has since moved to Sweden.

An investigation into that race is way overdue.
orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-…
"a company set up by former Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel was paid $60,000 last year for 'consulting services.'

Office employees later told auditors that they weren’t sure what Ertel’s company was being paid for because 'he never did anything for us.'"
"Auditors also said they couldn’t determine what state Rep. Anthony Sabatini worked on ... when Greenberg paid him $7,500"

👀But👀
"Emails show ... Sabatini emailed Greenberg to provide a list of situations when tax collectors were forbidden from issuing new driver’s licenses."
Also, this piece - also reported by gumshoe @reporterannie - revealed Greenberg often bcc'd his office correspondence to lobbyist Christ Dorworth - who offered VIP access to a Trump event:

“They will feed us all booze and give us a ride as well as an escort to our luxury boxes.”

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More from @Scott_Maxwell

10 Sep 20
The rest of the world is starting to see who we are.

This is powerful, depressing storytelling.
And maybe this Post piece will awaken people in a way previous stories haven't.

But i doubt it. (1/6)
washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/…
We've written about this for years.
I've written about this for years.
The "Florida Project" was an Academy Award-nominated film about this exact thing - Orlando's destitute motel class toiling in poverty in the shadow of Cinderella's castle. (2/6)
orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-flo…
Yet nothing seems to open the minds and hearts of leadership in this community -- which continue to subsidize the low-wage tourism industry at the expense of almost everything else. (3/6)
orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-…
Read 6 tweets
21 May 20
I read this piece yesterday and didn’t comment on it immediately – because I wanted to think on it.
I did. And I decided this piece isn’t bad because it’s so hackishly partisan (which it is).
It’s bad because it’s just so damn lazy.
It’s just spoon-fed.
nationalreview.com/2020/05/corona…
The author basically says right up top:
He talked with the governor and the governor’s people – and all those people agree the governor’s great.

Stop the presses.
It cherry-picks communities that didn’t have many COVID cases – and completely glosses over places like Miami and Broward that are nationally known hot spots.
Read 10 tweets
21 Oct 19
Tomorrow, Orange County commissioners will vote on doubling taxpayer subsidies for Visit Orlando - to more than $100 million a year.

That's twice what the county spends on its bus system.

It's twice what Visit FLORIDA gets (to market the whole state).
orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-…
This tourism-promotion group is supposed to be a public/private "partnership."
It is not.
At least not mathematically.

The public gave $60 million last year.
Tax records show members only coughed up $3 million in dues.
To promote their own industry, mind you.
Maybe before taxpayers contribute MORE, private beneficiaries should become equal fiscal partners ... in their own slush fund.
Read 7 tweets
29 Dec 18
The @orlandosentinel editorial board recaps 8 years of @AGPamBondi ... and runs out of room to list all of her flaws, flubs and flat-out legally wrong actions.
orlandosentinel.com/opinion/editor…
Like the time she postponed an execution cuz she wanted to attend a fundraising party … for herself.
Or the time she ousted 2 of her office’s top foreclosure fraud investigators … after the industry they were cracking down on complained about them.
Read 9 tweets

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