In Orlando tollroad ex-chair Keen cleared except theme park tickets

Former Orlando tollroad chair Allen Keen has been cleared by the Florida state ethics commission of all public corruption charges except putting $2600 of theme park tickets for friends on the toll authority. Keen, a land and real state developer, was variously accused during a tumultuous several years of:

- using inside information about the routing of new tollroads to make advantageous land transactions

- initiating secret hush money payments of over $100k to the area's leading anti-toll activist to pave the way for a toll increase

- presiding over a host of cosy no-recompetes of lucrative consulting contracts

- using the tollroad offices and staff for fundraising on behalf of Republican candidates

Many aspects of the affair were revealed by the longtime marketing and public relations chief Ron Pecora after the secret hush money payments were discovered by an investigating prosecutor (who never filed charges).

Pecora and the authority then got involved in protracted litigation in which he was fired and accused of billing for jobs never done, while Pecora said he'd been offered a large bribe by a toll authority lawyer to cover for Keen and others... on and on.

But the only charge that the ethics commission has upheld against Keen was that "by soliciting and accepting a gift of Disney World and Universal Studios theme park tickets worth $2,605.25" and by soliciting them from a firm contracting with the toll authority there was probable cause to conclude that he violated two state statutes.

However they decided this week to take no further action since Keen intended to pass the tickets on to others, rather than use them himself.

The Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority now has an almost entirely new board of directors.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-06-12