Kreegel foe files complaint
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080423/BLOG29/159838981
Published Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 5:26 p.m.
A Lehigh Acres man has filed a complaint with the Florida House alleging that Rep. Paige Kreegel, R-Punta Gorda, broke the law and House rules by denying release of public records and using state equipment for election purposes.
Kreegel said Wednesday that he would “defer comment until the (House) leadership has made a decision” on the complaint. But he said the man making the complaint, Robert J. Anderson, had a record of felony arrests and was working with Kreegel’s Republican primary opponent in this year’s re-election, Keith Richter.
“Anderson has repeated problems with thetruth,” Kreegel said.
Anderson made a similar complaint with the House last year that resulted in the November resignation of Barry Millman, an aide of Kreegel’s employed by the Florida House.
A House investigation found Millman had used state computers to send e-mails to Richter’s employer questioning his qualifications.
In response to a legal request for public documents from Anderson in October, Millman denied the e-mails existed. Anderson then asked Florida House officials who found the e-mails on their computer system.
According to the House report, Millman said he was told to contact Richter’s employer by Kreegel because it was “on behalf of a constituent.” Millman also said that Kreegel provided the phone number of Richter’s supervisor at Hodges University in Fort Myers.
House spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin said Wednesday that House rules bar comments on pending complaints against members or staff.
Anderson, president of a group called Lehigh Acres Watchdog, said Wednesday that he is also filing complaints with the state ethics and elections commissions.
“This time, the House should look at (Kreegel), should determine what’s going on and should take some logical explanation of why the representative has done these things,” he said.
Anderson said he had been arrested and convicted of “white collar” crimes in the past including larceny, grand theft and fraud. He said he has "served my time" and probation and is now a registered voter. He said he does not expect his past to affect the validity of his complaint.
“That has nothing to do with it … He (Kreegel) is bringing up sour grapes because he won’t talk about the issues,” Anderson said. “I believe that he’s broken the law or I wouldn’t have filed the complaint.”
Anderson said he is friends with Richter but does not work for his campaign. But Anderson has created a political action committee called the House District 72 Coalition for Better Leadership. The group operates a website - http://paigekreegel.blogspot.com/ - with accusations questioning Kreegel’s qualifications and comparing the two-term lawmaker to a skunk.
Kreegel is a physician and chairman of the House energy committee. He represents DeSoto County and parts of Charlotte and Lee counties.
-- Joe Follick
Pd. Pol. Adv. House Dist 72 Coalition for Better Leadership PAC
Kreegel foe files complaint........
