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Utility Workers Union Files Ethics Complaints against Lakeland Mayor Fletcher and City Commissioner Yates
(Feb. 16, 2009)

For immediate release:
For more information contact:
February 16, 2009
Mark Brooks, 615/419-2932

imageLakeland, Florida - The Utility Workers Union of America ("UWUA") announced today that it has filed formal complaints with the Florida Commission on Ethics against Lakeland Mayor Ralph "Buddy" Fletcher and Commissioner Edith Yates.

The Union's complaints are based on payments made by City agencies to separate businesses owned by Mayor Fletcher and Commissioner Yates for services provided to the City. The Florida Ethics Code generally prohibits an elected city official from doing business with the City.

Lakeland records show, however, that the City has paid Fletcher Printing more than $11,000 for printing services from July 2000 through July 2008. Fletcher Printing has been owned by Mayor Fletcher for many years.

City records also show that Lakeland Downtown Development Authority has paid an accounting firm co-owned by Commissioner Yates more than $26,000 during 2007 and 2008. Commissioner Yates' firm, Baylis & Company, has provided annual audit and other services to LDDA for many years, and has continued to do so even after her election to the City Commission in 2005.

The complaints, filed by the Union in December, are under preliminary investigation by Ethics Commission staff in Tallahassee. According to the Commission's standard procedures, this means the complaints have been determined to be "legally sufficient," the first procedural step in the investigatory process. After the preliminary investigation, the next step would be for the full Ethics Commission to determine whether there is probable cause that state ethics laws have been violated.

"State law establishes a procedure for citizens to raise concerns about any business dealings between elected officials and the City they are elected to serve, and we're following that process," stated Mark Brooks, the staff researcher who filed the complaints on behalf of the UWUA. "We are satisfied the Ethics Commission will eventually make the correct determination in this case."

The ethics complaints and related documents are available at the Union's website at www.lakelandwastewatch.net.

The UWUA represents workers in the utility and related industries across the U.S., including the working men and women of Lakeland Electric in Lakeland, Florida.
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