We were happy to hear that an advocate with the Florida Commission on Ethics has recommended that there is no probable cause to pursue an ethics complaint filed last year by Billy Shepherd, of St. Cloud, against Osceola County district 5 School Board Member Tom Long.

The allegations were that Long had interfered with the bidding process as it related to a ready-mix concrete contract and that he disclosed information to a vendor during the bidding procedure.

As we have pointed previously, we believe the ethics complaint was politically motivated and meant to discredit Long because the complainant has close ties to John McKay, former School Board chairman and the incumbent Long beat in the 2010 run-off election. Shepherd paid $2,500 for a third-party political flier in 2010 that pointed out that McKay was a Republican even though state law bars school board candidates from campaigning based on any affiliation to a political party. At the time, McKay said he had not approved the flier but that he was aware of it and “glad to accept the support.”

In addition, McKay had and continues to have close business ties to Bedrock Industries, the company that was not successful in securing the ready-mix contract.

What Long did was to help bring more competition into the bidding process for concrete and a decision in the School Board’s favor in a bid protest from Bedrock Industries shows Long acted properly.

The recently released forensic audit – which Long had pushed for – points out a possible $1.2 million in questionable spending for construction contracts. The amount that the district could potentially recover far exceeds the cost of the audit, which means taxpayers again are being protected by the actions of the current School Board. Bringing more accountability to school construction projects is protecting taxpayers.

We also applaud Long for not wanting to seek reimbursement from the School District for costs relating to the ethics complaint.

The commission will consider the complaint on Friday, March 30, and if it agrees there is no probable cause to believe an ethics violation occurred, then no further action will be taken. We hope that is the case.