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South County Commissioner, Aide To Be Implicated in State Complaint
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May 7, 2009 - 10:44:28 PM

By Melody Jameson
mj@observernews.net

Charges of county charter violations by the chief aide to a Hillsborough County Commissioner whose district includes a large part of the South County are to be lodged on the state level.

Terry Flott, chairperson of U-Can, a three-year-old activist group dedicated to monitoring county government, said this week she soon will file a formal complaint with Florida’s attorney general concerning allegations Jess Johnson, aide to Commissioner Al Higginbotham, repeatedly violated the Separation of Powers provisions in the Hillsborough County Charter in the course of his work on behalf of the commissioner. 

Johnson has resigned as Higginbotham’s aide.  His resignation was effective Friday, May 1, the commissioner said this week.
 
In a February 16 letter to Renee Lee, Hillsborough’s county attorney, Flott requested that the county government’s top legal officer forward the allegations to the office of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and seek an investigation of the matter. 

Flott told the Observer this week that Lee has not responded in any way to her carefully explained and documented request in the more than two and half months since her letter was received in the county attorney’s office, not even the customary courtesy of receipt acknowledgement. The county attorney apparently has chosen not to act on Flott’s request, she added.    Lee’s office also did not respond to telephone call from The Observer this week. 

Consequently, the activist said this week she now is preparing to herself make the formal request for an unbiased investigation by state level authorities, based on a long list of instances in which Johnson


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