Thursday, November 5, 2009

Ethics complaint: Lake Worth Commissioner Jennings' shutdown of rival's campaign gathering was an abuse of power

In a sworn statement submitted with the ethics complaint, Dario said he received a phone call from Jennings around 1:30 p.m. Oct. 28, the day of the evening campaign gathering for Maxwell.

"Somewhere in this conversation she had identified herself as Cara Jennings, city commissioner, and said to me that if I was to continue to support Mr. Maxwell she did not want me to continue to run my business in this kind of town," Dario said in the sworn statement. "She didn't want people that would support Maxwell to run a business in Lake Worth."

Dario also said in the statement that Jennings encouraged him to get other business owners to denounce Maxwell and that she would tell other people not to patronize his cafe if he allowed Maxwell to hold a campaign event there.

"It sounded like I was in Russia, that she was telling me who I can and can't rent my store to," Dario said.