TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A top official in Florida's highway agency and her deputy resigned after an investigation into whether state employees were sent to the official's south Georgia home to clean up fallen tree limbs and connect a generator after Hurricane Michael.
Kelley Scott, director of administrative services for the Florida highway agency, and Shane Phillips, the agency's chief of office services, submitted their resignations Monday — departures that become effective next month.
They quit after an internal investigation in the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles concluded that Scott failed to act on a possible ethics violation. The agency's Inspector General said allegations that Scott used state resources to clean up debris at her house were unfounded, but that she did attempt to use agency resources for her personal gain.
Three state workers were sent to her home in Colquitt, Georgia, more than an hour's drive each way from Tallahassee, with a "disaster trailer" loaded with chain-saws, tarps and generators, but they were called back before they could do any work amid concerns about using public resources on a private, out-of-state property, according to the investigative report.
"Scott had knowledge of a possible ethics violation and failed to take appropriate action," the Inspector General's report said.
The Inspector General's report said Phillips wasn't forthcoming with information and investigators had to interview him three times to get pertinent information.
The investigation was launched following an anonymous tip about three weeks after the Category 4 storm devastated swaths of the Florida Panhandle and southern Georgia with wind speeds up to 155 mph (250 kph).
The roof of Scott's home was damaged by the storm, there was no power and downed tree limbs covered the driveway. Phillips sent a crew to help Scott out, despite the objections of at least one high-level official in the agency who thought it was a misuse of state property. The three-man maintenance crew was sent to the house but were there only 10 minutes before Phillips called them, telling them to return to Tallahassee, according to the report.
In a statement, the highway agency's executive director, Terry L. Rhodes, said state employees are vested with the responsibility of making "sound decisions" with public resources.
"We carry this responsibility with us 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Rhodes said. "This duty cannot be ignored or delegated, irrespective of the circumstances."
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.