ST. CLOUD, Fla. — The St. Cloud city manager is facing an ethics complaint after driving a police car as his primary vehicle for more than a week.
The city said he did nothing wrong, but dome residents call it a lapse of judgment.
No policy exists regarding the use of a police vehicle as a primary vehicle.
More than a month ago, a vote at St. Cloud City Hall approved buying more than $200,000 worth of Ford Explorers for the St. Cloud Police Department.
And while dealer tags were still on one of them, the city manager spent 10 days driving one of those Ford Explorers around town, including back and forth to his house.
"I utilized a city vehicle for 10 days. And I just wanted to make the council aware of that,” said City Manager Bill Sturgeon.
According to records, he paid the city back a total $160 for using the vehicle, although it was from his taxpayer-funded monthly car allowance.
That comes out to $16 a day for an SUV that would cost much more as a typical rental.
An ethics complaint about the incident claims it’s an abuse of tax dollars, but the city released the following statement:
"It's no secret that this is an act of retaliation, raised by a former contract employee who was recently terminated by the City Manager for ethics violations for practicing real estate without a license as confirmed by the state's investigation."
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation had conducted an investigation into the author of that ethics complaint.
Around town, people told Channel 9’s Field Sutton they thought filing something official was overkill.
"We need to look at the more important, bigger issues here. We have a fundamentally honest fellow who made a bad decision and corrected it,” said Hughette Crumpler, who lives in St. Cloud.
Cox Media Group
