Posted Dec 14, 2017 at 6:47 PMUpdated Dec 14, 2017 at 6:47 PM
An ethics investigation into state Sen. Greg Steube’s involvement in legislation sought by his former law firm has been closed and the complaint dismissed by the Florida Commission on Ethics, which found “no probable cause” to believe the lawmaker had a conflict that violated ethics laws.
Steube sponsored a bill in 2013 when he was a member of the state House that established a statewide framework for private agencies to help finance public infrastructure. The system was touted as a way for cash-strapped governments to fund needed infrastructure improvements.
Steube’s former law firm, Becker & Poliakoff, advocated for the bill. One of the lawyers at the firm, Lee Weintraub, told investigators he wrote the legislation. The firm represents clients involved in public-private partnerships.
But the law firm’s founding shareholder, Alan Becker, told investigators in a report — first obtained by Politico Florida — that “the effect of the bill’s passage on their law firm was ‘negligible’ — no different from any other large Florida law firm capable of reading and applying the statute.”
State law permits legislators to work and vote on bills related to their professions as long as there is no “special private gain” for the lawmaker, that person’s employer, or others connected to the lawmaker. Steube sought an ethics opinion from the House’s lawyer that determined there was no ethical conflict in him pursuing the legislation, according to the investigator’s report.
Becker told investigators that he “suspects that several law firms” have much larger practices representing clients in public-private partnerships.
The ethics complaint against Steube was filed last year when he was running for the Senate, but questions about his involvement with the legislation appear to go back further.
Lobbyist Richard Watson, who advocated for the public-private partnership bill on behalf of Associated Builders and Contractors of Florida, Inc., told the Ethics Commission investigator that the legislation stalled at one point and “he heard ‘leadership’ had some problem with the bill.”
“Mr. Watson said he learned that there was a question as whether (Steube) was receiving a benefit because of his bill sponsorship and his being a lawyer,” according to the investigation report.
Steube said in a text message Thursday that he is glad to be “fully exonerated.”
“I’m pleased that after a full investigation, the Ethics Commission found that no probable cause existed that I violated the law or ethical standards and have been fully exonerated with the complaint being dismissed,” he wrote.
