Panel hears complaint worker pressured shop
Ron Cheston Automotive filed ethics complaint.
WEST PALM BEACH — A former analyst for Palm Beach County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management on Thursday faced the county Commission on Ethics’ first full hearing of an ethics complaint since it was formed in 2009.
The commission usually disposes of complaints with a dismissal, a “letter of instruction,” a reprimand or a fine. Previous cases always have been settled, but Rowan Hughes insisted on using his right to a hearing on the allegation that he tried to intimidate a Riviera Beach auto repair shop into giving him a discount while he was a county employee.
“He’s maintained his innocence since Day One,” his lawyer, Jelani Davis, said after Thursday’s hearing.
If the commission finds Hughes intentionally violated ethics rules, he could be reprimanded and fined up to $500. It also could refer its findings to the Palm Beach County State Attorney.
The ethics panel met Thursday until around 2 p.m., then recessed to 10 a.m. Monday. It had hoped to finish Thursday but had complications with some witnesses.
In November, the commission cited Hughes after a November 2015 report by the Palm Beach County Office of Inspector General said he falsely identified himself as a wellfield inspector and said he would have to conduct an inspection.
Early on Thursday, Davis conceded one of the t wo c o u n t y c o mpl a i n t s , t h a t Hughes drove a county ERM car to the repair shop to settle his bill.
ERM director Rob Robbins testified Thursday he fired Hughes Dec. 21, 2015, after finding evidence Hughes falsified logs for county car use and later admitted driving to the shop in a county vehicle.
Hughes did pay the $3,622 b i l l f o r t h e work by Ro n Cheston Automotive, but the father and son who run the shop filed complaints with the county the following day, said Patrick Quinlan, recently named an assistant state attorney and who for several months, as a private attorney, has been acting as the de facto prosecutor for the administrative case.
ERM deputy director Dan Bates testified by phone that Hu g h e s t o l d h i m h e h a d pushed the shop for the discount. Hughes disputes that.
“He asked if there were any discounts for county employ- ees,” said Bates, who was out of town on a family emergency. He said Hughes told him he expected Cheston would call about his confrontation and Hughes wanted to give him advance warning.
On Thursday, owner Ron Cheston testified to the commission that Hughes asked him to lower the bill by $400. He said Hughes told his son, Ron Jr., the firm’s lead mechanic, he was a “senior inspector” at ERM and the shop has wellfield issues. The senior Cheston said Hughes then told him “he could make my life a little rough and it was in my interest to do something about it (the bill).”
L o o k i n g T h u r s d a y a t Hughes, sitting just feet away, Cheston testified he told the analyst that day in 2015, “You don’t come to my business threatening me, threatening my family, threatening my income.”
Cheston told Quinlan, the attorney, that as Hughes left, he told Hughes he would be calling the county about the encounter.
Cheston said that he relies on word of mouth and that reporting the incident has hurt business.
“I am so sorry I did this. This is the worst thing that has happened to me,” he said. “I should have given the man the $400.”
Cheston said Hughes also had called the credit card company and tried to freeze the transaction but it eventually was paid. Hughes has alleged the shop filed a false complaint because Hughes challenged the bill.
Cheston on Thursday called that “absolutely false.”
Whe n Hu g h e s ’ l aw y e r challenged that, an agitated Cheston told him: “You’re an absolute liar. I take it personally when somebody calls me a liar.” Davis also bristled and said he was just doing his due diligence for his client.