Panel will review bidtampering allegation
A state ethics commission has found there is probable cause to pursue an investigation into the actions of a former Broward County employee, a year after the county’s ethics czar urged the commission to take action.
Last September the Broward Office of the Inspector General contended that James “Jim” Fourcade, Broward Transit’s former director of maintenance, and Fraser Tool and Gauge, a Michigan-based brake parts vendor, worked together to steer a $241,983.36 contract to Fraser.
The inspector general’s office said Fourcade worked with the father-son owners of the company not only to draft and create the “specifications for the brake kit solicitation” but also to bid on it. Fraser Tool and Gauge received the winning bid in 2018.
Fourcade declined to comment Monday when reached on his cellphone and referred questions to his attorney. His lawyer, George Levesque of Tallahassee, could not be reached for comment.
The state ethics complaint said Fourcade gave David “Dave” Lawrence and Geoff Lawrence enough details so that even when the county erred and advertised for 40 parts in the bid specification for a certain brake kit, Fraser submitted a bid for only 26 parts “due to the knowledge it had of the county’s actual needs.”
And when a county worker assigned to handle bid specifications for the brake kits contracts said she didn’t have enough training or technical expertise to do so, Fourcade had the Lawrences help her with the task, according to the investigation.
When asked previously by the South Florida Sun Sentinel if he knew rules were being broken, Dave Lawrence had said, “Zippo. Absolutely nothing.”
When the office of Inspector General investigators interviewed Fourcade, he said “he had no recollection” of an email where he forwarded one of the Lawrences an Excel spreadsheet detailing bus brake applications.
“He said he did not know what the information on the spreadsheet represented,” according to a report.
The state ethics commission, in a recent closed-door session, found there was enough evidence to pursue the case, even though Fourcade has since resigned his county job.
The order finding probable cause says Fourcade might have violated state law “by using his position and/or public resources within his trust for his benefit and/or another’s benefit ... by using information not available to the general public and obtained due to his position for his benefit and/or another’s benefit.”
Fourcade was Broward Transit’s director of maintenance from October 2016 until his resignation in July 2020 while the Inspector General still was investigating. He earned $151,451 a year.
Now that the state ethics commission found there is probable cause to believe there has been a violation of the ethics laws, Fourcade can request a public hearing, essentially a trial, where evidence will be presented, or resolve the issue through a stipulated settlement.
Penalties typically involve removal from office by the governor or suspension, which would be moot in this case, or a public censure and reprimand or a fine.
Meantime, prosecutors say they won’t pursue a case against Fourcade.
The State Attorney’s Office decided in April to drop the complaint, writing in a memo that there was no criminal intent to meet the elements of bid tampering, or any other federal charge, according to a joint investigation with an agent with the investigations division of the U.S. Department of Transportation.