LAWMAKERS SEEK ANSWERS ON OKALOOSA TOURIST DEVELOPMENT SCANDAL

By JIM TURNER
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, March 4, 2013….Lawmakers on Monday voiced their displeasure that Okaloosa County Commissioner Don Amunds advised several local Tourist Development Council members that by resigning they could possibly skip out of a subpoenaed appearance before the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee. 

However, no action is expected this session against any local official from legislators as the state continues to await an audit into how the county’s late tourist development leader, Mark Bellinger, siphoned bed tax and BP oil-spill compensation money into a posh $747,000 home in Destin, a 40-foot Marquis yacht worth $710,000, a Porsche and other personal items.

Amunds told the committee he was only trying to help “keep them from getting drug through the mud.”

Three of the tourist council members who did resign still appeared Monday. 

TDC Chairman-elect Warren Gourley said the perception from county officials is that the BP fraud scandal, along with the other local problems involving elected officials, are being used by state lawmakers from the area to control the oil spill restoration money and "give the county a bad name."

"If I was a legislator I’d be embarrassed by my county.  I’m embarrassed by my county," said Gourley, who rejected the request to resign.

Bellinger killed himself after his spending became public last May.

The scheme is also under investigation by the FBI, Attorney General’s Office and local law enforcement.

According to marketing officials in Okaloosa County, Bellinger would send money to agencies that worked with the county and then have the firm wire the money to a bank account.

In one instance, while the county was scrambling for ideas to draw tourists in the wake of the BP oil spill, Bellinger purchased a Porsche and convinced a marketing agency that it was part of a promotional campaign. He got the agency to pay for the car and bill the county.