STUART — State investigators found evidence that Martin County school employees accepted free lunches and work done on their homes from a district-employed vendor to whom they frequently funneled work, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said in a report released Tuesday.

The employees’ actions would not be enough to warrant criminal charges, the FDLE concluded, even though the report said they violated district policies against accepting gifts from vendors.

All four district employees named in the report left or were fired last year during a controversial purge by schools Superintendent Nancy Kline.

District leaders declined to comment Tuesday because of pending litigation with the company named in the report, Riviera Beach-based Florida Mechanical LLC. Attempts to reach the company were unsuccessful Tuesday night.

In the FDLE report, which the district made public Tuesday, investigators wrote that Kline and the district’s labor representative had asked them to examine allegations that maintenance employees were giving work to Florida Mechanical in exchange for “bribes” of free meals and air conditioning service.

A previous internal investigation by the district had provided “strong circumstantial evidence,” the FDLE wrote.

Before the state investigation began, Kline conducted a sweeping housecleaning of district staff last year based on preliminary information in a state audit and the district’s investigation.

The district fired two employees based on Kline’s recommendation, and later she chose not to renew the contracts of nearly a dozen people in the maintenance, facilities and purchasing departments. The supervisor of maintenance and facilities also resigned.

The maintenance scandal was one of the most contentious issues in Kline’s first year in office, with some school board members and other critics accusing her of carrying out personal vendettas.

FDLE investigators didn’t find evidence to support fraud charges against the ex-employees, saying the case appeared to be a “civil” matter. But they noted violations of school policies related to bidding, contracting and purchasing. They noted particularly those instances in which school employees accepted “gifts” from Florida Mechanical.

They wrote that a former Florida Mechanical employee told them that a company manager had turned in receipts “four or five times a month” from lunches with two school employees, both of whom were later terminated.

One former district employee told investigators he didn’t have personal relationships with anyone at Florida Mechanical, but then admitted that he and his wife exchanged a weekend at company President Ken Morgan’s home in St. Augustine for the use of the ex-employee’s frozen drink machine at two company parties, according to the report.

The same employee said a “personal friend” of his, who worked for Florida Mechanical, helped him fix his home air conditioner free of charge.

Another employee was seen at a company barbecue.

In the period since the maintenance employees were terminated, school officials say they have spent about $650,000 less on certain types of repairs than they had during the same time period the previous year.

Florida Mechanical and an ex-employee have filed a total of three lawsuits against the district related to the maintenance scandal.

Tags: education, Martin County

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 10:07 pm and is filed under Martin County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.