Florida ethics commission tosses parent complaint against Alachua County School Board member

The Gainesville Sun | By Nora O’Neill | April 9, 2024

A complaint filed by a Newberry parent over alleged misconduct by an Alachua County School Board member has been tossed out by the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Parent Lindsay McKeown wrote that she believed board member Tina Certain violated Sunshine Law by making comments in private Facebook groups about a nonprofit’s plans to try and convert the city of Newberry’s three public schools into charter schools. According to McKeown’s complaint, school board member Sarah Rockwell is also in these groups, meaning the two may have communicated in private about an issue that could later come to a vote before the board.

However, the commission returned the complaint to McKeown on Thursday, according to documents obtained by The Gainesville Sun via a public records request.

“I am returning a complaint you recently filed because your complaint does not contain any allegations of conduct potentially implicative of the Code of Ethics,” the letter says. “The Florida Commission on Ethics has no jurisdiction over alleged violations of the Sunshine Law.”

According to the Florida First Amendment Foundation, options for enforcing Sunshine Law include filing a complaint with a state attorney or filing a suit in civil court. Elected officials who violate Sunshine Law are at risk of being suspended or removed from office.

“The actions of Ms. Certain and Ms. Rockwell, therefore, not only challenge the principles of transparency and public trust central to the Sunshine Law but also potentially compromise the fairness and impartiality expected in the School Board’s decision-making process,” McKeown wrote in her complaint. “Their involvement in discussions about the charter conversion outside of public meetings may influence the outcome in a manner that contradicts the spirit of open government.”

Certain told The Sun that she did not violate any Sunshine Laws by posting on Facebook.

“I don’t believe there was any violation of Sunshine Laws,” she said. “As an elected official, I don’t lose my First Amendment right to speak on things and in order for it to be a violation of Sunshine Law, I would have to be talking with another board member about something that we would vote on. For the charter conversion, board members don’t vote on that. That’s a vote between the parents and the teachers.”

Certain also said she believed the complaint was a politically-motivated attack designed to distract people from legal issues and conflicting information put out by Newberry Education First, the nonprofit behind the charter conversion efforts.

“Citizens that are against the conversion and myself have been pushing back with information that contradicts that based on facts,” she said. “I think certain people in Newberry don’t want me to speak, and the [school board] chair and the superintendent had the board attorney call me and ask me to stop speaking…. I think the complaint was meant to try to chill my speech on this.”