FL GOP Senator, Evelyn J.Lynn, Gets Sweet Deal

“The way it’s going to look to the public is that she is being personally rewarded for creating this outreach center,” says Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause Florida, a citizens’ rights group. “For a legislator to take direct actions that would result in personal benefit doesn’t pass the smell test.”

Evelyn J. Lynn (R) is being paid nearly $120,000 to direct a Florida State University program she pushed to establish. [$1 million in one-time funds to help FSU establish the outreach center on the campus of Daytona Beach College].
Inside Higher Education reports Lynn was hired without a formal search.
Florida State officials and Lynn herself insist that neither she nor the university have done anything remotely wrong in the arrangement, which they predict will be a short-term position. But watchdog groups and ethics experts say that while the arrangement may fall short of the running afoul of Florida’s conflict of interest laws — which require proof that misuse of one’s position was “corrupt” – the hiring of Lynn for a position that she essentially helped to create is inappropriate.