{"id":39946,"date":"2016-05-13T17:02:12","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T21:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=39946"},"modified":"2016-05-13T17:02:12","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T21:02:12","slug":"frank-larosa-files-to-run-for-political-office-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2016\/05\/frank-larosa-files-to-run-for-political-office-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank LaRosa Files to Run for Political Office Again?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Frank LaRosa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Frank LaRosa is currently running as a candidate for Lehigh Acres Fire District. He served on the Lee Memorial Health System board from 2006-2010 and also has served as a Lehigh Acres Fire commissioner for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n

It was determined in 2012 that former Lee Memorial Health System (LMHS) elected director Frank LaRosa was receiving\u00a0unemployment compensation\u00a0he did not deserve. Elected officials in the state of Florida do not qualify to receive unemployment. But, LaRosa filed an appeal concerning his\u00a0unemployment compensation\u00a0claim and has officially lost.<\/p>\n

Kristin Lock, a public relations representative for the State of Florida unemployment office, did state LaRosa received unemployment.<\/p>\n

LaRosa, when reached for comment for the Jul 3, 2012\u00a0article\u00a0in the Lehigh Acres Gazette, he replied with a string of expletives not suitable for repetition. But during a phone interview with the\u00a0Lehigh Acres Gazette\u00a0for the Aug 26, 2012\u00a0article,\u00a0LaRosa stated he gave\u00a0all\u00a0his\u00a0unemployment compensation\u00a0to a family in need that lives in a trailer. But he refused to give the name or address of that family. \u00a0Also, he stated all his income from serving on the LMHS board member went to the needy. However, again LaRosa refused to reveal to whom he gave made these charitable donations too.<\/p>\n

According to a story on the\u00a0Lehigh Acres Citizen\u00a0dated 2\/27\/2013 \u2013 \u201cFrank LaRosa, a member of the LACCP, who recently served for six years on Lee Memorial System\u2019s Board of Directors, told the board he had plans to speak personally with Jim Nathan, who heads Lee County Health Systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to documents at the LMHS, LaRosa had a meeting scheduled this week with LMHS President Jim Nathan but the meeting as abruptly canceled by LaRosa. Documents show the cancelation of the meeting was due to LaRosa so called being ill but according sources when LaRosa learned that the LMHS could be asking him for full reimbursement for all taxpayer dollars that the health system had to use to defend the case that\u2019s when he canceled the meeting.<\/p>\n

Documents shows that LaRosa filed for unemployment in January 2011 claiming \u201clack of work,\u201d receiving $135 a week \u2013 money a Florida administrative judge said he wasn\u2019t entitled to because he wasn\u2019t an employee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in the code of ethics and Florida law. That\u2019s something that is out there,\u201d said Jim Humphrey, counsel for Lee Memorial Health System.<\/p>\n

In a statement from the Department of Economic Opportunity, officials said there have been no charges of fraud against LaRosa so far.<\/p>\n

Larosa said he believed it was OK to\u00a0file for unemployment. He said later he thought he was eligible since the state didn\u2019t original deny him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knew it at the time he filed that he should not have filed,\u201d said Jim Humphrey, counsel for Lee Memorial Health System.<\/p>\n

Larosa lost his bid for reelection to the LMHS board in November 2010 and subsequently filed for unemployment benefits claiming there was no work available.<\/p>\n

Documents shows that LaRosa filed for unemployment in January 2011 claiming \u201clack of work,\u201d receiving $135 a week \u2013 money a Florida administrative judge said he wasn\u2019t entitled to because he wasn\u2019t an
\nemployee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in the code of ethics and Florida law. That\u2019s something that is out there,\u201d said Humphrey<\/p>\n

In a statement from the Department of Economic Opportunity, officials said there have been no charges of fraud against Larosa.<\/p>\n

They also stated he is required to repay more than $5,500 \u2013 money the health system won\u2019t get back until he pays up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he is running for another public office, which is public trust, he would reimburse the health system and the state,\u201d Humphrey said.<\/p>\n

During a phone that 2013 interview, LaRosa said \u201cI\u2019m a millionaire and I\u2019ll pay back the money\u201d.<\/p>\n

LaRosa is currently running as a candidate for Lehigh Acres Fire District.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frank LaRosa is currently running as a candidate for Lehigh Acres Fire District. He served on the Lee Memorial Health System board from 2006-2010 and also has served as a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":10281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}