{"id":46811,"date":"2020-05-22T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T20:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=46811"},"modified":"2020-05-22T16:10:21","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T20:10:21","slug":"current-chairman-of-the-east-lee-county-chamber-of-commerce-michael-welsh-has-an-ethics-complaint-filed-on-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2020\/05\/current-chairman-of-the-east-lee-county-chamber-of-commerce-michael-welsh-has-an-ethics-complaint-filed-on-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Current Chairman of the East Lee County Chamber of Commerce Michael Welsh has an Ethics complaint filed on him"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Bill Saint \u2013 Lehigh Acres Gazette Political Correspondent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The complaint (#20-071) shows at Michael Welch and his business Building Industry Issues of SW Florida<\/a> are alleged lobbyist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a lobbyist: Lobbyist\u201d means a person who is employed and receives payment, or who contracts for economic consideration, for the purpose of lobbying, or a person who is principally employed for governmental affairs by another person or governmental entity to lobby on behalf of that other person or governmental entity. Fla. Stat. Ann. \u00a7 11.045.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is lobbying: \u201cLobbying\u201d means influencing or attempting to influence legislative action or nonaction through oral or written communication or an attempt to obtain the goodwill of a member or employee of the Legislature. Fla. Stat. Ann. \u00a7 11.045.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welch has admitted that on his LinkedIn<\/a> account it states: that he is the CEO of Building Industry Issues of Southwest Florida<\/a> and they do Local and State lobbying in the State of Florida since 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The facts are simple according to the complainant, Michael Welsh is a lobbyist since 2008 and he\u2019s been on the board of Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District<\/a> since 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Documents show that in 2013 and 2014 Building Industry Issues of Southwest Florida is listed as a lobbying firm with the State of Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Florida Statute 112.313 an elected person cannot be a lobbyist in the State of Florida and is a violation that could lead to fines and or jail time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Bill Saint \u2013 Lehigh Acres Gazette Political Correspondent The complaint (#20-071) shows at Michael Welch and his business Building Industry Issues of SW Florida are alleged lobbyist. What… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":46813,"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\/46811"}],"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=46811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}