Florida ethics commission won't act on Collier School Board member's financial omission

Dan Glaun, Naples Daily News
·2 min read
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The Florida Commission on Ethics has found probable cause that Collier County School Board member Kelly Lichter failed to list her personal home on her 2017 financial disclosure form.

But the commission said it would take no further action on the matter and also dismissed claims relating to Lichter's ownership of a charter school consulting company.

Lichter said the omission of the home as an asset was an honest mistake, with no intention to deceive the public. She said that the same report listed her home mortgage and that she filed a correction once she was made aware of the error.

“The only thing that they said was inaccurate was that I didn’t list my house as an asset, which I did on every other financial disclosure while I was a board member," Lichter said in an interview. "They unanimously voted not to take action against me.”

School board district 3 candidate Kelly Lichter reacts after seeing the results of her race. She defeated Jen Mitchell. Republican candidates in Collier County were in attendance At Seed to Table in Naples Tuesday November 8, 2022 for an election results watch party. Several speakers addressed the crowd including Alfie Oakes and Gen. Michael Flynn.

The complaint was filed by Joe Phillips, a social media personality and conservative critic of local government better known as "Smokin Joe."

Lichter suggested the allegations were retaliation for her vote to name veteran district administrator Leslie Ricciardelli superintendent, rather than runner-up Charles Van Zant, Jr.

“This was purely political. This was filed three weeks after I was the swing vote for the superintendent in Collier County," Lichter said. "This is harassment. This is why a lot of people don’t get involved in politics, because of things like this."

Phillip's complaint also alleged that Lichter had mislabeled her ownership of Classical Charter Management Group, an education management and consulting firm. But the commission did not find any misconduct because the business had no real value.

"Respondent maintains that the company never conducted any business, had no assets or anything of value, and only existed on paper," the commission's advocate Elizabeth Miller wrote in a report.

The commission also dismissed a separate complaint that Lichter, the president of the public charter school Mason Classical Academy, had voted to give a school contract to the employer of another school board member.

Because the contract did not benefit Lichter or her family no rules were broken, the commission found.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Florida ethics commission says Lichter won't be punished for omission