Ethics fine against Ben Parks could be waived

Staff at the Florida Commission on Ethics is recommending waiving an $800 fine against former lobbyist Ben Parks.

That proposal will be before commissioners at their meeting next Friday.

Parks had been automatically fined $50 a day for late-filing his third-quarter lobbying compensation reports last year, according to a proposed order.

State law provides for a one-time fine waiver for a late report but Parks already used that in 2013, the order says.

Parks appealed, saying he suffers from “depression, anxiety and high blood pressure” and his home had been burglarized last November causing a loss of his documents.

He also said his bank account was frozen this May after fraudulent checks had been written on his account. Those and other reasons constitute “unusual circumstances” that merit a waiver of the fine, staff said.

Parks, 62, recently pleaded no contest to a charge that he ran a drug house out of his Tallahassee home, according to Leon County court dockets.

Other charges related to illegal drug possession were referred to the county’s confidential drug court for disposition, records show.

Parks, the former long-time lobbyist for the Florida Farm Bureau, was arrested in late February with seven others after neighbors complained that as many as nine people appearing to be living in his five-bedroom Ox Bottom house.

While searching Parks’ home, police found various drugs and paraphernalia and described it as “a communal living setting.”

A neighbor previously told FloridaPolitics.com that Parks was allowing recently released jail and prison inmates to stay at the home.

Parks, a graduate of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, did not register to lobby during the 2016 Legislative Session, according to state records. He also previously represented Florida Crystals Corp.