The Palm Beach Post is reporting that Rick Scott is (finally) in the process of divesting his familys shares of Solantic, the health care company that Scott co-founded in 2001, to eliminate any perception of a conflict of interest.
As Scott continues to push policies that critics say would benefit the urgent care chain (such as drug tests for welfare recipients and state workers, and moving Medicaid patients into HMO's), the Governors' spokesman has always said simply that there's no conflict of interest, because he had passed controlling interest in the company to his wife, Ann.
When asked about this yesterday, Scott replied,
"As you know, Ive been transparent. I was transparent in my race. Ive put those assets in my wifes name, Scott said. Everybody knows it. Ive been very clear. Ive said that the state will not have a contract with that company. Ive told everybody, Hold me accountable.?
But as the Post reports, that's poppycock, after they became the first media organization to report that Scott had transferred his shares with the company to his wife:
Despite Scotts reiteration that hes been transparent about transferring the Solantic shares to his wife, it was The Post that first reported the transfer March 13 after interviews with company officials. Six requests to the governors office on the topic had been ignored.
This news comes as Clearwater activist David Plyer has filed an ethics complaint, accusing the Governor of using his office to benefit Solantic.