Unbelievable, but he is the new President presiding over the Florida Senate and while no date has been set, it is expected that Mike Haridopolos (R-Merritt Island) will be admonished by the full Senate, for failing to disclose a property valued at over $300,000 on his financial disclosure forms for 5 years, as well as, monies collected from clients for whom he has consulted.
It gets worst.  The State Ethics Commission, chaired by Sen. John Thrasher R-St. Augustine and who backs Haridopolos in his 2012 U.S. Senate bid, was one of those voting on what his punishment should be!
Haridopolos, who says he has now corrected his financial disclosure forms, claimed that he did not “adequately follow the instructions on the forms that were filed and relied on forms from previous years for consistency.”
So, for five long years, Haridopolos did not disclose a $325,000 Lake County home. Nor did he report about the clients of his MJH Consulting firm and those he represented for the firm Syntax Communications of Long Island, New York, for which he was paid $25,000 between 2004 through 2006, reports the News Service of Florida.
It does not get any better for Haridopolos.
On Monday, there are news reports that he was paid $152,000 in taxpayers money for a book he wrote on politics for Brevard Community College four years ago, but the book was never published. Apparently, one copy of a manuscript exists at the College.
The book, “Florida Legislative History and Processes”, falls far short of what was expected, according to the signed contract, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Haridopolos was tasked with producing a publishable, textbook-quality book, which looked at the development of the Florida Legislature, state constitution, the governor’s office and judiciary from pre-statehood, up to the present. As it turned out, the “book” is largely about Haridopolos’ advice on running for office and aimed at those who know nothing about government.
So basic is the “book” that, Haridopolos explains that the Legislature is made up of two branches, the House and the Senate–basic knowledge, with little research undertaken, reports the AP.
Current Brevard Community College President Jim Drake, who did not retain Haridopolos to write the “book” told the AP that, it is “useful” and will soon be distributed to students. However, Drake did acknowledge that Haridopolos’ contractual arrangement was “unusual” and his “compensation was a lot more than usual.”
