Florida union exec accused of misspending, lawsuit says

TALLAHASSEE — A feud within one of Florida’s largest unions has spilled over into court, revealing allegations that a union president may have misused roughly $140,000 to renovate a Tallahassee office that doubles as the union’s state headquarters.

Vicki Hall, the president for the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employee Florida Council 79, is accused of “stealing union funds” to pay for office renovations that included new wood panel floors, a refinished kitchen, new bathrooms and flat screen TVs, court records show.

The allegations are included in a wrongful termination complaint filed by the union’s former in-house counsel, Stacy Wein, who claims Hall fired her a day after she testified Hall stole union funds to make “expensive but undocumented renovations” to the Tallahassee office.

“Ms. Wein, as union counsel, was in a unique position to know and to confirm that Ms. Hall was in fact stealing union funds and otherwise violating the union’s constitution and state law,” according to a complaint filed Nov. 24 in the 11th Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court Miami-Dade County circuit court.

Read more: https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2020/12/16/florida-public-employees-union-exec-of-misspending-lawsuit-says/