Posted: June 24, 2010 - 12:08am
By TRACEY McMANUS
St. Johns County officials have launched two fraud investigations into misuse of money claims that suspended St. Augustine Ampitheatre General Manager Ryan Dettra made in an e-mail three days before he was put on administrative leave.
In his e-mail to county officials on June 8, Dettra said the county paid $30,000 to a construction company for design documents that were never used and for work on the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall that was never done.
County Administrator Michael Wanchick called for the investigations June 11, the same day Dettra was put on paid administrative leave, said St. Johns County Public Affairs Specialist Karen Pan.
One investigation is headed by the county administration, and the other is an independent review by the St. Johns County Clerk of Court's Fraud Abuse and Waste Unit.
The Fraud Abuse and Waste Unit is led by an independently elected officer out of the Clerk of Court office who investigates anonymous and public reports of fraud, Pan said.
Pan said the investigations are looking into Dettra's overall allegations, but she said she could not say if they are targeting specific individuals.
Dettra wrote in that e-mail it is because of Wanchick that the county is losing up to $1,346 a day in potential revenue due to shortfalls on the project.
"It is under his [Wanchick's] guidance that we have a project that has tripled in cost," he wrote. "It is under his direction that we are spending taxpayer dollars to solicit private funding through our friends of the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall Board."
Officials awarded Bush Construction the bid for the concert hall project in March 2009, although it was not the lowest bidder, Dettra wrote. After a $30,000 payment for unusable design documents and a six-month delay, Construction Services put the project to bid again and changed the scope of the work before presenting the changes to venue managers, Dettra said.
The project remains incomplete and the building on A1A in Ponte Vedra Beach is still vacant.
Dettra also blamed delays in the project to possible political motives of Wanchick and county employees Gene Burns, Mike Rubin and Troy Blevins. In his e-mail, Dettra urged the employees to put personal differences aside and figure out how to make to project gain revenue.
"This project doesn't have to do with politics ... this isn't a Gene Burns and Mike Rubin versus Troy Blevins," Dettra wrote. "This isn't ... how does Michael Wanchick avoid the press during budget cutbacks to preserve his own image. It's a question of how do we do the right things for the community and utilize our resources to keep costs down."
It is unclear if Dettra's June 8 e-mail is related to why he was put on administrative leave. Dettra is under investigation but will continue to receive his $70,875 salary while he is on suspension.
Dettra hired St. Augustine attorney Richard G. Rumrell to represent him in the investigation, though Rumrell would not comment on specifics of the case. He did say the investigation is focusing on the issues that led to Dettra's leave.
"I've not had conversations with the county about resignation or termination," Rumrell said Wednesday, declining to comment further.
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