Story Archive

Wanna Bump?

Catherine Padilla was trying to get her town to install speed bumps when, she says, Mayor David Stewart asked her to “occupy” a motel room with him in exchange. She refused. Before the Lantana, Fla., council met, she says, he asked her again and she refused again; after the speed bumps were approved and she didn’t thank him, he threatened to have them removed. Stewart denies the accusation, and Town Manager Debbie Manzo said she’d never heard of another such charge against him. The Florida Commission on Ethics, however, found “probable cause” for a hearing on whether the mayor, in effect, solicited a bribe. It dismissed Padilla’s other complaint for lack of an accusation that the mayor’s conduct had a purpose of providing anyone a special benefit: that at a banquet, when Manzo expressed disappointment in her entree, Stewart told her, “You haven’t tried my meat yet.” (AC/Palm Beach Post) ...So one case hit a bump. That doesn’t mean the other one is screwed.