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Genshaft's Plane Ride Raises Eyebrows

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 2, 2008

When University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft flew to Tallahassee in March to lobby for the USF Lakeland campus, she took a private plane owned by the law firm that represents the company donating the land for the campus, a company that stands to make millions on neighboring lands it still owns.

The trip is unsettling because it comes close to violating Florida's ethics laws.

The law says private flights are considered a gift and must be reported, which Genshaft did on a gift disclosure form.

But the law also says a gift cannot be accepted if it is given to influence an official action, vote or judgment.

The plane was owned by GrayRobinson, the powerhouse Florida law firm that represents The Williams Co., an Oklahoma company donating 530 acres for the Lakeland campus if partial funding for the first building can be secured this year.

Genshaft says she accepted the ride after weather and mechanical problems kept her from taking a commercial jet. Stranded, she said she had no choice but to take the GrayRobinson plane. She says she intended to pay for the flight, though she didn't do so until the propriety of the flight was questioned last week.

Genshaft knows the law's parameters because in August 2000, when she took a trip to Arizona on a plane owned by Florida Power, USF attorney Noreen Segrest made it clear that she could not accept the flight if the company was trying to influence official action.

The recent ride conveys the impression that The Williams Co. is in the driver's seat when it comes to USF Lakeland.

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