Two ethics complaints accusing Kissimmee City Commissioner Janette Martinez of misusing her office to benefit friends and associates have been dismissed.
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The Florida Commission on Ethics in Tallahassee voted unanimously last week to dismiss one of the complaints. A second was dismissed last month by a special prosecutor.
Martinez said she was grateful for the dismissals. “It was fake information,” she said. “It’s just a political shenanigan.”
Martinez, first elected in 2022, is seeking reelection this year. In late April, she held a press conference to denounce the ethics complaints filed against her, calling them “false allegations” meant to damage her reputation ahead of the election.
Last week, the ethics commission said it found no legal grounds to suggest she’d given preferential treatment to a business she was tied to under a Kissimmee grant program.
Special Prosecutor Mayanne Downs found the complaint alleging she improperly helped a friend obtain a food truck permit “factually and legally deficient” and said there was “no probable cause to support any enforcement proceeding against Commissioner Martinez.”
Both complaints against Martinez were filed by Jeremy Fetzer, a Toho Water Authority board member, longtime political consultant and ally of Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa.
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Downs, asked to investigate an ethics complaint against the mayor, last week found probable cause to file articles of impeachment against Espinosa because of $50,000 in city grant money awarded to three of the mayor’s family businesses. Espinosa’s attorney has said that “impeachment is neither legally justified nor supported by the evidence.”
The first complaint against Martinez centered on a Kissimmee restaurant owner and friend of hers who sought a permit to host a food truck event at her business. Fetzer alleged Martinez leveraged a personal relationship to steer the permit through, and threatened city staff in the process.
Downs’ report found there was no evidence Martinez influenced the approval or that staff felt pressured. Martinez recused herself from a January vote on the event, according to the report.
The second complaint alleged Martinez ran her own food business, Coqui Kitchen, out of the downtown location of another business, Kenny’s Cake — and that she used her city email to give inside access to the grant program before it was funded. Kenny’s Cake received $10,000 from the program, Business Boost 2.0.
The commission said Martinez had forwarded information from her city email about a grant program open to all local businesses, which was “not inherently corrupt,” the ethics commission wrote, nor was operating at the same address as a grant recipient.
The city commission must now decide how to proceed on Downs’ recommendation to pursue articles of impeachment against Espinosa, which the special prosecutor paired with a call to refer the matter to law enforcement and for the mayor to repay the $50,000. It has not yet said when it will take up the matter.
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