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Crist Ordering Investigation into “Wafflegate”
12/15/09 - 04:00 PM

Associated Press

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Gov. Charlie Crist is ordering an investigation of the state Department of Transportation in connection with a situation that’s being called “Wafflegate.”

Critics say it looks as though Florida’s top transportation officials tried to get around public records laws when they discussed a controversial rail project via e-mail.

A top manager at the Florida Department of Transportation used breakfast-related code words, such as “pancakes” and “French toast” in his e-mails’ subject lines when he sent messages about the project to his boss, Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos (COP-uh-LOO-sus).

The e-mails actually contained documents about the rail legislation that state lawmakers eventually approved during a special session.

Sen. Paula Dockery criticizes the breakfast-related subject lines, saying that’s not the way to do public business. She and Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink are calling on Kopelousos to resign.

But the transportation secretary insists the subject lines were only intended to help her find that e-mail out of the hundreds she gets.

“Clearly we’re not trying to circumvent any public records. I mean, that’s not the way we operate here. That’s not how we do things here. Really, I was traveling and one of my team members was trying to get me to look at a document and in an attempt to find an easy search topic, he put in the subject line ‘pancakes.’ And that was truly all it was, was a way for me to look at a document as quickly as I could,” Kopelousos said.

“I followed it and I’m not terribly concerned. I think that the secretary’s done a great job and I’ve been briefed on it and what I’m most happy about is that we got the rail passed. I just think that’s so important for jobs for our fellow Floridians at this critical time in our economy. It’s a great Christmas gift to Florida,” Gov. Crist said.

Earlier Tuesday, Gov. Charlie Crist said he had been briefed on the situation and was not terribly concerned about it. But late this afternoon, he issued a statement directing his Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel to conduct an investigation of the e-mails at the Department of Transportation.