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George Touart

533 bytes added, 14:28, 3 September 2007
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After the fallout of the [[Bauer Road]] land deal, some of Touart's other business relationships were criticized for presenting potential conflicts of interest for the county administrator.<ref name="morelinks">"George Touart reveals more business links." ''Pensacola News Journal'', August 29, 2007.</ref>
*Touart is a partner in Mississippi-based employee staffing firm [[Global Employment Services]], which has done work for the Disaster Recover division of [[R. W. Beck Group]], which in turn was awarded millions by Escambia County for debris removal after hurricanes [[Hurricane Ivan|Ivan]] and [[Hurricane Dennis|Dennis]] and was pending approval to cleanup Escambia's coastal waterways. Touart insists that his relationship to the company is not improper, as Global Employment Services (GES) has never done work in Escambia County. He told the ''[[Independent News]]'', "I've checked with the state ethics commission and with ([[Escambia County Attorney]]) [[Janet Lander]]. I don't have an ethics issue because the R. W. Beck contract with county was signed before we (GES) did any work with them and because my company (GES) does not work in Escambia County."<ref>[http://inweekly.net/article.asp?artID=5431 Touart offers up his side]</ref>
*In [[2005]], Touart and then-[[County Commission]]er [[Bill Dickson]] partnered with Dickson's cousin, CPA [[Barry Dickson]], to purchase an 8% share in a waterfront investment property in Mississippi. Barry Dickson was offered the share by his clients, developers [[Allen Levin]] and [[Cliff Mowe]]. "This was Barry Dickson's deal," Touart said.<ref name="morelinks"/> Touart and Dickson assert there was nothing illegal in the partnership, as the property in question is in Mississippi, not Escambia County, but others have questioned the propriety of such an arrangement. ''[[Pensacola News Journal]]'' columnist [[Mark O'Brien]] posited, "Imagine if Touart messed up as administrator. A commissioner might have trouble disciplining a guy he was partners with on a development deal."<ref>"By George, the man is the Donald Trump of the Panhandle." ''Pensacola News Journal'', September 3, 2007.</ref>
*Touart's son [[Matthew Touart|Matthew]], of the Arety's Angels scandal, is employed by [[Cantonment]]-based contractor [[Roads, Inc.]],<ref>[http://roadsinc.com/id2.html Roads, Inc. website]</ref> which is regularly awarded contracts by [[Escambia County]] government.