Okaloosa County T-D-C Gets Grilled by Florida Legislature
Lawmakers are grilling the group trying to find out why no one
realized T.D.C tax money was being used to buy expensive items
never intended for the county.  The Joint Legislative Auditing
Committee spent three hours asking about the hundreds of
thousands of dollars that were misspent by the former T>D.C
Director. Mark Bellinger bought a Porsche, a yacht, and a luxury
house using public money.  Two ad agencies were instructed to
pay and then bill the county for the purchases. Ellen Wingard of
Lewis Communications says she invoiced the county more than
seven hundred thousand dollars, then wired the money to a bank
account controlled by Bellinger.  State Representative Dan
Raulerson asked the agency how that was possible. "And no one in
your firm determined or verified the ownership of that
particular bank account where you were sending 747,000 dollars.
Is that what I heard you say?"  Ellen Wingard of Lewis
Communications replied. "No, we did not. We ha