FDLE will not pursue alleged threats against Handy

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will not investigate allegations that a trustee at Northwest Florida State College has threatened President Ty Handy and his family. 

“Our agents looked at the allegations and decided they did not rise to the level of a crime,” FDLE spokeswoman Linda McDonald said Friday. “They reviewed findings with the state attorney, who concurred.”

Handy had notified law enforcement agencies of threats.

“I went to law enforcement immediately, both federal and local, so if they got a call from me or my wife they could respond immediately,” Handy said.

Handy said he decided not to press charges, but allegations he presented to Niceville Police Chief David Popwell were passed on to the FDLE.

The situation came to a head when Handy read a “statement of concern” to the board of trustees at their meeting June 18. Handy alleged that threats — including several implying harm could befall him or his family — had been made by “one member of this board.”

Read the statement of concern. >>

After Handy finished his statement, Patrick Byrne, a trustee since March, immediately addressed the comments and made it clear they had been directed at him. 

Byrne said Handy was making “a mountain out of a molehill,” but also apologized to Handy and his wife for any statements he made that might have appeared threatening.

“At best, I misspoke, (but) I do not recall it,” Byrne said.

Handy also claimed in his statement that the same trustee who threatened him told him if he agreed to resign he could be “bought out” with a consulting job or a “presidential sabbatical with full pay for one year.”

The statement also indicated the effort to oust Handy extends much further than a single board member.

It alleges a “key administrative employee” at the college had been working with Byrne to “get me fired.”

Handy claimed the employee told him at a private meeting that “state officials” intended to “offer you a state position in Tallahassee that you cannot refuse.’ ”

The employee’s identity has not been confirmed on the record.

Handy’s statement asserted Byrne also told him powerful people in Florida government were working behind the scenes to have him removed.

“He demanded that I be gone by July 1, and that if I was, ‘a senator will make sure that the college is given millions of dollars in extra appropriations,’ ” Handy said in the statement.

Although he has made contributions to both Republican and Democratic causes over the years, Byrne’s clearest connection to Tallahassee is a long friendship with Senate President Don Gaetz of Niceville.

Gaetz nominated Byrne, the president of Valparaiso Realty, to serve on the NWF State’s board of trustees. He also nominated Wayne Ansley, an assistant superintendent when Gaetz ran the Okaloosa County School District, and Brad Drake, who served with Gaetz in the Florida Legislature.

Gov. Rick Scott appointed them to the board.

Byrne had served as a trustee for the college when it was Okaloosa-Walton Community College, was a member of the State Board of Community Colleges and was chairman of the board of the Foundation for Florida’s Community Colleges.

Byrne’s son, Michael, interned for Gaetz and is presently employed as a legislative aide to him.

Gaetz said last week he has known Byrne for more than 20 years and confirmed that they had partnered in ownership of a Howard Johnson’s motel on U.S. Highway 98 in Fort Walton Beach in the 1990s.

Byrne did not return several phone calls last week seeking comment, but Gaetz said he spoke to him after the June 18 board meeting and was told “he thought there were exaggerations and overstatements made” by Handy.

“He was very surprised by what was said and rather taken aback,” Gaetz said.

He said if what Handy claims Byrne said is true, “it would be very out of character for the Pat Byrne I know.”

“The things said about Pat don’t square with what I know about him,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz said if Byrne did refer to a state senator when he spoke to Handy about appropriations to NWF State, he was not the senator.

“I don’t know of any occasion where state appropriations were tied into someone coming into or leaving a college presidency,” he said. “The Legislature doesn’t increase or decrease appropriations based on who the president of a community college is.”

Gaetz said he does not know Handy well and did not know when he nominated Byrne that he would make Handy’s ouster such an obvious priority.

But according to another new trustee, Byrne made his intention clear from the beginning.

Michael Flynt, who also was appointed to the board in March, said Byrne told him about his goal of getting rid of Handy as they waited outside Scott’s office to be interviewed for the posts.

“He said it was because of the financial status of the college,” Flynt said.

About that time, Handy raised concerns with the trustees that Scott was about to appoint several new board members and that at least one of them wanted him gone.

Ansley voted with Byrne against renewing Handy’s employment contract when that item came up at the June 18 meeting.

He said the vote had nothing to do with how he felt about Handy, but with how he felt as a new member about voting to extend a contract that still had two years remaining on it.

“It was a matter of principle. If I had to vote today I would support Dr. Handy,” Ansley said last week. “You’d have trouble finding something concrete to wrap your arms around (what) he’s doing wrong.”

Ansley said the three-year contract extension Handy received pretty well solidifies the college president’s position despite the controversy still swirling around him.