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NSBNEWS.net photo by Henry Frederick / SVAA Director Nicole Carni breaks down in tears last fall after discussion of her $110,000 salary being reduced to $85,000 and yet again to $71,755.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Volusia County Chairman Frank Bruno didn't mince words this morning about the controversy swirling around suspended Southeast Volusia Advertising Director Nicole Carni: "She'll be lucky to stay out of jail."
Asked if that meant Carni is under criminal investigation, Bruno said that is something being held close to the vest.
"That isn't something I'm really going to get into, but let's just say it has been discussed."
As for an "exit strategy" for Carni's eventual resignation giving her immunity from possible prosecution, Bruno said: "Nobody's walking away from this."
Carni reiterated at mid-day to NSBNews.net that she has done nothing wrong and has supplied the auditors with paperwork that explains discrepancies. She did not elaborate on what those discrepancies were.
"They have everything -- absolutely everything they asked for," Carni insisted.
Carni was placed on paid administrative leave Friday by SVAA Board Chairman David Kosmas, one day after County Manager Jim Dinneen asked for and was granted unanimous approval from the County Council to seize the ad authority's books after the auditor, James Moore and Company, found a number of unexplained expenditures in the agency's $1.9 million budget.
Bruno is incensed that the whispers are growing louder in his direction that he's somehow responsible for her hiring last May, first as an interim when Deborah Boyd resigned the position after eight years on the job, then an acting director in July and as the permanent director in August director at $110,000 in annual salary. When Boyd left, she was earning $66,000 a year.
County officials have been critical of the situation from the start when Carni stepped in for Boyd with $50 an hour as compensation.
Bruno appointed Carni to the SVAA board in October 2008, and had words of praise for her as late as August, he said, but he in no way paved the way for her to get the job.
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NSB News is a 24/7 Internet newspaper in New Smyrna Beach accessed through NSBNews.net and VolusiaNews.net, launched April 7, 2008, by award-winning breaking news and investigative journalist Henry Frederick and award-winning blogger Peter Mallory. It is the first fully-online newspaper in Florida and among the few in the nation with continuous editorial content picked up by Google News Directories.
