Kissimmee commissioner Janette Martinez proclaimed her innocence against two ethics complaints against her, claiming they are politically motived as elections loom.
During a press conference on Tuesday in downtown Kissimmee, Martinez held up printed copies of social media posts, websites and mass texts sent to Osceola County residents accusing her of being corrupt, calling them a coordinated smear campaign.
“The coordinated activity, the fake social media pages…they’re confusing people only because we’re in the middle of an election,” Martinez said.
The claims that she misused her position to help business associates and friends obtain city permits and grant funding were “false allegations and coordinated misinformation,” she said, “and should not be allowed to damage someone’s reputation without them being challenged.”
The complaints were both filed about a month apart by Jeremy Fetzer, a political consultant who also runs the political action committee Osceola Action Committee and is a supporter of Mayor Jackie Espinosa, who is herself facing ethics charges.
Fetzer filed the second complaint the day after Kissimmee commissioners unanimously voted to send an ethics complaint against Martinez to a special prosecutor for further investigation last week.
The initial complaint alleges Martinez, who is up for reelection this year, used her position to help her friend Lisandra Roman get a special permit for an event at her Kissimmee restaurant, Lechonera El Jibarito, in an area where Martinez also runs a food truck business.
The second complaint alleges Martinez failed to disclose a business relationship with a Kissimmee cake shop, Kenny’s Cakes and Bakery, and alerted them of the city’s small businesses grant program.
The relationship allegedly stems from Martinez’s food truck businesses that she runs alongside her husband, Coqui Kitchen, using the same address as the bakery. Martinez said she didn’t receive any money from the cake shop and denied being business partners, but instead paid them to park the food truck there. She also said she paused her food truck business in order to focus on her reelection this year.
The complaint also alleges that Martinez, who runs her own notary company, improperly participated in the process when she notarized the shop’s application for the program. The cake shop’s application was approved and they were awarded $10,000, the complaint says.
“I notarized the application…that is my job,” Martinez said. “I’m not trying to take anything from anyone. I am here to serve and to show transparency.”
Notaries attest to the validity of a signature and the signer’s identity on official documents, and aren’t necessarily endorsing the contents of the document. According to the Notary Public Professional Code of Responsibility, they cannot “refuse to perform a lawful and proper notarial act without due cause.”
A notary manual published by the Florida Governor’s office in 2019 bars notarizing a person’s signature on a document only if that person is “the spouse, son, daughter, mother, or father of the notary.”
Her accuser Fetzer denied any wrongdoing himself during a commission meeting last week and called any allegations against him “false and defamatory.”
Ethic complaints against Kissimmee Mayor Espinosa were also sent to a special prosecutor last week. The complaint against Espinosa alleges she personally benefited from leading the expansion of the city’s premier small business grant program after businesses tied to her family applied and received nearly $50,000. It also alleges the firing of the city attorney in February was retaliatory after Olga Sanchez de Fuentes raised ethical concerns directly to Espinosa internally for accepting the grant money.
A special prosecutor has already been appointed to begin investigating the initial complaints both against Martinez and Espinosa, she said. The special prosecutor has 90 days to investigate and present the research to the city commission.