West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James has formed a business partnership and intends to raise money for an investment firm before his term ends next year, county government records show.
James asked the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics for guidance on whether the county’s ethics rules restrict his ability to start a business that partners with a venture capital fund.
In his request he disclosed that he had formed a general partnership with two other people and would begin fundraising working with an unnamed firm in September.
James indicated in his inquiry that he would receive compensation after a specific fundraising goal had been met, though he didn’t expect the goal to be reached until after his term ended in April, according to a county ethics
commission memo.
Christie Kelley, the ethics commission’s executive director, wrote to James that county ethics rules permitted his business undertaking “as long as the guidance in this opinion is carefully followed.”
“You must take great care not to use, or attempt to use, your governmental position in any way to give a special financial benefit to yourself, your outside business, or the customers or clients of your outside business,” she wrote in an Aug. 17 letter.
Kelley wrote that James is prohibited from using his position as mayor to aid any client of his business on any project that needs city approval, and he cannot take any action that would provide a “special financial benefit” for the business or his clients.
The mayor, she said, also may not give his business partners leads on potential investors based on his work as mayor.
“If you provide your business partners with contact information for potential investors, you may not use or provide any confidential or nonpublic governmental information, information obtained through City databases, or information obtained as a result of your position as mayor,” she wrote.
The letter does not name the business venture or James’ business partners, and James did not respond to requests for comment through a city spokesperson.
But James told WPBF 25 News in a statement that he formed the partnership with West Palm Beach-based venture capitalist Nabil Meralli and businessman Lon Otremba.
He said their fundraising work would be for a venture capital fund called the West Palm Beach Rise Fund.
A website for the fund does not disclose its ownership but describes it as a “technology and innovation ecosystem fund that invests in companies, entrepreneurs, university commercialization, and talent to transform West Palm Beach into one of America's leading innovation cities.”
Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm mayor will raise money for investment firm while in office
