Thursday, November 17, 2005

The commish

Brand-new Mobile County Commissioner Juan Chastang said Wednesday that he's sorry he didn't tell Gov. Bob Riley that the county's personnel board "suspended him from his job as a Mobile police officer after determining that he tried to bribe another officer" more than a decade ago.

Chastang, appointed by Riley to fill a commission seat vacated when Sam Jones became Mobile's mayor, denied the bribery allegation, saying "he relayed the offer in jest" and that "[t]here was no bribe on [his] part, only on the part of the criminal," the Mobile Register reports today.

Chastang also assured that he has lived in a 500-square-foot apartment in the district he represents since June, despite the fact that he had claimed a homestead exemption on a 2,400-square- foot house in another district. He said Tuesday that the house was an investment; the next day, he said it had been a residence, too.