June 8, 2016 – Palm Beach Post
by Jane Musgrave
Three weeks after he lost a long and contentious race to keep his seat on the Riviera Beach City Council, Bruce Guyton on Wednesday was accused of violating the state’s Sunshine Law by having a private conversation with another councilman last year.
The 55-year-old was given a notice to appear in court on July 13 to answer the charge of violating the state’s public meeting law. It is a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum 60-day jail term. Guyton, a transit planner for Palm Tran, didn’t return a phone call for comment.
It was his job for the county bus system that spurred the violation, according to an investigator for the Public Corruption Unit of the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office. Guyton last year talked privately with Councilman Cedrick Thomas about his interest in replacing him as the city’s representative on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, according to an affidavit Detective Daniel Amero wrote.
Thomas said Guyton told him he wanted to sit on the board of the countywide transportation planning group because “he had issues with his job and that being a representative would put him in a better position with his job,” Amero wrote. At a subsequent city council meeting, Guyton persuaded the council to let him serve on the MPO instead of Thomas, he said. [READ MORE]