Okaloosa County BOCC — January 18, 2013 — Leroy Collins Institute Ethics report — reading text

summary of the breadth of the actions the seven counties have undertaken. None of _.. the counties enacted all 11 of the ethics provisions we identified, although each of the provisions was in 7 place i in at least one of the counties in the study. The case studies follow in alphabetical order as shown in ‘Figure 12. Figure 12: Summary of survey responses from case study counties 2, Voting . 4. . 8. 9. . County |1. Ethics Code] Contiicts | 5 | inspector | EMS | 5 training | 7. citts | Lobbyist | Lobbyist | 1% Campion " ; Commission Point Person . Finance Procurement Policy General Registry | Comp. Report Broward | Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes “| Duval Yes No Yes Other Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Other Leon No No No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Other Yes Miami- Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Dade | Orange | Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Other Other Yes Palm Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes - 7] Beach “4 Sarasota | Yes No Other Other Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Figure 12 | _ Broward County. ~~ Broward County, perhaps most notably in its Sheriff's Department, has had its share of public corruption, but it also has a history of taking action to. remedy it. In 1996, the Office of Professional Standards was created to investigate complaints filed under the County’ s Whistleblower Program and to assist in ethics and conflict of interest training of county employees. ” In 2009 and 201 0; Broward County citizens saw a parade of government officials indicted for corruption, including. their. sheriff, Ken Jenne, who. was sentenced to a year and.a day in federal prison for tax evasion and mail fraud conspiracy. Of the 14 criminal cases filed against former Broward public officials and their _ spouses, there have been six convictions. Six other cases have yet to be resolved. 8 | Tough Choices Facing Florida's Governments training by filing a form. After accomplishing: its purpose, listed. as “inactive.” County. The Office of Inspector General. has subpa commissioners, every city official | in. Broware, all establishmient of the office as ‘Broward’ s independen -_ fraud, corruption and. mismanagement. In the report, : a » Broward County failed to comply with the: teguifennert 1006, then Mayor John Pay 7 Like its east. coast neighbors, Duval County has a long history of public corruption. In fact, it was oe ‘corruption i in the 1930s, and the resulting 75 indictments, that prompted the Florida Legislature to amend the constitution to give. Jacksonville and Duval County the ability to consolidate their governments. ; Even tho it had the ability to consolidate, it wasn't until 1968 that consolidation actually took place - - Ss elutes in 1999. ~~ |[n. 2006 and 2007, there were new allegations of public corruption in Jacksonville. A grand jury was _ investigating violations of state. open meetings laws and the F.B.I|. was looking into allegations of cronyism and influence- -peddling at the Jacksonville Port Authority. Then Mayor John Peyton was also caught up an scandal after it was revealed that two close friends had received lucrative city contracts without going through proper bidding procedures. The niayor publicly apologized for the ethical lapses and proposed several reforms designed to restore the public’s trust. The reforms included the hiring of a paid ethics officer and establishing a hotline for the reporting of ethics violations. Mayor Peyton hired Miller as the City’s ethics officer and gave her a number _Of new responsibilities. ‘In addition to providing ethics training to government officials and employees, monitoring the ethics hotline, ensuring compliance with gift reporting and lobby registration, Peyton also asked Miller to watchdog the City’s procurement and bidding process. While these reforms were a step forward, problems remained. Miller was a part-time employee with no full-time support staff and many responsibilities. Her position also lacked the independence that is critical to be an effective watchdog as she was required to report to the mayor and city council president. ‘Miller and others continued to push for new reforms that would create a strong culture of ethics in city government. Miller also continued her work as the president of City Ethics, an organization she founded ~ in 2001, that is devoted to the establishment of government ethics programs across the U.S., Europe and __ Australia. An 2010, the Jacksonville Charter Revision Commission made a fumber of recommendations for ethics ~~ reform including reinserting language into the charter providing for.an ethics code and an independent ethics commission. In June 2011, Miller, the Jacksonville Ethics Commission and community groups, : including the League of Women Voters and the tea party, were successful in their efforts to convince the ~ Gity Council to give the commission and the ethics officer the independence they need to do their job effectively. The City Council followed the Charter Commission’s recommendation and inserted language in the charter that included a revised ethics code. It also included a more independent ethics commission and provided that the ethics officer be appointed by the ethics commission subject to approval by the City Council. The ethics code also-has stronger provisions than state law relating t to gifts, as well as a requirement that lobbyists and their principals register with the city. : : ; Miller a serves much of the. credit for creating a culture of ethics i in | Jacksonville government. It should be noted, however, that with the exception of the passage « of the original consolidation referendum, 10 I Tough Choices Facing Florida’ s Governments public corruption, the citizens of Miami- Dade voted to create the Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, a and became the first county i in Florida to create its own ethics commission. The structure, charge and 4 jegieeiction of the Commission are - established 1 by an ordinance. : a in 1996, as a a result of a citizen vote to amend the home rule charter, the Miami- Dade County’ s to: investigate. A complaint must be filed before the Commission can begin to investigate, although . “the commission's advocate can file a complaint based on an anonymous tip. Miami-Dade also has an a Geant inspector general charged with rooting out fraud, waste and abuse of power in government M. ento! ino, took over for: the original executive director, Robert Meyers, in 2011. The Commission’ S jurisdiction extends to the municipalities of Miami-Dade County as long as the subject involves one of the four ordinances under its authority. Those ordinances include the conflict of interest and code of ethics “ordinance, the citizen’ 's bill of rights, the ethical campaign practices ordinance and the election campaign : financing trust fund ordinance. ; . ‘The process to injtiata an investigation into.a possible ethics violation is complaint-driven. Complaints can be filed by members of the: public with “personal knowledge” of a violation and must be signed under oath or affirmation by the complainant. Complaints can also be filed by the county inspector general, the state attorney or the: commission’s advocate. The Commission also offers ethics training to elected officials and the Executive Director of the Commission j is the designated ethics point-person for Miami-Dade County. After the creation of the Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, the County Commissioners continued to address the county’ $ public corruption problems when they established the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in 1998.-The OIG. is authorized to detect, investigate and prevent fraud, waste mismanagement and abuse of power. The ordinance creating the OIG provides it will be “sufficiently ‘independent to assure that no interference or influence external to the Office adversely affects the independence and objectivity of the Inspector General.” The Office operates a fraud reporting hotline that accepts anonymous complaints and is one of a few OIG’s:in the country that has jurisdiction to investigate officials at any level, including elected officials. In its most recent 20177 report, the current inspector general, Christopher Mazella, notes that since 1998 “the OIG has identified over $143.6 million in questionable costs, losses, damages, and lost revenues and achieved over $44 million in future savings, prevented losses, and restitution.” It also notes that its investigations have resulted in the arrests of 212 individuals and the indictment of 12 companies. oe In. Miami- Dade, these two county-level ethics enforcement agencies receive help in criminal corruption -cases from other law enforcement. The Miami-Dade Police Department has a Public Corruption Investigations Bureau and Miami- Dade State @ Attorney Katherine Rundle maintains a public corruption unit ~ in her office. Miami- Dade has also made other unique attempts through the years to address corruption. The county has adopted a Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics. Ordinance that goes beyond what is provided in Chapter 112, Florida Statutes. Within that: ordinance i is areqt uirement that lobbyists register with the. county. within five: days of being retained, and complete.an ethics training course provided by the “Commission. on Ethics and Public Trust within 60 days of registering. Miami-Dade does. not require . Jobbyis sto report their compensation, as some other counties do, instead lobbyists are required to report any lobby expenditure over $25. : 12 | Tough Choices Facing Florida's Governments kickbacks from:local businesses. m@ Orange County “Recording to Jacobs, no such timeframes. or disclosure requirements exist in state law. For this reason, . Jacobs recommends that Chapter 112, Florida Statutes be amended to eliminate the perception, ‘and sometimes the reality, that an elected official may be offered a future stake in a business: or real estate : venture contingent on the outcome of his or her vote. sn cout addressed some shortfalls | in the state law through enhanced quarterly financial - Disclosure of all biisiness associates; ~ Disclosure of all business entities in which the disclosing party has a significant interest, including - > any LLC and all subsidiary entities of such business entity; isclosure of all assets and liabilities held anytime during the quarter, not merely a snapshot of the ets and liabilities on a particular date chosen by the filing party; isclosure of all. sources of income. “Supplemental disclosures of subsequent business associates, which occur during any quarterly period, are required to be disclosed within seven days of the association. z Palm Beach County _ ‘With | the infamous 2009 branding by Time magazine as the “Capital of Florida Corruption,” Palm Beach : . County has continuously tried to improve its tarnished image. The county’s reputation tumbled in 2007 “ whena domino effect propelled the resignation of several county officials and their subsequent prison stints: e County Commissioner Tony Masilotti was charged with profiting off land deals. Masilotti plead guilty and was sentenced in 2007. ¢« Palm Beach County City Commissioner Jim Exline was sentenced in June 2007 for failing to report -a $50,000 land deal in which he hid the earnings from the IRS. - e Warren Newell, who served as a county commissioner from 1992-2007, profited by nearly $500,000 from schemes in which his business partners profited from his votes. Newell pled guilty and was sentenced in 2007, but received a reduced sentence when he helped prosecutors convict yet another county commissioner. ® County Commissioner Mary McGarty was charged with.receiving kick-backs, such as free resort stays from a company she helped win a county construction contract. She pled guilty in 2009 and was later sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison. Understandably, the string of corruption cases enraged the