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

public. In 2009, a grand jury recommended ~-teforms to the county and called for an independent watchdog agency to supervise activities of county ~. and city commissioners. The jury examined the series of convictions and accordingly recommended the creation of an inspector general’s office. That summer, with three former County Commissioners in federal prison, the county commission accepted the recommendations and created an ethics commission, adopted a new code of ethics and established anew Office of the Inspector General. The county’ s Commission on Ethics was established i in May 2010. The ethics commission receives and investigates complaints and is charged with enforcement of the Palm Beach County Code of Ethics, : lobbyist registration and post- employment ordinance. The post- employment ordinance states: no former county commissioner shall knowingly represent anyone other than the county or another public entity in — connection with. any matter for a period of two years after ending. his or her term of office. The commission ois composed. of five volunteer members who were appointed by various non-political civil, educational and professional organizations representing police;. the Hispanic Bar, CPAs, the Palm Beach League of Cities and Florida Atlantic University. The members serve terms’ of four years each. 14] Tough ¢ Choices Facing Florida's Governments’. the inspector general for the State of Florida, Department of rh a In 2011, in recognition of its extensive ethics reform measures, Palm Beach County received « an oS Achievement Award from the National Association of Cr inties. ‘This ann Jal, pre stigious award. program ~ was launched in 1970 to.honor innovative county government. programs. Palm Beach County. has me transformed its role in the monitoring of county officials, and : since its notable transformation no charges have been filed against an elected official. a hes a = Sarasota County employees, including the Board of County Commis compliance officer with a focus in situational aware Embezzlement aoe ae Falsification of contracts, reports, or records ee Misuse ¢ of assets c or services Ue Bagh eae Theft mou CONCLUSION mM win Ww of opportunity may rbe opening for ethics reform in the 2013 Florida Legislature 2 as new leaders : place. it high on ‘their priority list for action. This study finds that, in addition to legislative interest in evisiti 1g the state’ s 1970s-era law, localities are also recognizing the importance of ethics—and not — esponse to embarrassing scandals. A few of the jurisdictions beginning to discuss ethics reform » time of publication of this report include Charlotte, Okaloosa and Pinellas Counties. This report will elp those localities and others that wish to enhance and strengthen. their ethics laws. It highlights both the ‘scope of counties’ ethics laws and the breadth of these programs in a few counties with exemplary ; programs. It serves as recognition of ethics activity and a challenge of the possibilities for other counties an the state, Florida need not be ethically challenged in the future, but rather has the opportunity to 6 as an example for the rest of the nation. ‘The LeRoy Collins Institute, in partnership with Integrity Florida, emailed the 11-question survey at least of twice to county, administrators and county attorneys in all of Florida’s 67 counties in the fall of 2012. = Follow up ‘phone calls were made to the county.administrator offices of the counties that did not respond Mia email. An online appendix i is available containing the complete set of survey questions, responses and comments that often include website links to specific ordinances and codes on the LeRoy Collins Institute website, collinsinstitute. fsu. edu, and the Integrity Florida website, integrityflorida.org. SURVEY RESPONSE BY COUNTY Responded pg No Response : . | ( l f il ao Tough Choices: A research series focused in on 7 State and local government relationships At il (| CE : from the LeRoy Collins institute. . “46 ! Toligh poices 8 Facing Florida's Governments Established in 1988, the LeRoy Collins Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, non-profit organization which studies and promotes creative solutions to key private and public issues facing the people of Florida and the nation. The Institute, located in Tallahassee at Florida State University, is affiliated and works in collaboration with the State University System of o Florida. Named in honor of Florida Governor LeRoy Collins, the Institute is governed by a distinguished board of directors, chaired by Allison DeFoor, D.Min. Other board members include executives, local elected officiais, and senior professionals from , throughout the state. Beginning in 2005, the Institute produced several reports in a series called Tough Choices: Shaping Florida’s Future. These ‘publications provided an in-depth analysis of Florida tax and spending policy and concluded that Florida’s pattern of low spending and low taxes conflicted with the growing demands of the state’s residents, predicting trouble might be ahead. Recent \ work in this series has examined local retirement benefits, including both pensions and other post-employment benefits, including health benefits. The most recent report, Years in the Making: Florida’s Underfunded Municipal Pension Plans, traced trends in Florida’s municipal pensions, finding that the problems were long-standing and not likely to be quickly resolved. “This report, Tough Choices: Florida Counties Bridge the Ethics Policy Gap, is the latest effort to gauge state-local ‘relationships in the-state. It relies on a survey of Florida counties, supplemented with seven case studies, and points out that a number of Florida counties have taken the lead in ethics policy in the absence of state law. The report was a - collaboration of the:LeRoy Collins Institute and Integrity Florida. Contributors include Dan Krassner, Ben Wilcox and Carol Weissert. Stephanie Carlton, an FSU student, provided assistance in gathering data and writing the Palm Beach case study. Lindsay Potvin and Stacie Linley contributed to the editing, proofing and production of the report. The Tough Choices research series is funded by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund. Future reports in the series will examine local health benefits, state intergovernmental aid, and best practices in local pension administration. All publications from the Institute can be found on the Institute’s website: http://CollinsInstitute.fsu.edu. | Ifeal <a> LEROY COLLINS 7 . . ; 2 i A 7 Ss ~ a LeRoy Collins Institute - FSU Campus P: 850.644.1441. © F: 850.644.1442 TT INSTITUTE wo oa - — 506 West Pensacola Snéet * Tallahassee, Florida 32306-1601 itp: ‘//eollinsinstitute. fu. edu:= Fallow us on Twitter: @LCinstitute_ FL.