Showing posts with label CityEthics.org. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CityEthics.org. Show all posts

Monday, February 3, 2014

Robert Wechsler analyzes it @CityEthics and I can confirm it: Despite best efforts of Broward Inspector General, the state of ethics in Broward County, FL at municipal level is poor and getting worse with "friends" like the Broward League of Cities, fresh from their trying to create loopholes in Broward's hard-won, voter-approved ethics laws, and now looking for a paid spokesmodel to peddle their anti-taxpayer nonsense that's paid for in large part BY Broward's taxpayers; Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to be one of the true ethics hotspots in Florida, given the unwillingness of its elected officials & high-paid staff to follow state & federal laws, esp. those re transparency & participation

Above, Broward Inspector General John W. Scott at a Broward League of Women Voters event in Coconut Creek, FL on January 24, 2013. photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved. From my May 31, 2013 blog post at
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/given-longstanding-mismanagement-and.html

Robert Wechsler analyzes it @CityEthics and I can confirm it: Despite best efforts of Broward Inspector General, the state of ethics in Broward County, FL at municipal level is poor and getting worse with "friends" like the Broward League of Cities, fresh from their trying to create loopholes in Broward's hard-won, voter-approved ethics laws, and now looking for a paid spokesmodel to peddle their anti-taxpayer nonsense that's paid for in large part BY Broward's taxpayers; Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to be one of the true ethics hotspots in Florida, given the unwillingness of its elected officials & high-paid staff to follow state & federal laws, esp. those re transparency & participation

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Editorial
Next step for ethics reform in Broward
January 30, 2014

The Broward Office of the Inspector General needs help. So do local politicians who want to attend community events while staying on the right side of the county's ethics code.

Inspector General John Scott is calling for the addition of an ethics official or commission to ensure government leaders get consistent advice about accepting gifts or trips -- and an impartial review when rules might have been violated. 

Scott is working on such a proposal for the November ballot. 

And he is on the right track. 

Already, some politicians are objecting, decrying another level of bureaucracy. Some fear an independent body might call out those who are simply trying to do the public's business. 

They should look to history and remember how we got to where we are today. 

Two years ago, voters demanded a new ethics code after watching far too many elected officials hauled off in handcuffs, charged with bribery and public corruption. The headlines continue even today, as readers of the Sun Sentinel well know. 

To enforce the ethics code, commissioners tasked the inspector general's office with investigating and prosecuting potential violations. However, since the referendum's passage, Scott and his staff have discovered problems that need addressing. 

For example, for advice on accepting a gift or free trip, local officials now mostly turn to their city or county attorneys. The result is a plethora of local opinions about what politicians can accept as a freebie. In the past two years, some 900 legal advisories have been served up countywide, the inspector general's office reports. 

These advisories can put government attorneys in the awkward position of having to tell their bosses bad news about taking free stuff -- or how to find a way around the law's intent. They also provide cover to politicians who may be seeking personal gain. 

After recently reviewing legal opinions from Weston to Sunrise to Fort Lauderdale, Sun Sentinel reporter Brittany Wallman found politicians are accepting questionable gifts and perks. 

In Miramar, for example, city attorney Jamie Cole told Commissioner Winston Barnes he couldn't accept 10 free tickets to the circus last year, but suggested the circus could provide "promotional" tickets to the city that could then be given to Barnes guilt-free. 

City attorneys similarly told the mayors of Miramar and Hallandale Beach they could accept free trips to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, though it's hard to see the public benefit there. 

Hallandale city attorney V. Lynn Whitfield told Mayor Joy Cooper the trip was allowed if it somehow promoted "the exchange of ideas between, or the professional development of, governmental officials or employees." She even said Cooper could bring along her husband, all expenses paid, so long as she reported it as a gift. Cooper went, but did not take her husband along. 

The vast majority of local politicians work to do the right thing, no question. But a recent report shows public corruption in Florida continues to rank among the worst in the nation. Between 1998 and 2007, 824 Florida officials were convicted on public corruption charges at the local, state and federal level. The New York Times says the totals may be worse than in any other state. 

Ironically, in the face of this news, Florida lawmakers are considering a proposal to loosen the ethics reins. Legislation filed this month by Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, would strip many gift-reporting requirements for public officials and officially protect them if they have a legal advisory in hand. 

Meanwhile in Broward, the person responsible for investigating ethics complaints says that to improve the process, the system needs to be tweaked. We encourage county commissioners and the Broward League of Cities to embrace his goal and ensure that public officials countywide play by the same rules and definitions. 

Given our history with public corruption, it's time we got this right. 
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-01-29/news/fl-editorial-broward-ethics-code-fix-dv-2-20140129_1_ethics-code-ethics-reform-inspector-general-john-scott

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward needs an ethics czar, inspector general says 2014 could bring next phase of reform, but it's sure to spark controversy with city officials 
By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel
January 5, 2014
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-01-05/news/fl-ethics-code-changes-20140105_1_ethics-czar-city-attorneys-inspector-general

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Inspector: Ethics system flawed
Brittany Wallman , Staff writer 
February 1, 2014
When it comes to public ethics, nobody does it like Broward County. And that's not a good thing, the county's top corruption cop says.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-01-31/news/fl-broward-ethics-reform-20140131_1_ethics-code-broward-league-corruption-cop

 Keep in mind as you digest the thoughts expressed above that this outrage comes from the same Tribune Company-owned newspaper editorial board that has refused to post a single editorial in over two years on the Hallandale Beach CRA scandal that has cost tens of millions of dollars with very little tangible to show for it.
Yes, people do notice those things.
People like me.

Which is why I made a point of not only attending the Broward IG's oversight meeting on November 8th in downtown Ft. Lauderdale but actually spoke there, one of the few citizens to do so in a meeting where the public comments were largely from municipal officials who were trying desperately to plead for the right to keep their parochial self-serving way of doing things, rather than having one firm set of ethical rules covering all officials.

 And did you notice that the Sun-Sentinel editorial didn't name the attorneys for the Broward League of Cities who are trying to dig holes and loopholes for its members, even though they know full-well who it is? 

 Why do you suppose that is?
(Sam Goren, the attorney who wears multiple hats in this county, just like Steve Geller did.)

 Yes, because they also love to quote him on other matters and don't want to "out" one of their reliable Usual Suspects who will talk on any subject, no matter how poorly-informed he is, because he knows the paper will never mention his egregious conflicts-of-interest.

 The following links from Robert Wechsler are placed here in reverse chron order:

City Ethics blog 
Florida League of Cities' Ethics Reform Proposals I - Preventing the Filing of Complaints
by Robert Wechsler
http://www.cityethics.org/content/florida-league-cities-ethics-reform-proposals-i-preventing-filing-complaints



City Ethics blog 
Florida League of Cities' Ethics Reform Proposals II - Gifts, Ethics Advice, and Training
by Robert Wechsler

City Ethics blog 
Florida League of Cities' Ethics Reform Proposals III - Placing Shackles on Countywide Ethics Programs
by Robert Wechsler
http://www.cityethics.org/content/florida-league-cities-ethics-reform-proposals-iii-placing-shackles-countywide-ethics-program



City Ethics blog 
FL League of Cities' Ethics Proposals IV - Local Govt. Assocs. Should Not Lobby re Conflicts of Interest
by Robert Wechsler
http://www.cityethics.org/content/fl-league-cities-ethics-proposals-iv-local-govt-assocs-should-not-lobby-re-conflicts-interes



City Ethics blog
Good News from Florida Legislative Leaders
by Robert Wechsler
http://www.cityethics.org/content/good-news-florida-legislative-leaders

City Ethics blog
A Government Attorney Ethics Advice Case Study from Florida
by Robert Wechsler
http://www.cityethics.org/content/government-attorney-ethics-advice-case-study-florida


Broward Beat
Update: Ethics Police Won’t Punish Sheriff Israel 
By Buddy Nevins
January 30, 2014
http://www.browardbeat.com/ethics-commission-wont-punish-sheriff-israel/

City Ethics blog
Broward County IG Report on Countywide Ethics Program
by Robert Wechsler
http://www.cityethics.org/content/broward-county-ig-report-countywide-ethics-program




 *By the way, the Broward League of Cities is now looking for spokesmodel to peddle their anti-taxpayer nonsense that's paid for BY taxpayers -here's the RFP
http://www.browardleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2014-Marketing-and-Public-Relations-Consulting-Services-RFP.pdf

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Inspector general has cases cooking 
By Brittany Wallman 4:23 p.m. EDT, 
October 31, 2013
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/broward-politics-blog/sfl-inspector-general-tallies-a-year-of-work-20131031,0,5917466.story 


South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Corruption watchdog gets positive review 

By Brittany Wallman

November 9, 2013 

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-11-08/news/fl-broward-inspector-general-eval-20131108_1_inspector-general-corruption-watchdog-public-officials


South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Inspector general's Hallandale probe painful
By Brittany Wallman
November 11, 2013
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-11-11/news/sfl-inspector-generals-hallandale-probe-painful-20131111_1_inspector-general-john-scott-hallandale-beach-city-officials

 Not mentioned in the Broward IG article above about Hallandale Beach is the testimony that came out of the Broward IG Oversight Committee meeting I was at that caused nearly everyone in the room to start laughing out loud, and even hoot.
That is, everyone but Hallandale Beach CRA Attorney Stephen W. Zelkowitz and CRA Director Daniel Rosemond.
It was all I could do to not record myself laughing on my videocamera!

 It turns out that someone accompanied Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper to her meeting with the Broward IG's office.
Like all people who had to speak to them, Mayor cooper was allowed to bring someone with her if she chose, but when asked who the person with her was, she told them that it was here attorney when it was NOT.
The truth came out in a way that really hammered home Mayor Cooper's well-known mendacity -the person that the mayor had claimed was her attorney was actually one of her mayoral campaign workers, who taped her comments.
It's not mentioned in the Broward Politics blog tweets below or the articles but as many of you may recall from my emails in November, I specifically recommended that either the Broward IG Oversight Comm. or the Broward County Commission formally require that in the future, when the IG's office is formally investigating a specific Broward city or a CRA, that they be required to have at least one public forum for the affected community to attend and get the basic info on what is -and is NOT- happening, and what the process consists of so that everyone is on the same page.

 A public meeting that is NOT for city employees, administrators or elected officials to show-up at and complain about being picked on, blamed, or made the scapegoat for others, etc.
Anyone drawing a govt. paycheck there whom the IG Office wants to interview under oath should NOT have a chance to poison the public well before they know what the process is.

 I mentioned publicly during my testimony that despite how much I've written about this subject and what I've sent to most of you in emails with links to that's appeared elsewhere, esp. in the Broward Bulldog, that I was forever running into people all over the area who asked me what was the latest news with  the investigation, despite the fact that their Final Report came out in April.

 I usually just shake my head after I tell them what's what and after they've told me, as they often do, that they're "surprised that Mayor Cooper hasn't been arrested yet."

 I didn't see the reporting via tweets below until after I'd sent an email out about what happened.
Once I read it, I realized that my intuition was correct about who some of the people were on the other side of the room who didn't speak and whom I didn't recognize.



































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Monday, August 6, 2012

When it comes to ethics problems in Joy Cooper's Hallandale Beach, and elected officials' attempts to evade responsibility, there's no sense like common sense, and CityEthics blogger Robert Wechsler has plenty: "An Interesting Agency Independence from Ethics Enforcement Issue in Broward County"

When it comes to ethics problems in Joy Cooper's Hallandale Beach, and elected officials' attempts to evade responsibility, there's no sense like common sense, and CityEthics blogger Robert Wechsler has plenty: "An Interesting Agency Independence from Ethics Enforcement Issue in Broward County"



I forwarded this to about 15O people around South Florida less than thirty minutes after it was first posted online a month ago, on July 9th, and thought that I'd gone ahead and linked and re-posted my email here, but over the weekend, I saw that I'd left it in Draft all this time, never having actually hit "Post." Oops...

Important reminder: more than three years after the city's purchase of property owned by him and his wife, Jessica, Comm. Anthony A. Sanders still refuses to publicly answer residents questions or explain what really happened and why the city was so eager to overpay for that property when they had no written plan in place for its future use.
Sanders clearly believes he can bluff his way thru to re-election in November.

Better late than never -and still 100% correct in his reasoning...

CityEthics.org
Robert Wechsler's blog
An Interesting Agency Independence from Ethics Enforcement Issue in Broward County
Mon, 2012-07-09 09:31


I've written about the issue of ethics commission jurisdiction over independent agencies and authorities, which arose in recent years in such places as Jacksonville, Louisville, and Palm Beach and Broward counties in Florida. The issue has arisen again in Broward County, in a different and interesting context.

Read the rest of the blog post at:
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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Please stick to your guns on stronger ethics and do everything in your power to prevent Mayor Resnick & Co. from beginning the race to the bottom of the ethics barrel in Broward

Above, looking NW at the Broward County Government HQ at 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. January 3, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Below is a copy of an email that I sent Friday morning to Broward County Commissioners Suzanne Gunzburger, Barbara Sharief and Chip LaMarca, along with Broward's Inspector General John W. Scott, with a cc to Robert Wechsler, one of the national voices for ethics and transparency in local and state government in the U.S. at cityethics.org, where he blogs on what's going on -or isn't- at http://www.cityethics.org/Blog-RobWechsler


I later sent a copy of it to selected people I know in Broward, South Florida and Tallahassee who have a strong  interest in the issue of stronger ethics at the local level in Florida, where most of the corruption currently exists for the most obvious of reasons -opportunity, lack of oversight, morally-compromised and beholden city attorneys, and lack of adequate press coverage.


The same group whom I sent a copy of my previous posts last Sunday about Wilton Manors mayor Gary Resnick and Cooper City mayor Debby Eisinger, whom in my opinion, thru their own words and actions, have come to personify the anti-ethics reform crowd in this county. 
Apparently, nothing can be allowed to stand that threatens their perceived power in their respective fiefdoms.


Broward cities need tougher ethics laws, not self-serving pols like Gary Resnick & Debby Eisinger, whom we need like more bad restaurants, more ruined-views of the beach... -NOT at all! http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/broward-cities-need-tougher-ethics-laws.html 

My coda to "Broward cities need tougher ethics laws, not self-serving pols"; Debby Eisinger's curious fact pattern



From my perspective, to put it bluntly, this issue will go a long way towards deciding, before this year's elections, whether or not Broward County's civic activists and organizations are actually prepared to 'walk-the-walk' and get actively engaged, or whether it will be yet another completely uninspiring example of them collectively taking-a-powder, and shying-away from the issue and opportunity to both say and do the right thing for the larger Broward community.


In other words, being a real 'player' in the community who has earned their reputation from actually doing something more than sending out press releases, holding press conferences or taking the side of the real estate/development and business establishment in every fight.


And do I even have to mention here how laughably preposterous objective and well-informed people here view individuals and groups who continually and blindly take the side of the local Broward Democratic Party's top honchos, and the way the party does business?


Especially given what a laughingstock so many of them have made of themselves over the past ten years, given how dependent so many of them are on lobbying local, county and School Board officials?
They are walking-and-talking conflicts-of-interest, unable to separate the personal from the professional and hoping to deal with others with a similar personality.


In my opinion, there are a lot of civic, professional, ethnic community and business groups in South Florida, and Broward County in particular, that want to be taken seriously by the public at large and the press corps, but who seem to have gotten a little too comfortable over the past few years sitting on the sidelines, when it would've been better for everyone involved to have had them actively engaged on community issues that were outside their usual or parochial bailiwick.


I've mentioned the name of some of them to those of you whom I communicate with fairly regularly, and as you more regular readers to the blog know, I was personally less-than- thrilled at the apathy shown in Broward by some of these same groups when the official Florida Senate congressional and legislative redistricting meeting finally hit town.


Nobody had the foresight to actually host a pre-meeting get-together so that open-minded citizens could get an overview of what they would later see presented, and what other options were reasonable that were in compliance with the FairDistricts requirements that Florida voters overwhelming approved.
Instead of seizing the opportunity that was just sitting there, these Broward groups, individually and collectively, did NOTHING.


Simply put, it's time for them to get off the sidelines and cowboy up, or risk becoming superfluous to what takes place in the future.
I'm not the only one who's paying close attention to see who does what.
Just saying...


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Per Brittany Wallman's to-the-point Broward Politics blog post of Thursday,
Wilton Manors' Resnick seeks to undo parts of new ethics code, on Jan. 31 ballot
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2012/01/wilton_manors_resnick_seeks_to.html
I merely reiterate to you all what I wrote Sunday - 
Broward cities need tougher ethics laws... 
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/broward-cities-need-tougher-ethics-laws.html


Having read her story that included this newest grab-bag of excuses offered up by Mayor Resnick, I will make arrangements next week to try to speak to you all for just a few minutes to let you know why I believe that standing silent in the face of this frontal assault on the new ethics rules is a losing proposition for everyone in Broward County who wants this area to not obly have a higher Quality-of-Life, but a higher quality of civic life, too.


Lower standards might be why some businesses choose to relocate to some foreign countries, but lower standards and the perception that some municipal elected officials in Broward have an upside-down understanding of what public service is, should never allow that to become SELF-SERVICE.


But that seems to be exactly what Mayor Resnick desires for himself.
Me, I don't think the people of his city or this county actually owe him a certain economic position in life, nor do I believe that a city should be allowed to simply opt-out so that that their mayor and his pals can ignore laws he finds personally constricting economically.


I know what side of this ethics fight that I'm on, and having attended those early morning Broward Ethics Comm. meetings, I'm equally happy if not more so to let everyone I know learn what sorts of characters are behind this effort, and the sorts of damnable, self-serving excuses that are being trotted-out to try to justify this insulting end-run around a standard that actually means something.


Mr. Scott, IF you need a Broward citizen to make a formal complaint to you in order to get your office officially involved in this matter, I'm only too happy to volunteer. 
Frankly, given what I've seen and heard first-hand from attending those Ethics Comm. meetings, often dumbstruck at the transparent early attempts by some members to water-down anything that had any teeth to speak of, it'll be my pleasure.


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Since I wrote this on Friday and Monday is a holiday, I'll post any received email comments, official or otherwise, later in the week to give people some time to formulate their own thoughts. But you're welcome to respond here on the blog, too, of course. 
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Thursday, June 17, 2010

IMPORTANT: Broward County Ethics Commission meeting FRIDAY, June 18th at 9 a.m. in Room 430 at County Govt. HQ

Somewhat unexpectedly, I now find myself suddenly planning on being at Broward County Govt. HQ first thing in the morning.
Surprise!
Thanks to a head's-up from Charlotte Greenbarg and Robert Wolfe, me, my camera and some McDonald's coffee will be attending tomorrow morning's just-announced Broward County Ethics Comm. meeting that's in response to some members of the Broward County Commission trying to figure out some means to create legal obstacles to their required vote in less than two months on the proposed ethics package, so they can say that it wasn't really them stalling, it was just some Judge who prevented them from doing something that's LONG, LONG OVERDUE.
That attitude certainly explains a lot about what passes for public service and democracy in this county, and the county's citizen taxpayers lack of trust and respect for them.

It's my hope that by contacting you now, at least some of you all might get the chance to make an appearance and let your voice be heard -in-person.

If you choose to do so, you can also send something to the Committee's county liaison Monica Cepero, at the email below and request that it be read and made part of the public record.

This afternoon's Broward Politics blog contained a post from Brittany Wallman dealing with an excellent and insightful response from Robert Wechsler to the unexpected news yesterday -at bottom- that some legal skull-duggery was being tried at the Eleventh Hour.

You may recall that when I first started attending the Ethics meetings last year, I first encouraged you all to check out and Bookmark Mr. Wechsler's excellent www.cityethics.org website.

As you might guess, I also send him some things from time-to-time that I think fall within his wide-ranging ethics beat, so he can connect-the-dots more clearly on what's going on down here in the county, as well as closer to home in Hallandale Beach, where the state's Sunshine Laws are just considered Suggestions by those wielding power at City Hall.

I also have a response from Comm. Ken Keechl at the bottom that Charlotte just shared with me, too.

For more on the Ethics Commission and their proposals: http://www.broward.org/EthicsCommission/Pages/Default.aspx
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Broward Politics blog
Ethicist/blogger critical of Broward County Commission's latest move
Posted by Brittany Wallman on June 17, 2010 03:09 PM

Robert Wechsler, an ethicist with a blog called cityethics.org, weighed into the mire that Broward County's proposed ethics reform ordinance is stuck in.

Read the rest of the post at: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/06/ethicistblogger_critical_of_br.html#comments

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From: Cepero, Monica [mailto:MCEPERO@broward.org]

Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 4:03 PM
To: 'Alfreda Coward'; 'Carl Shechter'; 'Comm. Carl Shechter'; 'Felicia M. Brunson'; 'Howard Bakalar'; Jardine, Arlene; 'Julie Lakosky'; 'Kenneth Fink'; Leu, Leah; Cepero, Monica; 'Neal de Jesus'; 'Paul White'; Robert Wolfe; 'Robin Rorapaugh'; Russo, Jean; Seff, Bradley; Teitler, Robert; 'Washington Collado'; 'William Scherer'
Cc: Newton, Jeffrey; Henry, Bertha; Madison, Pamela; Bieber, Josephine; Jardine, Arlene
Subject: Ethics Commission Meeting called for THIS FRIDAY, June 18, 2010 at 9am
Importance: High

Chairman Neal de Jesus, of the Broward County Ethics Commission has called a meeting of the Ethics Commission for THIS FRIDAY, June 18th at 9am. It will be held in room 430 of the Government Center (same room all of your meetings were held in).

The meeting will be sunshined from 9am-11am.

Please let me know as soon as possible of your availability to attend, as we will need a physical quorum in order to proceed with the meeting. Please copy my assistant Arlene Jardine on your response as well, as she is helping coordinate the meeting.

Thank you,

Monica

BCLOGO3C

Monica Cepero

Assistant to the County Administrator

115 S Andrews Ave,

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Phone 954 357 7354

cid:image001.png@01CA9DAC.201281E0

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From: Keechl, Ken
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 3:13 PM
To: 'Charlotte Greenbarg'
Subject: RE: 6/16/10 Broward Politics blog: Broward commissioners accused of derailing ethics reform

Charlotte

I can’t speak for anyone but me, but I intend to vote for the original ordinance as presented by the Ethics Commission You know me better than that. I have said this from day one-over and over. I voted in favor of the lawsuit (9-0) so the judge could rule that the ordinance is legal. However, after thinking about it more, I doubt that any court could rule on this by the deadline for the vote: August 10. I truly don’t believe anyone was trying to derail the ordinance. Thanks.

Broward County Mayor Ken Keechl,

District 4 Commissioner

From: Charlotte Greenbarg
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 2:00 PM
To: 'Charlotte Greenbarg'
Cc: Jones, Albert; Wasserman-Rubin, Diana; Lieberman, Ilene; Rodstrom, John; Keechl, Ken; Jacobs, Kristin; Lois Wexler; Ritter, Stacy; Gunzburger, Suzanne
Subject: FW: 6/16/10 Broward Politics blog: Broward commissioners accused of derailing ethics reform
Importance: High

Read Sue Gunzburger's excellent rebuttal to the effort to derail ethics reform. Let them know how you feel.

Charlotte


From: hallandalebeachblog@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 11:58 AM
Subject: FYI: 6/16/10 Broward Politics blog: Broward commissioners accused of derailing ethics reform

Reader comments below are as of 11:45 a.m. Thursday

Broward Politics blog
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/06/broward_commissioners_move_on.html

Broward commissioners accused of derailing ethics reform

Posted by Brittany Wallman on June 16, 2010 11:55 AM

Are Broward County commissioners attacking ethics reforms aimed at them? That's what some are accusing them of.

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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Broward County Ethics Committee's Thursday night meeting

For those of you who have called or written me
and or otherwise complained at other public policy
venues or on blogs about the fact that the Broward
County Ethics Committee meetings thus far
have been held on weekday mornings, and that
you've been dying to tell them what you really
think the ethics rules ought to be, now's your
big chance.

The Ethics Committee will be meeting Thursday
from 5- 8:30 p.m. at the Broward Govt. Center
115 S. Andrews Avenue, Room 430, Ft. Lauderdale.

Before you go, read this post at FloridaThinks.com
by Cheryl Forchilli, the chair of the Florida
Commission on Ethics, which I recently added
as a Google Alert.

This essay was Wednesday's post at a new public
policy website called FloridaThinks,
http://floridathinks.com/ which just started
last week.

http://floridathinks.com/florida-issues/florida-issues/ethics-watchdog-chair-beef-up-power-to-investigate-punish/

Also, if you missed my recent mentioning of it,
see Rob Wechsler's government ethics blog at
CityEthics.org, http://www.cityethics.org/
where he is Director of Research.

An excellent tool for following the latest
developments on this issue across the country.
http://www.cityethics.org/Blog-RobWechsler
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Saturday, January 23, 2010

Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter Unplugged on Ethics, January 2010

Below are the verbatim comments of Broward
County Commissioner Stacy Ritter as recorded
before the Broward County Ethics Commission
meeting of January 13th, 2010.

I think they speak for themselves, and what
they say to me is that for all of her tough talk
and PR spin over the past few months,
Stacy Ritter DOESN'T want meaningful
pro-active ethical accountability in Broward
County government, and prefers that she
and her colleagues continue their stealthy
and unethical behavior behind games of
semantics in public, while playing puppeteers
behind-the-scenes.
Or are THEY the puppets, as some insist?

On Sunday I will have info and news for you
here about the Ethics Committee and the
Broward Legislative Delegation, both
of whom have VERY IMPORTANT public
meetings and votes coming in the next few
days.

The Delegation will be voting next Tuesday,
Jan. 26th, on their Draft of an Ethics bill from
2-4 p.m. at the downtown Broward College
campus on E. Las Olas Avenue, up on the
12th floor boardroom.
There have to be ten members for a quorum,
and at least one member must be a State Senator.

The next meeting of the Broward Ethics
Commission is two days later, Thursday
the 28th, from 5-8:30 p.m., where they will
react to what the Broward Delegation says.

I'll have agendas, bill drafts and links here
for you to peruse and try to bring you up
to speed on what's happening, good and bad,
as well as detail efforts to derail the focus
of the Ethics Committee so that it will be
weaker than it ought to be.

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http://www.cityethics.org/print/991
Broward County Legislators Drag the County's Ethics Feet
By Robert Wechsler
Created 2010-01-14 17:13

Also see www.sunshinereview.org
and http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Florida

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MAYOR (sic) RITTER: Well, thanks. I didn't ask to be on the agenda, so I appreciate you giving me a couple of minutes.

I have spent some time -- good morning everybody. Thank you for your service. I have spent some time going through the minutes of the past several meetings, and have been quite frankly disturbed at some of the comments that have been coming from this Committee and feel there are some assumptions that have been made here that

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are, quite frankly, wrong. I have seen it in other Commissions and Committees where you are asked to do things and you may not know exactly what the Commission does, so you are asking for changes to stuff that you're really not sure what we do. I’ve see it with the Management and Efficiency Study Committee, on which I sit. There are lots of decisions and conversations being said about things we already do, that people don't know we do or things we have tried to do that haven't worked. And there is not a whole lot of knowledge of the process, and I found that true in some of the comments that have come from this Commission. Just having received your draft, which is skeletal, it's going to be hard for me to make any comments on that specifically, but I'm concerned that there appears to be a perception from this group that the County Commission is full of corrupt elected officials who want nothing better than to line their pockets, and to date, we have had, since I have been on the Commission, in November 2006, one County Commissioner who has pled guilty to an offense that had nothing to do with his office and has been charged with an offense that has something to do with land use, not procurement, yet you have chosen to focus on procurement, and I haven't received a single e-mail from anybody in this county, either way, that focuses on procurement. There has never been a hint of scandal, as it relates to Broward County's procurement process, and yet, you wish to change a system that is quite frankly not broken. And I was most disturbed by my colleague Commissioner Wexler's comments as it relates to procurement, and what she perceives to be an issue, which I quite frankly don't see. You had all discussed with her, and this is the meeting she attended and I have lots of tabs that made me scratch my head, but she -- the Commissioner who sits on the most selection committees and who actually raised her hand three times yesterday to sit on

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the three selection committees that were on the agenda, seems to feel that Commissioners don't belong on the selection committee. Well, I like to lead by example, so if I don't think something should happen, I don't participate in the process. And so I scratch my head when one of my colleagues comes and says we should change something that she participates in quite freely, and gleefully, I might add.

When the conversation came to sand bagging, lots of people come to the table with agendas. I dare say that some of you have come with agendas too, which may not be what you are putting down on the public comment, but that doesn't make it illegal and it certainly doesn't make it unethical. If I'm sitting in a selection committee and I think company A is the best company, but company B is the stiffest competition, I may well choose to rank company B lower because I think company A should win. There is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing illegal or unethical in that, and if you want to know the reasons why we vote, all you have to do is ask us. Sometimes you will get the right answer and sometimes you will get the couched answer, but that is politics. I don't think the selection committee is broken.

Commissioner Wexler talked about intimidation of staff. The County Commission doesn't hire and fire staff, so they shouldn't be intimidated by us because we're not their bosses. The County Administrator is their bosses. And if they have issues with the County Administrator, they should take it up with her, not with us because we don't hire and fire the people that are sitting at the table with you.

There was a comment that not a lot of questions are asked by staff at selection committees because of the intimidation. I don't ask a lot of questions at selection committees, and I can promise you, I'm not intimidated by a single one of my

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colleagues. That is not the reason I don't ask questions. I don't ask questions because I read the proposals, which are thorough, and I listen and watch the presentations, which are equally thorough, and I make up my mind based on the proposals and the presentations. There is no intimidation there. I get my questions answered either beforehand or in the proposal and the presentation.

I think that your Inspector General local bill has some problems with it. You are allowing somebody who basically does what the auditor does. We're already paying for somebody to do much of what the Inspector General does, and I don't think the county needs an Inspector General and an auditor to overlap each other, and I think the County Commission, by the way -- I would certainly be willing to put an ordinance on the agenda to talk about an Inspector General. It's funny you want the Legislature to meddle in this, because in 2000, Mr. Scherer, you and I were on the same side of a strong mayor, to try to curtail the Legislators attempt to meddle into county business by putting a strong mayor on the ballot. We were at the same table to kill it, and our argument was, the Legislature shouldn't meddle in county business. They should take care of their own house and let the County Commission take care of its own house, but 10 years later, I know times change, people change and issues change, but I don't think the Legislature should meddle.

I think that there are, by the way, Legislatures who have been accused of things. Legislatures who have gone to jail, but I don't see you talking about them. There are Legislatures who actually work for businesses that have business in front of the Legislature, and vote on their issues, but I don't see you talk about their conflicts. I don't see you talk about the conflicts in Congress. I see you talk about selection committees,

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that Congress doesn't sit on selection committees; that the Legislature doesn't sit on selection committees. But the Legislature doesn't sit as the executive branch, which the County Commission does. The Legislature doesn't sit as the judicial branch, which the County Commission sometimes does, and we always sit as the Legislative branch. So really you can't compare -- and by the way, I have experience. I can speak from both angles. I was a Legislature. I know what is going on up there that nobody seems to care about. All you seem to care about is one of us is going to jail for something that had nothing to do with what he did here at the county, and I do not mean to diminish the offense. It was horrendous and no elected official should ever betray the public confidence, but you're going to allow an Inspector General to investigate anonymous complaints. Now as someone who has been the subject of anonymous attackers on the web, I can tell you that is really harmful. I believe also I have a constitutional amendment to confront my accuser. Now with an anonymous complaint, I lose that. How can you do that? How can you not let me, if I'm accused of something, defend myself to the person who is the accuser. I could go on. I have lots of notes and tabs.

I notice that last week you had Charlotte Greenbar come to speak to you. She notoriously hates the County Commission. She notoriously hates the School Board. She made some comments about School Board members shouldn't sit on selection committees either, but I don't see anybody talking about that either, and I recognize that your purview is the County Commission, yet you have on occasion, gone outside of that and discussed things that are not within the quote purview of the Ethics Commission. If you want to, and we all want to make sure that our elected officials are trustworthy, and by the way, I'm not sure you could ever make 100 percent of the public believe that that

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is true. Those people who think we're dirty will always think we're dirty, no matter what we do or say, and those people who think we aren't will always think that. Then you might want to broaden it. You might want to broaden your local bill and say you know, it applies it Legislatures too, and it applies to municipal officials and it applies to the School Board and it applies to the Hospital District Commissioners and it applies to every Water Control Board supervisor in this county, to every single special district supervisor in this county, which there are 97, because quite frankly to single out the County Commissioner for something is wrong. If you want to talk about elected officials and corruption, let's talk about elected officials and corruption, but to paint us all on this County Commission with a broad brush, when I have seen members do nothing illegal or unethical –have seen members do things for their own reasons, which I may not agree with, but they are elected to do that, and if the public doesn't

like the job we're doing, then the public knows how to get rid of us.

MAYOR RITTER: If I may conclude.

COMMISSIONER DE JESUS: If you could close, because the Mayor is here for his appointed time.

MAYOR RITTER: Thank you.

And this isn't personal, Bill. You and I have a personal relationship that completely transcends this, and I hope that you would know that. We're disagreeing on an issue, but we're not disagreeable. I still count you as a friend and I still hope that you count me as one at the end of the day.

MR. SCHERER: I do. 16 Ethics Commission 1-13-10 BS

MAYOR RITTER: I think that perception of lobbyists is also misunderstood. And lobbyists purvey the system anyway. Politics and lobbyists, just like politics and sex sort of go hand-in-hand, sometimes in my house they are one and the same, but we just had a major procurement on the court house. Construction manager on the court house, the winner had no lobbyist, knocked on everyone of our doors all by himself.

MR. SCHERER: That is why I fired mine.

MAYOR RITTER: Well, good for you.

But the point is that yes, sometimes it happens that way and sometimes it doesn't. We just did the financial services. Now the winner did have representation. The person I voted for had no representation. It happens. It's not always the fact that the lobbyist client wins, but it is sometimes the fact. That is just true in life. Lawyers represent clients. We want our clients to win, just like the lobbyists want our clients to win. And by the way, I told my appointment, Ken Fink, that he is free to do -- not told me. He can do whatever he wants. He is a grown man. But I have put no pressure on him --

MR. FINK: Thank you.

MAYOR RITTER: -- and he and I have argued like cats and dogs on this. We have screamed at each other, but at the end of the day he is going to do what he thinks is right and I'm going to tell him he is wrong, but I think if you are moving towards a, Miami Dade system, which is what looks like is happening, is a big mistake. The last major project in Broward County was the rental car center at the airport. Before my time, Commissioners sat on the selection committee. It came in under budget and on time. The last major project in Miami Dade was the airport, which came in a billion 17 Ethics Commission 1-13-10 BS

dollars over budget and did not come in on time, and the only people that you can complain to are the staff, not the elected officials, and I mean no disrespect to the staff, but the staff controlled the process in Miami Dade and staff spoke to the staff, not to the elected officials.

So at the end of the day, if you are looking for accountability and transparency, in my opinion, and with all due respect to this Committee and the intelligence of this Committee, I think you're heading down the wrong path. You will not find accountability or transparency if you hand this over to the non-elected officials. Thank you.

COMMISSIONER DE JESUS: Thanks for your time.

MAYOR RITTER: Thanks for letting me speak. I didn't -- I came to monitor, but a politician with a microphone. Good luck.

COMMISSIONER DE JESUS: Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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