Allegations Against Miami-Dade County's Ethics Director

There are people who get great satisfaction going after the ethics of government ethics professionals. Rarely are their accusations relevant to government ethics; it's just about showing that we're not good people, either, as if government ethics was just about good and bad. Maybe we should wear t-shirts that say, on the front, "We're Not Perfect," and on the back, "So?"

Government ethics is not a way to attain sainthood. It's a way to help government officials act more professionally. Maybe we should refer to ourselves as coaches. After all, don't coaches sometimes fine players when they don't act professionally?

The latest of these ad hominem attacks on a government ethics professional was an anonymous accusation against Robert Meyers, the executive director of the Miami-Dade County Ethics Commission, that he was having an affair with a subordinate. The accusation was forwarded to the EC by, of all people, the county mayor, whose former chief of staff, and friend, had been reprimanded by the EC a few months before.

According to an article Tuesday in the Miami Herald, an investigation was made both into the allegations against Meyers and into who had stolen handwritten notes between the executive director and his subordinate. The report, which I could not find on the EC's website, found no substantiation of the allegations against Meyers. The article doesn't say if the EC found out who stole the notes. Or the tarts, for that matter.

Only weeks after being cleared of the allegations, Meyers announced his resignation, for other reasons, after twelve years in the position. Let's hope this affair wasn't the last straw.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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