Florida League of Cities' Ethics Reform Proposals III - Placing Shackles on Countywide Ethics Programs

This is the third of four blog posts on Florida Senate Bill 606 (attached; see below), one of the worst ethics reform bills I have ever read.

This post considers just one sentence of the bill: "A political subdivision is prohibited from imposing additional or more stringent standards of conduct and disclosure requirements upon the officers and employees of another political subdivision." The first question that comes to mind is, What subdivisions are we talking about? The answer is, counties and cities, more specifically, counties and cities in countywide ethics programs, experiments in independence and cost-saving that are Florida's greatest gifts to government ethics. This innocuous-seeming sentence would place shackles on these countywide ethics programs.

The bill's sponsor, state senator Jeff Clemens, of Palm Beach County (which has one of these countywide programs), seems to be pro-government ethics. He filed a bill last year that would actually make state legislators have to withdraw from participation in matters where they have a conflict, a revolutionary idea in a state like Florida, a common idea elsewhere. The bill didn't make it out of committee, of course. Last year, Clemens also was one of only two state senators who voted against increasing campaign contribution limits.

However, it's interesting that the only other senator voting against the increase in campaign contribution limits was another Palm Beach County senator, Joe Abruzzo, who is out to get the Palm Beach County ethics program. Clemens' bill would hamper this – his own county's – ethics program, as well as the programs in Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Jacksonville-Duval County. Some cities in these counties have fought against the countywide programs; this provision would enable them to win their battles every time and, possibly, break the programs apart.

It is notable that the Florida League of Cities' press release that "applauds" the bill says nothing directly about this provision. The only relevant thing it says is that the bill "protects the concept of city home rule powers." But citizens in these cities voted for the countywide ethics programs. They wanted stringent standards imposed on their city officials. It's city officials, members of the League of Cities, who see these standards as being imposed by the counties, rather than being done in the interest and with the support of their constituents.

It appears from the League of Cities' failure to explain or even describe this provision in its press release that it is hoping no one will notice or understand their attempt to undermine valuable countywide ethics programs. Phil Claypool, a former executive director of the Florida EC, notes in a letter to Integrity Florida analyzing SB 606 (attached; see below) that this is a "political fight." Unfortunately, the League of Cities is taking this fight to the state legislature, rather than letting the battles work out in each county.

It makes sense that city officials would resent countywide ethics programs raising the standard of conduct expected from city officials. But this is less a home rule issue than an attempt to get around the overwhelming support for countywide ethics programs by the citizens of the cities in these counties. The citizens have decided, and some city officials — apparently the ones who control the League of Cities — don't like it. They want the state legislature to support them against their own constituents.

What they need to do is acknowledge that conflicts of interest are different from other areas of policy. Ethics programs provide citizen oversight over officials. When these officials use obscure ethics "reform" provisions to wriggle out from under this oversight, it isn't pretty. And it certainly isn't ethics reform. It's ethical misconduct. This provision should be removed from the bill.

Part I - Preventing the Filing of Complaints

Part II - Gifts, Ethics Advice, and Training

Part IV - Local Govt. Associations Should Not Lobby re Conflicts of Interest

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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