Palm Beach County Update

Things are moving along well with the Palm Beach County ethics initiative, which I've written about in earlier blog posts (1  2). An inspector general, selected by the ethics commission and two state government attorneys, started work on June 28, according to an article in the Sun-Sentinel. The next day, according to another Sun-Sentinel article, the county commission gave initial approval to placing on the November ballot a county charter amendment question that would give the county inspector general and the county ethics commission jurisdiction over the county's 38 municipalities.

The referendum question is supported by both the county League of Cities chapter and the county commission.

There are a few obstacles, however. One I discussed in a couple recent blog posts (1  2):  the unwillingness of some independent county offices, especially the sheriff's office, to participate in the county ethics program. It is harder to sell voters, not to mention city officials, on a program in which even many county offices are refusing to participate.

Another obstacle is expense. At first blush, it would seem very cost-effective to have all the municipalities share one ethics program. But since few of them have an ethics program, they aren't excited about handing even a tiny amount of extra money over (the plan to pay the IG is for the county and each municipality to pay a small fee on most government contracts). The funding method is part of the referendum question.

Another obstacle is a concern that the IG's office will be overwhelmed. Right now it consists of just the IG herself. But there is another other staff member, the EC executive director. It will certainly take a while to get the program going, but that is true of any new program. If the referendum is successful, there will be a lot more money available for the IG to hire staff. After a difficult year, it should work just fine.

Finally, there is some opposition to the referendum question in the county's largest city, West Palm Beach. The reason is that West Palm Beach, which has had its own ethics scandals, has an ethics program of its own, even if it's rather rudimentary. The program primarily consists of a full-time ethics officer who provides ethics training and ethics advice to city officials. The ethics officer is part of the city legal department, rather than being independent or responsible to an ethics commission. There is no openness regarding complaints or the results of investigations, but the Palm Beach Post, in an article this Sunday, was able to report that there has been only one disciplinary action so far.

There is concern in West Palm Beach about paying for an ethics officer and a county IG, but for a city its size (135,000 pop.), I see no reason why it shouldn't have both. The need for advice and training would not be any less than it is now.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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