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EC Members' Backgrounds and Misuse of Office
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
Robert Wechsler
There is no greater pleasure for some people than accusing ethics
professionals and ethics commission members of unethical behavior. That
is why ethics professionals and ethics commission members have to be
extra careful about what they do, and why individuals who have not
dealt responsibly with conflicts of interest, at least in the recent
past, should not accept a nomination to an ethics commission.
What no one wants to read is what is being written about the current chair of the Florida Commission on Ethics, which has jurisdiction over local government officials and employees. This week, New Times blogger Bob Norman wrote that the EC chair, appointed in 2007, had no-bid work orders from the then Broward assistant school superintendent from 2004-2006 totaling $75,000, marked with "bid waiver," although there was allegedly no formal approval from the school board.
According to another Bob Norman blog post, from May, the former assistant superintendent, now the Broward school construction chief, gave a $3 million contract to the EC chair and a Canadian firm for which the EC chair acts as a special consultant.
These two situations, which may very well have reasonable explanations, point to the question: Should a contractor, or a consultant to a contractor, who seeks work from local governments sit on a commission that has jurisdiction over those local governments' officials and their dealings with contractors? The same individual was formerly a developer, and developers' relationships with government can also be questionable. Neither contractors nor developers, for this reason, make ideal members of ethics commissions, and especially the most visible position of chair.
In addition, according to a June Sun-Sentinel article, the EC chair wrote a letter asking for leniency for a Broward County school board member who had pleaded guilty to accepting bribes. Is this really appropriate for an EC chair, or even member, to do?
It's not as if she were accused of something unrelated to government ethics. I don't think any EC member should use his or her position to ask for leniency in an ethics matter, especially in his or her state, and most especially for someone on a board with which the EC member has entered into contracts. The appearance of impropriety gets greater as it goes up the line to this particular request for leniency.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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What no one wants to read is what is being written about the current chair of the Florida Commission on Ethics, which has jurisdiction over local government officials and employees. This week, New Times blogger Bob Norman wrote that the EC chair, appointed in 2007, had no-bid work orders from the then Broward assistant school superintendent from 2004-2006 totaling $75,000, marked with "bid waiver," although there was allegedly no formal approval from the school board.
According to another Bob Norman blog post, from May, the former assistant superintendent, now the Broward school construction chief, gave a $3 million contract to the EC chair and a Canadian firm for which the EC chair acts as a special consultant.
These two situations, which may very well have reasonable explanations, point to the question: Should a contractor, or a consultant to a contractor, who seeks work from local governments sit on a commission that has jurisdiction over those local governments' officials and their dealings with contractors? The same individual was formerly a developer, and developers' relationships with government can also be questionable. Neither contractors nor developers, for this reason, make ideal members of ethics commissions, and especially the most visible position of chair.
In addition, according to a June Sun-Sentinel article, the EC chair wrote a letter asking for leniency for a Broward County school board member who had pleaded guilty to accepting bribes. Is this really appropriate for an EC chair, or even member, to do?
It's not as if she were accused of something unrelated to government ethics. I don't think any EC member should use his or her position to ask for leniency in an ethics matter, especially in his or her state, and most especially for someone on a board with which the EC member has entered into contracts. The appearance of impropriety gets greater as it goes up the line to this particular request for leniency.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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