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The Selection Process Behind Local Board Misconduct Allegations in Orange County, FL
Tuesday, May 27th, 2014
Robert Wechsler
It all started with a private meeting among three members of the
Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority board, according to an
article last week in the Orlando Sentinel. The subject
of the informal meeting was the ouster of the executive director, which took
place at the next formal meeting.
But after an investigation into the private meeting, a grand jury indicted one of the three members for bribery and soliciting compensation for official behavior. Lesson: open meeting act violations are sometimes related to government ethics and criminal misuse of office violations.
The alleged crime involved a deal raised by the Authority board member, whereby the board majority that he said he controlled would give the Authority's general-engineering contract to another company if that company would hire some people he recommended.
The Local Board's Selection Process
What is most notable about the situation is the selection process for the local authority. The board member who was indicted was selected by the governor. His majority of three (of five board members) included another gubernatorial appointee and the individual who runs the state Department of Transportation (DOT) in Central Florida (automatically on the board) and who reports directly to the head of DOT (a gubernatorial appointee).
The minority on the board consisted of the mayor of Orange County (automatically on the board) and another gubernatorial appointee, but one who was originally appointed by the prior governor and spent many years working as a trial attorney for the county and for Orlando.
The Right Position for Someone in a Related Business?
According to an article on Law 360, land deals too were discussed at the allegedly illegal meeting of the three board members. Land deals near new expressway exits are a big area of potential corruption relating to expressway authorities. The board member who called the meeting was "senior project manager at IBI Group, a global architecture, planning, engineering and technology firm that offers services in urban design and planning, building and landscape architecture, engineering and other areas," according to the Law 360 journalist, who got his information from the Authority website (it's no longer there, since the board member has been suspended by the governor).
In other words, the governor put someone in this very sensitive position whose business and whose clients could profit directly and indirectly from decisions he made. This is a worse problem than any personal misconduct the appointee may have engaged in.
Does the Power to Appoint Bring Responsibility?
But the biggest problem is the selection process, which allows the governor to directly or indirectly control four of the five members on a local board. By employing this power, I believe that the governor should be held responsible for any misconduct his appointees engage in together. After all, the governor could have allowed an independent organization or two to select his appointees, or he could have pushed for a change in the selection process. But he chose to keep control. With power comes responsibility.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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But after an investigation into the private meeting, a grand jury indicted one of the three members for bribery and soliciting compensation for official behavior. Lesson: open meeting act violations are sometimes related to government ethics and criminal misuse of office violations.
The alleged crime involved a deal raised by the Authority board member, whereby the board majority that he said he controlled would give the Authority's general-engineering contract to another company if that company would hire some people he recommended.
The Local Board's Selection Process
What is most notable about the situation is the selection process for the local authority. The board member who was indicted was selected by the governor. His majority of three (of five board members) included another gubernatorial appointee and the individual who runs the state Department of Transportation (DOT) in Central Florida (automatically on the board) and who reports directly to the head of DOT (a gubernatorial appointee).
The minority on the board consisted of the mayor of Orange County (automatically on the board) and another gubernatorial appointee, but one who was originally appointed by the prior governor and spent many years working as a trial attorney for the county and for Orlando.
The Right Position for Someone in a Related Business?
According to an article on Law 360, land deals too were discussed at the allegedly illegal meeting of the three board members. Land deals near new expressway exits are a big area of potential corruption relating to expressway authorities. The board member who called the meeting was "senior project manager at IBI Group, a global architecture, planning, engineering and technology firm that offers services in urban design and planning, building and landscape architecture, engineering and other areas," according to the Law 360 journalist, who got his information from the Authority website (it's no longer there, since the board member has been suspended by the governor).
In other words, the governor put someone in this very sensitive position whose business and whose clients could profit directly and indirectly from decisions he made. This is a worse problem than any personal misconduct the appointee may have engaged in.
Does the Power to Appoint Bring Responsibility?
But the biggest problem is the selection process, which allows the governor to directly or indirectly control four of the five members on a local board. By employing this power, I believe that the governor should be held responsible for any misconduct his appointees engage in together. After all, the governor could have allowed an independent organization or two to select his appointees, or he could have pushed for a change in the selection process. But he chose to keep control. With power comes responsibility.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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