Palm Beach County Update
<br><br>
Things are moving along well with the Palm Beach County ethics
initiative, which I've written about in earlier blog posts (<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/palm-beach-county-business-coalition-…; target="”_blank”">1</a>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/palm-beach-county-ethics-program-has-…; target="”_blank”">2</a>). An inspector general, selected by the ethics commission and two state government
attorneys, started work on June 28, according to <a href="http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-06-28/news/fl-inspector-general-a…; target="”_blank”">an
article
in the <i>Sun-Sentinel</i></a>. The next day, according to <a href="http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-06-29/news/fl-city-ethics-vote-20…; target="”_blank”">another
<i>Sun-Sentinel</i>
article</a>, 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.<br>
<br>
The referendum question is supported by both the county League of
Cities chapter and the county commission.<br>
<br>
There are a few obstacles, however. One I discussed in a couple recent
blog posts (<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/independent-offices-vs-independent-et…; target="”_blank”">1</a>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/miscellany-4" target="”_blank”">2</a>):
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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 <i>Post</i>, in <a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/election-could-end-west-palm-ethics-p…; target="”_blank”">an
article
this Sunday</a>, was able to report that there has been only one
disciplinary action so far.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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