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Broward County Ethics Reform Passes, But Budget Concerns Remain
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Robert Wechsler
Broward
County (FL) voters embraced (3-1) two ethics questions on the
ballot yesterday, which applied the new county code of ethics to all
municipalities in the county as well as to all constitutional offices
(including the sheriff, appraiser, and clerk). They voted 6-1 for the
question "Allow counties to show taxpayers the portion of property
taxes attributable to constitutional officers." But this extremely reasonable matter still has to be approved by the
state.
The only close call was the establishment of an inspector general's office, with authority over the county's municipalities. That barely passed, most likely because it's the only question that clearly involved expenses. There's already a new IG office, but it only has jurisdiction over the county commission. Its powers now expanded, the big question is, will its budget be expanded commensurately?
According to an article in the Sun-Sentinel, "Even supporters of the proposals admit there is much left unanswered, including who would pay for enforcement, how much it would cost and how it would apply to the cities." A county ethics commission member "said she feared the county would 'strangle the baby' by adding widespread authority to the brand new inspector general office and then depriving it of sufficient money to operate."
Another EC member used stronger language: “The proposals out before you are a lot of good sounding, mamby pamby, pie-in-the-sky proposals. What they basically do in my opinion is they water down the inspector general process."
It's important that major ethics reforms be accompanied by guaranteed EC and IG budgets. Without these, you have a great program on paper and a lousy program in reality. That certainly won't promote trust in government.
To underline the need for ethics reform in Broward County's municipalities, yet another municipal official was just arrested, this time for taking money from a developer seeking approval of a project, according to an article in yesterday's Sun-Sentinel>.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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The only close call was the establishment of an inspector general's office, with authority over the county's municipalities. That barely passed, most likely because it's the only question that clearly involved expenses. There's already a new IG office, but it only has jurisdiction over the county commission. Its powers now expanded, the big question is, will its budget be expanded commensurately?
According to an article in the Sun-Sentinel, "Even supporters of the proposals admit there is much left unanswered, including who would pay for enforcement, how much it would cost and how it would apply to the cities." A county ethics commission member "said she feared the county would 'strangle the baby' by adding widespread authority to the brand new inspector general office and then depriving it of sufficient money to operate."
Another EC member used stronger language: “The proposals out before you are a lot of good sounding, mamby pamby, pie-in-the-sky proposals. What they basically do in my opinion is they water down the inspector general process."
It's important that major ethics reforms be accompanied by guaranteed EC and IG budgets. Without these, you have a great program on paper and a lousy program in reality. That certainly won't promote trust in government.
To underline the need for ethics reform in Broward County's municipalities, yet another municipal official was just arrested, this time for taking money from a developer seeking approval of a project, according to an article in yesterday's Sun-Sentinel>.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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