Developers and Ethics Reform

On November 15, 2006, David Damron of the Orlando Sentinel reported on Lawson Lamar, the local state attorney's call for "sweeping new ethics laws he said would limit the influence of developers and other special interests on city and county governments. In a Nov. 2 letter to city and county leaders in Orange and Osceola [counties], Lamar urged them to pass new laws that would dramatically limit campaign contributions and beef up disclosure requirements.

"But most city and county officials interviewed Tuesday showed little enthusiasm for Lamar's reforms, which would cut the maximum campaign contribution they could receive by 80 percent.

"'I don't have any interest in pursuing it or looking into it,' said Kissimmee Mayor Linda Goodwin-Nichols, who added that Lamar was overstepping his bounds. 'The way it is has been working fine, and I don't see any reason to change.'

'Ocoee Mayor Scott Vandergrift chuckled when he got Lamar's letter. 'I handed it over to the city manager and said, "What is this? What is he trying to do with this? Is he becoming philosophical in his aging process? Has he taken it upon himself to straighten out government?"'"

What radical reforms was Lamar pushing for? "In his letter, Lamar called for a $100 cap on campaign contributions in local races instead of the current $500 limit. He also said local governments should require developers who come before them to disclose publicly whether they've been in business with the elected officials who vote on their projects."

"The spike in cases involving public officials prompted Lamar in June to form a special unit to handle corruption cases. In his letter to city and county officials, Lamar said corruption undermines the public's faith in government. 'Government, especially at these levels, isn't supposed to be about money; it's supposed to be about public service. People in general are tired of deviousness in government.'"

There's what Mayor Vandergrift consider an old man's philosophy: local government is about public service. A silly thing for a prosecutor, or any public official, to believe.

"In his letter, Lamar said the campaign and disclosure reforms are needed to counter 'groups or individuals attempting to improvidently and covertly influence governmental actions, particularly those persons or entities associated with land development.'

"Contributions from development and construction industries make up nearly half of the money raised by some local elected officials who regulate development. And development interests often sidestep the $500 limit on contributions by giving multiple contributions through different companies they control. Downtown developer Cameron Kuhn gave [Orlando mayor Buddy] Dyer $5,000 by writing 10 separate $500 checks on the same day. Each one was drawn on the account of a different corporation Kuhn controls.

"In Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty's 2006 re-election bid, he received $1,000 in contributions from Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority Chairman Allan Keen and his development company, Keewin Real Property Co. But that same day, seven other $500 contributions arrived to Crotty's campaign from the same Winter Park address Keen lists on his contributions. Two days earlier, a $3,500 bundle of $500 contributions arrived to Crotty's campaign from seemingly different entities, but all came from one Fort Myers address, which is the office of several development businesses." (Note: Fort Myers is not in Orange County.)

"Crotty said he is open to reforms but would not commit to putting Lamar's proposals on a future agenda for discussion. Crotty said some of the reforms duplicate current laws or 'are best addressed at the state level.'

"But Avalon Park developer Beat Kahli said the $100 cap proposed by Lamar would have little effect on large organizations such as his, which has more than 80 companies registered in the state. If each one of those could still give $100, his companies would still be able to contribute a considerable sum of money."

From philosophy we descend to what's really important in ethics reform: wording of ethics provisions. Any wording that allows a developer to give multiple contributions under different names is worthless. This should be a lesson: always write ethics language with developers in mind. Developers, like shipowners, generally have separate companies for each project, and maybe a few more on the side. "Persons" should not be restricted, people should. It's hard to find the right language, but I hope everyone will pitch in to find the right language for the model municipal ethics code we will be posting very soon on the City Ethics website, seeking comments, recommendations, and best and worst practices.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired
City Ethics, Inc.