In November 2010, Broward County, FL voters approved an ethics code
for officials of the cities in the county (the code also applies to
the county commissioners). The code finally became effective January
2, 2012.
Three cities in Broward County (home to Ft. Lauderdale) have put referendum questions on
the January 31 ballot seeking to strike the applicability of
certain of the code's provisions to their cities' officials. The principal one is the requirement to disclose one's outside salary. Personally, I don't think disclosing a salary is necessary. It's sufficient to ask officials to say they are paid,
say, more than $20,000 by an employer, or more than $5,000 by a
client, to show that the job is serious and there is a financially
meaningful relationship with a client.
What is notable about changing this particular provision is how
self-serving it is for mayors to waste the public's time on a
question that is only intended to protect their privacy. Of course,
the argument is made that otherwise officials will resign in huge
numbers. But if officials were to resign in huge numbers, the law
would likely be changed. The fact is that disclosure requirements
always lead to this argument, but rarely to the reality. When there
were mass resignations in Oregon a couple of years ago (see
my blog
post), the officials either quickly were appointed again or others
were appointed to replace them. The predictions did not come true,
and the public did not suffer.
