By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
Forty-one seconds.
That’s all it took for the Broward County Commission to gleefully enact an ordinance three weeks ago disposing of tough restrictions on the acceptance of gifts by elected officials in the county’s ethics code.
It got little notice outside the commission’s meeting room at County Hall. But since Dec. 19 – just in time for the gift-giving season – those elected officials need only comply with the more lenient gift law restrictions spelled out in state law.
Reluctantly adopted 15 years ago amid public outrage following several high-profile corruption scandals – then rejiggered several times – Broward’s Code of Ethics forbid county commissioners and mayors and members of the governing bodies of municipalities from accepting any gift of food and nonalcoholic beverages worth $25 or more, or any other gift valued at more than $5, from registered lobbyists, their employers or principals, or vendors or contractors doing business with the government they represent. The code also applied to their relatives, registered domestic partners and government staff.
Elected officials were allowed to accept gifts from others given to them in their official capacity, worth up to $50. Violators faced a fine not to exceed $500 or imprisonment in the county jail for up to 60 days, or both.
Back then, pushed to act, county commissioners squealed loudly. But like it or not, the code’s requirements eventually cooled the public’s ire and calmed their concerns.
That all changed on Dec. 9 when the commission enacted an ordinance, sponsored by Mayor Mark Bogen and Commissioner Alexandra Davis. It eliminated all of the gift restrictions in the county code beyond those in state law, the Florida Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees, Chapter 112 Part III of the Florida Statutes.
The Florida code imposes a $100 limit on any gifts to elected officials from regulated donors, like lobbyists and vendors. There are no limits on gifts to elected officials in their official capacity from other sources.
No commissioner had anything to say publicly. No one from the public commented on the ordinance.
The vote was 8-0, with Commissioner Beam Furr absent. For the record, approval came from Commissioners Nan Rich, Bogen, Michael Udine, Lamar Fisher, Steve Geller, Davis, Robert McKinzie and Hazelle Rogers. Bogen claimed he had Furr’s “proxy” vote that would make it unanimous, but that didn’t count.
BELLYACHING AT COUNTY HALL
The whining was confined to paperwork in support of the ordinance, drafted by County Attorney Andrew Meyers’s office, which contended the code’s provisions about gifts “are complicated, with numerous nuanced exceptions that create the risk of unintentional violation and increase the potential for confusion. Still more confusion and complication results from the County Code being different from the separate set of restrictions and exceptions applicable under state law.
“As a result, even when faced with simple invitations to community events or receiving a small token of appreciation from a constituent, both Elected Officials and publicly funded lawyers must often spend significant time navigating the various restrictions and exceptions, which, because of the level of nuance, often requires time-consuming fact-finding, expending time that could be used by Elected Officials to more directly advance the public interest and the time publicly compensated legal counsel could better spend on more pressing legal matters,” the county attorney’s office explained.
Nothing new there. Those are the main arguments advanced by commissioners a decade ago before the public held their feet to the fire.
Today’s commissioners were satisfied with that. They saw no need to discuss the benefits of the stronger gift restrictions, or of pushing the Legislature to use Broward’s code as a model for improving the state’s code. Instead, commissioners took a leap backwards in the name of convenience for themselves and Broward’s other “Elected Officials” and the harried lawyers they employ.
To get there, though, various county bureaucracies had to make some interesting preliminary determinations. For example, when new ordinances are being considered, there must be a cost summary of the fiscal impact. The Office of Management and Budget reported that “the estimated impact on the budget does not exceed the threshold required for a Fiscal Impact Statement.”
That’s reassuring, but does that include an assessment of how the code changes will impact the cost to taxpayers when lobbyists or their contractor clients use gifts to make nice with commissioners and are later awarded fat contracts for goods or services? Unlikely.
GIFT TAKING MADE EASIER
The county also requires a Business Impact Estimate be produced in advance of any public hearing on ordinances to be voted on, specifically addressing their compliance costs, new fees to be paid and new regulatory costs. As you might suspect, the report on the ethics code changes was similarly upbeat. “It is estimated that there will be no direct economic impact of the proposed ordinance on private, for-profit businesses in Broward County.” It went on to opine that “no businesses will likely be impacted.”
That, of course, does not address the cost of new gifts, sought or unsought, for the elected officials who will decide the fate of the often-expensive plans of their businesses, their relatives and office staff who control access to those elected officials.
Word of the diminution of the county’s code of ethics has filtered out to Broward’s cities and towns. Florida Bulldog obtained a memo sent last week to several Broward municipalities represented by the Fort Lauderdale law firm Goren Cherof Doody & Ezrol informing them that elected officials are now only required to comply with the gift law restrictions under the Florida Code of Ethics.
“A Broward County elected County or City official no longer needs to be legally concerned about the following issues related to the acceptance of gifts…
- Acceptance of any gift below $100 in value (state limit for reporting and ability to accept from vendors and lobbyists).
- Whether a gift is given to an elected official in an official capacity or personal capacity.
- Whether a gift falls within any of the County exceptions for acceptance in an official capacity, such as condolence/sympathy cards, training, admission tickets to charitable events (and the reporting of acceptance of such tickets), and official events.
“In conclusion,” says the memo Cooper City Attorney Jacob Horowitz sent to Mayor James Curran and members of the city commission, “going forward Broward County elected officials, both County and City, need only comply with state laws regarding the acceptance of gifts. There are no longer any additional restrictions or reporting requirements under the Broward County Ethics Code. However, a violation of the state code is also a violation of the Broward County Ethics Code.”
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