<p><a href="http://www.cityethics.org">City Ethics</a> president,
Carla Miller, worked with <a href="http://www.integrityfl.org/">Integrity
Florida</a> (Dan Krassner) and the <a href="http://www.flara.org/home.html">Florida Alliance for
Retired Americans</a> (Richard Polangin) on a Resolution that
passed at the annual conference of the Alliance last week. This is
part of an emerging citizen initiative in Florida that involves
numerous groups joining forces to fight for the passage of
effective laws in Florida to close loopholes in current ethics
laws. As stated in the resolution, Florida leads the nation in
public corruption convictions.</p>
<p>The resolution (see below) calls for a change in Florida law that
will allow the Ethics Commission to self-initiate complaints. Now,
if they become aware of an ethics violation, they have to sit on
their hands and do nothing unless a citizen files a complaint.
Also, the resolution calls for the creation of independent Ethics
Officers statewide who can only be fired with the approval of the
State Ethics Commission. There are also recommendations on
transparency of state contracts and a review of penalties for
ethics violations.</p>
<p>In order to have effective ethics reform, citizen groups must be
engaged and educated. Then they need to be coordinated into a
focused lobbying group. This resolution is the first of many to
come in Florida and we will be shooting for legislative changes in
the spring of 2013.</p>
<h2>RESOLUTION ON ETHICS IN FLORIDA GOVERNMENT</h2>
<h3>Florida Alliance for Retired Americans</h3>
<p>Public corruption is pervasive at all levels of government in
Florida. This is according to a December 2010 report, "A Study of
Public Corruption in Florida" by the 19th Statewide Grand Jury.
According to the grand jury report, between 2000 and 2010 a total
of 8,241 arrest charges were made and there were 1,126 convictions
for public corruption. Florida led all states in public corruption
convictions. Cadets at West Point and other military academies
swear an oath not to lie, cheat or steal or tolerate others that
do. Public officials should be held to this same standard. Our
democracy cannot function properly unless there is public trust in
elected officials. <br>
<br>
<b>Thomas Jefferson</b> said that: "<i>When a man assumes a public
trust, he should consider himself a public property.</i>"<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>The legislature should enact law adopting the recommendations
contained in the December 2010 19th Statewide Grand Jury report.</li>
<li>The legislature should enact law giving the Florida Commission
on Ethics the power to self initiate ethics investigations based
upon the receipt of sufficient evidence based on a supermajority
vote of the members. Currently the Commission cannot initiate an
investigation unless there is a complaint.</li>
<li>All state and local agencies, the Governor's Office, the House
of Representatives and the Florida Senate should be required to
have an independent Chief Ethics Officer who is responsible
for fostering an ethical culture and ensuring that all
appropriate persons in that entity are trained in Florida's
ethics laws.</li>
<li>Florida law should provide that the Florida Commission on
Ethics must approve the firing of a Chief Ethics Officer or an
Inspector General.</li>
<li>All contracts with state vendors should be public to promote
transparency with the use of public funds. To ensure
transparency in decision-making by contractors, Florida's open
records law should apply to statutory entities<u> </u>that
receive state funds; public meetings held by these entities must
be noticed in advance with agendas and meeting materials made
available to the public.</li>
<li>The legislature should undertake a review of current penalties
for public corruption to determine if strengthening penalties
would serve to deter corruption and if they are sufficient to
appropriately punish violators.</li>
</ul>
<br>
<br>
<b>Be it resolved</b> that significant legal reforms are needed to
reduce public corruption and restore public trust. We call upon the
Florida Legislature to enact legislation to implement each of the
preceding recommendations.<br>
<br>