The arrest of a fourth Palm Beach County commissioner last month should raise the stakes on corruption investigations in Florida.
But, according to attorney general candidate Dan Gelber, the state's prosecutors are hamstrung by a lack of staff and resources -- leaving the door open to more bad behavior by public officials.
"Florida has a corruption problem. There's lots of (real-estate) development and many, many governing bodies. That leads to lots of issues relating to money, and more opportunity (for corruption)," said Gelber, a Democratic state senator from Miami Beach.
Indeed, public corruption cases have popped up from the Broward County School Board to the highest levels of the Republican Party of Florida.
The case of Jeff Koons highlighted, yet again, how real-estate deals and political influence coincide in the Sunshine State.
The two-term Palm Beach County commissioner allegedly used the power of his office to threaten a family that opposed one of his pet environmental projects. Resigning from office, Koons entered into a plea bargain last week on extortion, perjury and violating public open-meeting laws.
Koons follows in the footsteps of fellow commissioners Tony Masilotti, Warren Newell and Mary McCarty, who were convicted in the past three years on various civil and criminal charges related to their conduct in office.
Two West Palm Beach commissioners also served time for felonies for abusing their positions.
But while the media dub Palm Beach "Corruption County," the problems hardly stop there.
Orange County Commissioner Mildred Fernandez recently was suspended after her arrest on bribery and campaign contribution charges.
In Broward County, meantime, at least one sealed indictment has been issued over the SchoolBoard's allegedly illicit dealings with lobbyists.
Previously, FBI investigations brought downBroward County Commissioner Joe Eggelletion and exposed Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein's massive Ponzi scheme, which parlayed ill-gotten gains into campaign contributions to dozens of Florida politicians and both political parties.
Other investigations are said to be targeting more officials in nine South Florida counties.
Gov. Charlie Crist says that since he became governor in 2007, he has had to remove more than 30 people from office on corruption charges.
Even while bemoaning the problem, Crist saw corruption up close and personal when Rothstein, his friend and one of his larger campaign contributors, was shipped off to federal prison. Rothstein had donated $52,000 to Crist at the governor's 52nd birthday party and contributed some $600,000 to the state Republican Party.
The Jim Greer affair hit even closer to home. Greer, Crist's longtime protege and handpicked GOP chairman was indicted on felony charges ranging from money laundering to fraud.
Ongoing state and federal investigations into party finances prompted Republican attorney general candidate Pam Bondi to call Greer's dealings "the ultimate example of corruption."
During the 2010 legislative session, Gelber proposed a reform package to toughen state corruption and ethics laws. When his measure failed, he called on Crist to convene a special session to take up the issue again.
"We tend to see corruption of the process in development issues and an unconstrained campaign finance system," Gelber told Sunshine State News. "It's a horribly broken system that almost invites the influence of money."
Gelber called the Palm Beach cases "startling events" that demonstrate "an obvious need" for tougher laws and stricter enforcement.
Defenders of the current prosecutorial system note that while the U.S. attorney's office brought the cases against Masilotti,Newell and McCarty, it was state prosecutors who nabbed Koons.
Ironically, or not, Koons defended the status-quo earlier this year, when he pooh-poohed the call for an appointed panel to police ethics issues in the county.
Were public elected officials Everything we do is in the public, Koons said. Were held responsible and we meet every couple of weeks and people can come yell at us.
In response to the ongoing cancer of corruption, Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe created a special anti-corruption unit. He recruited four "top tier" detectives from local law enforcement agencies for a new Corruption Task Force. McAuliffe said the task force has "any number of active investigations."
State Sen. Dave Aronberg, Gelber's rival in the Democratic race for attorney general, claims credit for cracking down on local ethics violators.
The Greenacres lawmaker sponsored Senate Bill 1980 to allow counties to impose tougher penalties for ethics violations by county officers and employees.
Violators can now be hit with fines of up to $1,000 or up to a year in jail. Currently, the maximum penalty is a $500 fine or 60 days in jail.
Gelber, a former prosecutor, said state and local agencies -- even where there are independent inspector generals, such as in Miami -- lag in the federal enforcement effort.
"It's hard to staff labor-intensive public-corruption investigations," he said. "The state has so underfunded attorneys that it's difficult to juggle corruption with murders, carjackings and rapes."
Federal prosecutors suffered a blow last month when the U.S. Supreme Court sharply curtailed the use of the "Honest Services Act." That sweeping statute empowered U.S. attorneys to indict and convict officials for failing to provide "honest services" to the public.
The high court's decision could shorten or erase the prison sentences being served by former Palm Beach County officials. Masilotti, who still has two years to go on his federal "honest services" fraud sentence, has asked for early release.
Gelber said he retooled his legislation accordingly, to make it "an undisclosed conflict law. If you purposely fail to disclose, it's a felony," he said. "That's the heartland of most corruption cases -- when public officials enrich themselves."
But Gelber's bill foundered fiscally and politically. In addition to requiring more funding -- a poor prospect in a bleak economy -- it failed to win colleagues' support, perhaps because it would have barred legislators and statewide officers from participating in or controlling campaign-funding committees.
Lucrative committees of continuous existence (CCEs) and electioneering communications organizations (ECOs) are used by legislators to raise and funnel money to other candidates as a way of bankrolling allies and attacking opponents.
Statewide prosecutor William Shepherd has impaneled a grand jury to review Florida's public-corruption laws and to make recommendations for reform. But the grand jury's report is not expected until after the November elections.
Crist has not said if he will call a special session before then, but comments he made from Washington, D.C., on Wednesday suggested he won't.
Crist told the News Service of Florida that a special session would be difficult to do amid the campaign season. But, he added, "It seems to just keeping rolling out, this culture of corruption. It's sad. It's unbelievable."
Meanwhile, Bondi said that as attorney general, she will make the fight against public corruption "a priority."
Bondi said in her experience as a prosecutor in Hillsborough County, "Some state laws are tougher than federal laws. Local, state and federal agencies need to work together to see who can get the stiffest penalties for these crimes.
"As chief legal officer, I would aggressively prosecute those who hold office and use that office for their own personal benefit. (That) goes to Jim Greer and the top of our party."
Attorney General Bill McCollum's office, which funds the statewide prosecutor's office, declined to comment on the state's handling of corruption cases or on the statewide grand jury.
"We clearly take public corruption very seriously," McCollum spokeswoman Ryan Wiggins said in an e-mailed statement.
The two other Republican candidates for attorney general, Jeff Kottkamp and Holly Benson, did not respond to questions by deadline.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
