Of the 67 counties in Florida, one stands out with an unflattering moniker: Palm Beach 'Corruption' County.
Since 2006, three county commissioners have been sent to federal prison on political corruption convictions. A fourth was arrested in August and charged with perjury, extortion and violating public meeting laws.
No doubt its neighbor, Broward, has plenty of corruption issues as well, but this year Palm Beach is trying to show the rest of the state it's doing something about it.
In an effort to change its reputation and clean up its act, grass-roots organizations successfully got voters to pass an amendment to the county charter that would expand the jurisdiction of the the county's ethics commission and its Inspector General's Office.
Alan Johnson, the executive director of the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics, says the 72 percent approval by voters Nov. 2 represents a sea change for the county.
"This is the fruition of a long process begun by citizen groups and business groups so that we could change the culture here in Palm Beach County," he said.
The amendment will increase the scope of the ethics commission and the Inspector General's Office.
Currently, the two independent groups can only investigate county officials and employees. But when the new amendment takes effect sometime early next year, they will add all 38 cities and towns to their ethical stewardship.
"We get complaints now on the cities," said Inspector General Sheryl Steckler. "We just couldn't do anything about them except give them back to the cities."
Johnson says there will be no additional cost to taxpayers for the Commission on Ethics. Whatever increase in staff, it'll be funded by the county budget. But it's a different story for the inspector general.
Each of the 38 municipalities will be required to pay 0.25 percent of all contracts to the county as a fee. That money will go to hire additional staff to look into charges of fraud and abuse in government.
"We don't know what the numbers look like yet," said Steckler. "It's too soon. We're going to have to look at how much staff they have, how [many] contracts they have."
While it's uncertain how much money will be generated or needed for expanded ethics operations, one municipality, at least, isn't happy with the new requirements.
In the town of Palm Beach, Mayor Jack McDonald and Town Council President David Rosow have been outspoken opponents of the measure.
"The issue isn't whether we want an ethics commission. The issue is how do we pay for it," said Rosow. "I'm all for them having an inspector general, but I'm totally opposed to having to pay for it."
Rosow argues the language on the ballot wasn't clear. He believes most people didn't realize that individual cities or towns could opt out of the inspector general oversight, and its costs, if the voters in that municipality voted against it.
"Why don't they find the money in their own budget?" said Rosow. "It's the county that has the most issues not the town of Palm Beach."
The town of Palm Beach already has its own internal mechanisms to prevent and identify ethics violations, including an internal auditing process, an ethics hotline and a council Ethics Committee.
The council hasn't raised taxes in two years, "not because we're wealthy," said Rosow, "but because it's the right thing to do." They already pay $55 million a year to the county and Rosow says they receive little to no services in return.
"We're really doing an admirable job of trying to determine how we can keep the cost of government down," he says. "And this is just an added cost for the town and our taxpayers."
Steckler contends that the increased fee, at least countywide, will be more than made up for in the amount of money saved by catching fraud and waste.
"How do you put a price tag on government and oversight?" she asked. "The people believe it was worth it. Over time, the Inspector General's Office will question costs that are over and above their budget costs."
The increased focus on ethics investigations in Palm Beach County will potentially mean the arrest and conviction of more public officials. Ironically, at least in the short term, more arrests would likely reinforce the county's reputation for corruption, rather than reverse it.
The referendum takes effect Jan. 1, but it could take up to 90 days to draft those changes into the code. Officials expect the new ethics changes to take effect sometime in March or April 2011.
Lane Wright can be reached at lane@sunshinestatenews.com or (561) 247-1063.
