South Florida Water Management District will reconsider its policies on influence-peddling after news reports about it failing to follow state laws on insider dealing and requiring lobbyists to register.
Two Broward Bulldog reports this year pointed to how loopholes in the law allowed lobbyists at the district to avoid any public disclosure and let a former district board chairman sidestep state conflict-of-interest rules.
The general counsel will be asked to review the agencys current policies and procedures related to lobbying and post-employment restrictions and to make recommendations for revisions, if necessary, said Melissa L. Meeker, the districts new executive director.
The district, which levies property taxes in 16 South Florida counties, spends tens of millions of dollars in public funds every year and is charged with protecting drainage and drinking water.
The districts nine-member governing board hired Meeker in May after the abrupt departure of former district boss Carole Wehle following a wave of embarrassing news articles about waste and alleged favoritism.
Any policy changes would be decided by the board.
As Broward Bulldog and Sunshine State News reported in April, lobbyists at the district skirt state disclosure laws that require lobbyists before state agencies to register and disclose who they are working for and how much they are being paid. None of Floridas five regional water management districts requires lobbyists to register.
Broward Bulldog also reported in June how a loophole quietly inserted into SFWMD's rules more than a decade ago has undermined another state law that bars appointed state officers and others from returning to lobby their former agency for two years after leaving office.
Meekers statement in an e-mail to Broward Bulldog was in response to recent questions about her thoughts on the districts lobbying practices and whether she would seek change.
Meeker did not say whether she favors or opposes registration. She did, however, reiterate the districts previous position that, as an independent taxing authority, it does not have the statutory authority to require lobbyists to register.
In a July 29 e-mail, Meeker also sought to justify the districts no-registration stance, stating, Other state agencies such as the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Transportation also do not require lobbyists to register.
State law, however, says that all lobbyists seeking to influence any department, division, bureau, board, commission or authority of the executive branch must register and make disclosure before they can begin lobbying.
New district General Counsel Carolyn S. Ansay, who started Aug. 1, will conduct the review of the districts lobbying policies. No timetable was set for completion.
Ansay, who joined the district after 14 years as a private practice lawyer specializing in water, environmental, land use and local government law, succeeds longtime counsel Sheryl Wood.
Wood took a buyout on July 1 and now works as the $180,000-a-year general counsel to the Palm Beach School Board.
Besides the registration issue, Ansay will review the districts restrictions on post-employment lobbying.
Florida law prevents appointed state officers like members of the districts governing board from returning to lobby for two years after their departure. The idea is to prevent them from cashing in at the publics expense on their inside knowledge and personal influence with ex-colleagues.
But 15 years ago, the district watered down the states flat two-year prohibition by adding language to its rules. The extra language narrowed the application of the ban to persons who represent clients in matters in which they participated personally and substantially while in office.
Former SFWMD board chairman Nicolas Gutierrez, a three-time appointee of Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, told Broward Bulldog he relied on that language when he returned seven times to the district to lobby its purchasing director and others within two years of his departure from the board in April 2008.
Obviously this benefited me, Gutierrez said. But this is the way things have evolved.
Critics, including Nova Southeastern University law professor Robert Jarvis and Audubon of Florida Executive Director Eric Draper, have said the districts lobbying rules are troubling and need to be changed.
The districts rules make it too easy for influence-peddling by former board members, Jarvis said.
Draper called on the Legislature to set statewide [lobbying] rules for all taxing districts.
Broward Bulldog is a not-for-profit, online-only newspaper created to provide local reporting in the public interest. www.browardbulldog.org 954-603-1351
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