TALLAHASSEE -- State prosecutors would get new tools to crack down on corrupt government officials who hide their financial interests that result in private gain from their public jobs under a bill that unanimously passed out of a Senate committee Monday.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, has the support of the 20 state attorneys. It would close a gap in state law that now prevents state attorneys from prosecuting officials who purposefully fail to disclose their financial interest because they want to shield how they are making money from their public offices.
Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe told the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee that the three Palm Beach County commissioners jailed on corruption charges pleaded guilty over the past three years because federal prosecutors, not his office, had the best tools to convict them.
"There is, in my opinion, a gap in Florida law,'' he said.
"This surgically addresses it'' and provides a "focused approach to address the lack of an adequate toolbox for Florida prosecutors to combat corruption in our state.''
Gov. Charlie Crist said last week that the Legislature's inaction on the issues could prompt him to call a special session in May or June to take up toughening the state's public corruption laws. Crist complained that since he became governor, he has had to remove more than 30 people from office on corruption charges -- about one a month.
McAuliffe and Gelber won the unanimous support of the committee for the bill, but only after overcoming initial skepticism from the members of the panel that the idea was too broad and could potentially snare people for simple mistakes.
"Those provisions are open to interpretation,'' said Sen. J.D. Alexander, a Lake Wales Republican and chairman of the committee. "What is direct financial interest?''
Gelber said the proposal is intended to be as narrow as possible by including the requirement that the public official be acting both willfully and with corrupt intent before he can be prosecuted.
Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, asked if they could identify any case that has not been prosecuted because of the absence of such a law.
"Do we need this additional statute which, frankly, I have a concern about being somewhat overly broad?'' he asked.
Gelber, who previously worked in a federal prosecutor's office, said he knows of "scenarios'' in which public officials failed to disclose financial benefits received from being in public office but prosecutors weren't able to convict them on corruption charges.
McAuliffe said a Palm Beach County grand jury last fall found that his office could not have prosecuted the three convicted county commissioners because of the gap in the law.
The committee also unanimously passed another of Gelber's bills to allow for a higher penalty when a public official betrays the public trust by using his public office to engage in a criminal act.
Gelber's bills were the first of several anti-corruption bills to get a hearing this legislative session despite a series of high-profile corruption cases that have jarred public confidence and marred both political parties.
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