Editorial: Public must exert strong role in anti-corruption laws
Posted: January 1, 2011 - 11:28pm
A report of a statewide grand jury investigation into public corruption filed Wednesday with the Florida Supreme Court confirms officially what many of us already know: "Better efforts to prevent and penalize corruption are necessary in order to stop fraud, waste and abuse of our state resources."
The report validates Gov. Charlie Crist's long-held view: A culture of corruption exists in government and it must be stopped. Crist called for the investigation more than a year ago. In his first three years as governor, he had to impose sanctions against more than 30 public officials for various misuses of their offices. Among them was then-St. Johns County Commissioner Tom Manuel, who pleaded guilty in federal court to accepting a bribe, and is serving a federal prison term.
The report prods the Legislature to stiffen penalties -- add criminal penalties to some ethics violations and corruption prohibitions already on the books.
Among the recommendations are: Clearly define bid tampering and bid rigging within the statutes, strengthen the state's Whistleblower Act and the protections afforded to whistleblowers, and create an office of Inspector General that has the power to hire and fire inspectors general in all state agencies. In published reports, it was said the Legislature had some opportunities to tighten up penalties last year but those efforts failed in committees.
But while the report calls on the Legislature to get tough on public corruption, it is realistic about that task. It says, "We anticipate great resistance to this recommendation as it potentially holds the legislators who would pass these laws to criminal liability for what previously was only a civil violation. We hope this will not dissuade the Legislature from acting and urge legislators to work in the interest of the public first and foremost."
The report offers a less stringent alternative: If the Legislature doesn't want to criminalize the penalties, it suggests passing a law that prohibits legislators from voting on matters in which they have a financial interest. How disappointing it is to read that lawmakers would have to legislate that they could not vote on something in which they have a financial interest.
State Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, is Senate rules committee chairman and chairman of the state's Republican Party. Thrasher said in an article about the report that the Senate will take a "hard look at it." Both the Senate and the House must translate their hard looks into new laws. Governor-elect Rick Scott, who takes office Tuesday, should be prepared to sign those bills when the time comes.
The public has a major role, too. The public is the watchdog on open government -- meetings, records and glitches in access laws. The public's mission is to forge transparency. The clamor of the crowd needs to ensure that legislators act on public corruption laws this year.
Florida is the nation's leader in open government but it's also the sixth most corrupt in the nation, according to an analysis by the public watchdog site, The Daily Beast. Gary Fineout, managing editor of Florida Tribune, reported in May on the rankings and said The Beast looked at everything from "public corruption convictions to federal arrests for fraud and embezzlement, forgery and racketeering. It made the rankings on a per-capita basis. Tennessee was ranked the most corrupt state, while New Hampshire was ranked the least corrupt state."
Taxpayers entrust their elected officials at every level to spend wisely their tax dollars. The grand jury report says, "This mismanagement and theft penalizes taxpayers by driving up the cost of all government services."
The bottom line is: It is not OK for public office to be used for personal and financial gain.
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Grand jury report can be found at:
http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/JFAO-8CLT9A/$file/19thSWGJInterimReport.pdf
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