Editorial: A sneak attack on state ethics laws shatters trust in 11 words

Florida legislators sometimes make it impossible to earn the public’s respect.

Case in point: The Senate’s 39-0 vote for a bill that would block valid complaints sent to the Florida Commission on Ethics.

The Ethics Commission has often been unpopular with lawmakers or local officials who find oversight irksome, but the Florida Constitution protects it from being abolished. Credit for that goes to Reubin Askew, the governor in the 1970s and an anti-corruption crusader who embedded it in an ethics initiative that nearly 80% of voters approved in 1976. But as recently as five years ago, GOP leaders were also on board — in fact, former Senate President Don Gaetz pushed state laws and another constitutional amendment that made protections even stronger. That amendment, which appeared on the 2018 ballot, got more “yes” votes than any other amendment that year.

But the Legislature hobbled the 1976 amendment almost immediately, allowing it to act only in response to sworn complaints from others.

Now its enemies would further weaken the watchdog by requiring complaints to be “based on personal knowledge or information other than hearsay.”

Ethics destruction in 11 words

The crippling provision is just 11 words long and would also apply to local ethics commissions.

The “hearsay” prohibition would include media exposés — the basis for most of the commission’s complaints.

“I’ve never seen a power grab like this,” says Ben Wilcox of the nonprofit watchdog group Integrity Florida. “This legislation will do away with ethics enforcement in Florida.”

“Incredibly destructive and corrosive,” Carolyn Klancke, a past deputy executive director and general counsel for the commission, told the Florida Center for Government Accountability.

Klancke, who now heads the Florida Ethics Institute, said it would prevent the commission from acting even on official audit and inspector general reports, which are not sworn complaints.

“Wrongdoing by public officials rarely takes place at times and in places accessible to the general public,” wrote Bonnie Williams, a former executive director of the commission, in an email to the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board. “Rather, it occurs in the rarefied air of political culture or within the confines of officials’ private lives. Of necessity, citizens rely on documents and reports, investigative journalism, information from persons close to the potential violation or violator, or other indirect means.

“Restricting filers of complaints to those with direct knowledge restricts citizens’ participation, will significantly restrict the number of complaints filed, and will abridge public faith in enforcement of the ethics laws,” Williams said.

It could extinguish what remains of public faith in the Legislature.

A dirty deed on the Senate floor

How this was done is as odious as the outcome. The “personal knowledge” provision was one of four amendments in the Senate, filed a day before by Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills. He chairs the committee that crafted the bill (SB 7014), which otherwise consists mainly of deadlines for action on commission cases and a questionable supermajority requirement for votes to reject or deviate from a staff recommendation.

Only two senators seemed to recognize the damage that “personal knowledge” would do, but they swallowed their concerns as the Senate passed the bill with only desultory debate. They were Sens. Jason Pizzo, D-Hollywood, and Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach.

Pizzo even described it accurately as a “poison pill.”

Burgess conceded it would shut the commission’s “front door” to citizens attempting to file complaints based on what they had read or heard.

A chilling effect

There was no recorded vote on any of the amendments — another black mark against the Senate’s lack of transparency.

Billy Townsend, a Polk County activist who blogs as Public Enemy Number 1, posted that the “personal knowledge” rule would have barred his complaint against a school board member who had been publicly identified as a “preferred vendor” of required school uniforms. The ethics commission recently voted probable cause to proceed on his complaint.

Townsend argues that journalists should file ethics complaints over apparent violations they report. He wrote that he thinks that’s what the “personal knowledge” amendment is daring them to do.

That may be, but the Orlando Sentinel — like most news outlets — strongly disagrees with it. To file an official complaint makes the journalist a part of the story with a personal interest in the outcome, which is properly against virtually every ethics code in our profession.

Another destructive amendment to SB 7014 would bind municipal and county ethics commissions to the same “personal knowledge” rule. It would entitle candidates, like officeholders, to recover costs and legal fees for complaints filed with “malicious intent” or “reckless disregard” of the truth. Those findings would be made by political bodies rather than the courts, which is wrong.

Another destructive Burgess amendment would allow attorneys who are required to file as public officials to withhold the identity of clients by claiming disclosure would violate attorney-client confidentiality. He said that answers the complaints of local officials who say they are resigning rather than reveal their clients. Florida is better off without them.

The Florida League of Cities has eight lobbyists registered on CS/HB 1597, the companion bill in the House, which presently lacks the Senate’s changes. Asking whether they are supporting what the Senate did, a spokesperson said they are simply “watching” for amendments.

The Legislature has shown no interest on what the commission itself asked for this year, such as whistleblower protection for citizens who file complaints.

We call on House members to defend the Ethics Commission rather than betray it as the Senate did. The public is watching.

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Anderson. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com.