Palm Beach County sheriff's son-in-law lands lucrative contract at PBSO. Nepotism or no?
It started out as a routine government contract that now carries the stench of nepotism. Dr. Peter LoFaso is Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw's son-in-law, and since 2020 he's received $100,000 annually, working 30 hours a month as PBSO's part-time medical director.
Bradshaw's no-bid contract expanded the employee benefits insurance contract with the Gehring Group to include the medical director services. Initially, the contract cost PBSO $2,750 a month for 10 hours of work at the rate of $275 an hour. In 2021, the sheriff's office paid Gehring $8,250 a month for 30 hours of work, with an another $275 an hour for additional work.
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The hiring may reek of a sweetheart deal but the arrangement is legit. LoFaso has the qualifications, and the Gehring Group hired him — not the sheriff. As a part-time medical director, LoFaso has worked on several projects from conducting COVID-19 temperature checks to determining if employees were at risk working at PBSO headquarters at Gun Club Road after the department discovered that their building was riddled with toxic mold.
“PBSO asked the Gehring Group for a service, not a person," a sheriff's spokesman told Post reporter Mike Diamond. "How and who the Gehring Group provided the service is up to them.”
Still, that's a poor excuse for justifying a no-bid contract, particularly for an agency whose operating costs continue to take up more than half of the county's budget. Government contracts are paid by the public, which means the medical director contract, like any other government contract, should be open for competition, public inspection, review and if necessary, adjustment.
The contract has left the Palm Beach County Commission seeing red. Commissioners can't dictate how the sheriff's office spends its money, even as the county's public safety budget keeps growing. Critics of the contract won't get much help from either the Palm Beach County Ethics Commission or Inspector General's Office, since they have no jurisdiction over constitutional officers, including the sheriff's office.
Son-in-law and anti-nepotism law
Florida does have an anti-nepotism law on the books that prohibits a public official from appointing, employing, promoting or advocating for a relative in an agency that official administers or exercises control over. However, there's not much chance for a probe from either of the two state agencies that have the responsibility of making sure the law has any effect.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is the primary state agency that oversees local law enforcement agencies. FDLE has a public corruption unit that investigates allegations of criminal activity by public officials. However, the emphasis is on criminal activity, and since Bradshaw's role isn't seen as a crime, the case isn't likely to result in any FDLE involvement.
The only possible exception is if Gov. Ron DeSantis sees any political value in replacing the sheriff, a controversial move he's done before with two Democratic state attorneys. Replacing Bradshaw, however, would amount to unwarranted state interference that won't benefit Palm Beach County and local law enforcement, much less help the governor's flagging presidential bid.
That leaves the Florida Commission on Ethics, which is responsible for enforcing the state's Code of Ethics. Their investigations usually start with either citizen complaints or referrals from state officials. Unfortunately, the commission has drawn its share of criticism, most recently from the controversy that resulted in the resignation of its chairman, Glenton "Glen" Gilzean Jr. after a Florida Bulldog article exposed Gilzean's conflict of interest in holding the chair position and at the same time the $400,000-a-year special district DeSantis created to control Walt Disney World property.
We support the idea of a state ethics commission probe, but we also believe the ultimate call for accountability rests with the electorate of Palm Beach County, who have the final say on how well the sheriff's office is using its tax revenue. In the case of the son-in-law medical director, the letter of the law might not have been broken, but its spirit was trampled.
As Palm Beach County's longtime face of law enforcement, Bradshaw is viewed as a "good guy." This time, though, it appears that the good guy got away with something less principled.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County Sheriff's 'son-in-law' contract reeks of nepotism
