Tallahassee City Commission must shut down lobbyist loophole after 'shameful' vote | Opinion

Erwin Jackson deserves credit for doggedly pursuing a case against former Mayor Scott Maddox’s corruption.  Maddox and developer J.T. Burnette are now serving prison time for betraying our city. Their accomplice, Paige Carter Smith, has just been remanded to federal supervision.

Jackson’s efforts to ensure that the former mayor, or any other convicted felon, be forever banned from lobbying the city is being used as cover for city commissioners. They recently passed an ordinance that prevents felons convicted of bribery or “honest services fraud” from lobbying for 10 years without tightening requirements for whom must register as a lobbyist.

This action will drive felons like Scott Maddox to become “consultants” and evade the lobby registration requirements altogether. Considered together with a 1900% increase in registration fees, and its proposed minor changes to Tallahassee’s lobby registration and disclosure ordinance, the commission’s actions at its July 13th meeting were shameful.

Back story: Tallahassee officials approve 10-year ban on corruption-related felons lobbying

Aside from possible challenges on First Amendment grounds, the ordinance panders to most commissioners who have consistently opposed real lobbying reforms recommended by Citizens for Ethics Reform and the Independent Ethics Board.

The previous $25 per client professional lobby registration was intended to cover the actual costs of administering lobby disclosure. The fee raises roughly $1,200 annually. Assume that the same number of lobbyists individually register in 2022 (which is unlikely given the disincentive of the extraordinarily high fee). At $500 a pop, the total revenue to administer the city’s shamefully weak lobby registration and disclosure provisions would increase to $20,000 - far more than the cost of the program’s administration.  No jurisdiction, at any level of government, including Florida, charges such an exorbitant fee.

As if they hadn’t already done enough to discourage people from registering as lobbyists, this action drives a stake in the heart of the registration requirements. Why would anyone pay $500 to register as a lobbyist when it means disclosing clients?

The true influencers in Tallahassee will continue to say that they are “consultants” and not lobbyists.  We’ll never see their list of clients, their compensation, the targets of their influence or contacts with commissioners and staff.

Moreover, lobbying is a constitutionally protected right.  Efforts to severely restrict this right, whether through outrageous registration fees or significant lobbying bans, are ripe for legal challenge.

The issue is not to prevent people from lobbying professionally, but rather to ensure that their activities and influence be disclosed so that citizens can be assured that public policy serves the public interest rather than lines the pockets of lobbyists and their clients.

Commissioners will tell us that they are reining in lobbyists, while they are actually discouraging registration and weakening disclosure. Don’t be fooled.

Fix the real problem. Close the lobbyist registration loophole.

Peter Butzin serves on the board of Common Cause Florida and is a member of Citizens for Ethics Reform. Contributing to this column were members of Citizens for Ethics Reform Ben Wilcox, Catherine Baer, Marilyn Wills and Richard Herring

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: City Commission’s actions weaken lobbyists disclosures | Opinion