Tallahassee officials approve 10-year ban on corruption-related felons lobbying
Tallahassee city commissioners approved a 10-year ban on lobbying for anyone convicted of fraud-related crimes, the latest in measures intended to stamp out back-door dealings.
The unanimous vote Wednesday came after commissioners first weighed a lifetime ban, then 20 years and eventually landed on a decade.
The move came the day after Paige Carter-Smith, one of three defendants convicted in the FBI’s long-running public corruption probe in Tallahassee, returned home from a Marianna federal prison camp.
Regulating lobbyists: City could ban convicted criminals from lobbying as commissioners implement more changes to ordinance
Back home: Paige Carter-Smith returns home on federal supervision after release from prison camp
Commissioners aim to bar anyone convicted of a corruption-related crime including bribery, theft and honest services fraud from quickly returning to try to influence elected officials.
Several cited the ongoing FBI investigation which ensnared former Tallahassee mayors Scott Maddox and Andrew Gillum, Carter-Smith, Gillum's close advisor Sharon Lettman-Hicks and local businessman and hotelier J.T. Burnette.
All but Gillum and Lettman-Hicks, who were arrested last month, have been sentenced or are serving federal sentences. Gillum and Lettman-Hicks have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Operation Capital Currency: Former City Commissioner Scott Maddox transferred to 'cushy' federal prison in Pensacola
More: Federal appeals court will hear oral arguments in J.T. Burnette bribery case
Andrew Gillun arrested: Former mayor, candidate for governor Andrew Gillum and adviser arrested on federal charges
Those arrests and the public spectacle have put Tallahassee and its officials in the spotlight and fostered a "bad reputation" that corruption is rampant in Tallahassee, said City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox.
Without anything on the books, the ordinance is a way to address whether felons with ties to corruption could register as lobbyists, she added.
“We had an elected official, a career elected official, who participated in something that cost us some integrity and got under scrutiny,” said Williams-Cox said. “This is to make sure that everyone knows: 'Don’t come to Tallahassee with ill intentions of doing something that has been done before.' "
After Maddox was convicted last year, City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow proposed bans for lobbyists convicted of honest services fraud and a suite of other ethics reform measures.
City Hall critic Erwin Jackson also championed the cause and pushed for even more stringent regulations.
City Commissioner Curtis Richardson echoed concerns from several public speakers that the ordinance introduces a slippery slope similar to requirements more than a decade ago when an application for employment at City Hall asked whether a person had a criminal history.
That was removed under an initiative called “Ban the Box.”
“I think we are conflating this with something that was good that happened in our community with banning the box,” Williams-Cox replied.
Commissioners also approved a 1900% increase in lobbyist registration fees collected by the city.
Now, lobbyists will have to pay a $500 annual registration fee. Previously they paid $25 per client.
Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee OK's 10-year ban on corruption-related felons lobbying
