More Political Ethics Horror Stories from South Florida

My comments follow these two terrific Palm Beach Post articles I stumbled across this morning, while looking for something else.

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/business/epaper/2009/03/26/a6b_fpu_0327.html

Palm Beach Post

Florida Public Utilities Co. balks at handing over papers on rate plan By Susan Salisbury, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer March 26, 2009

------------------------------------ http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2009/03/26/a16a_engelhardtcol_0326.html Palm Beach Post An ethics issue in the Gardens By Joel Engelhardt, Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer March 26, 2009 --------------------------------------- I guess the utility folks in Palm Beach County think they're in the Duchy of Hallandale Beach, where state and ethics laws are ignored as a matter of course if they conflict with the agenda of the powers-that-be at HB CityHall. I'm curious, do any of you know whether or not the current process is one where the utility company is required to either print or post the info publicly by a certain time or face a fine or punishment, or, do they just do what they want, and practically dare someone to notice that they're not in compliance, and put the onus on them to file a formal complaint? (Sounds like Hallandale Beach City Hall's attitude!) As to the lobbying situation described by Joel Engelhardt above in Palm Beach Gardens, I'm reminded of the crazy Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting I attended a few months ago, where Hallandale Beach Comm. William Julian wanted to desperately throw some crumbs of lobbying work to former city lobbyist, congressman and crook Larry Smith after the city had summarily replaced him with Ron Book. (Mayor Joy Cooper recused herself for this vote.) And because Julian and Smith and then later, Ross, almost seemed on the verge of tears if something wasn't done to assuage them, some innocuous language was agreed to, giving Smith something that nobody can quite fully explain, least of all, the very commissioners themselves who voted for it. Something like, Book does X and Y, but if Z, somehow Larry Smith gets money for doing something or another. It really was that vague, too. This change in lobbying was done largely because, apparently, historically Smith -no relation!- provided the city with information AFTER the fact. That is to say, after the Florida legislative session had ended, rather than before or during, when it might've actually done some good. That is, to the extent that the City of Hallandale Beach had any real business spending taxpayers' funds up in Tallahassee, before they finally spent some money on creating some much-needed and long-overdue directional signs around the city. (You know, like normal American cities have in the year 2009, indicating for residents and visitors alike where HB City Hall, the Police Dept. HQ, the Fire/Rescue HQ and the HB Community Center are located, since there is STILL not a single one in the city currently doing this.) My favorite part of the hearing came when former Smith associate Franklin Hileman, then working in City Manager Mike Good's office as Manager of Intergovernmental Relations had to explain what the specific criticism of Smith was, and Smith's attempt to spin and finesse that away. Based on my own experiences with him, Hileman -who no longer works for the city- was Exhibit One of the highly-paid, poorly-performing caliber of people working for the city, who didn't know how to properly follow-up with the public on matters in a manner that engendered either trust or condidence. I know what you're thinking! You're thinking that actually getting the information in a timely fashion, as Book guaranteed his firm would do in the future if hired, was already the default position for the city's abysmal lobbying operation all these years, right? That even people as clearly incapable of managing to keep their own parking lot lights on at night, as Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Mike Good have proven, would expecte to receive info on proposals and bills before they'd been approved or defeated. Nope! But what WAS typical and entirely predictable was the response to the common sense request by Comm. Keith London to actually be able to read the information from Book & Co. when it arrived at HB City Hall from up Tallahassee or their office down the street in Aventura. Legislative information that was part of the entire lobbying package he was being asked that day to vote for and pay for. No, London was told that the information would first be sent to Good & Co. at the City Manager's Office to peruse before he could ever see it, and then, only when and if they chose to share it with him. As if the information, legislative updates, paid for by Hallandale Beach taxpayers, belonged exclusively to the unelected Mike Good and his staff, not the very people who were actually elected by voters to set legislative policy for the city by those same taxpayers and voters. Naturally, because it was completely ass-backwards, not surprisingly, the Rubber Stamp Crew of William Julian, Dorothy "Dotty" Ross and Anthony A. Sanders dutifully relinquished part of their own legislative power to unelected Mike Good, who will read the information Book sends before anyone elected by the voters. But he's an administrator, not the person who sets policy, right? That's what the mayor keeps saying to critics like me and others, but if that's so, then why is HE the person who actually gets to decide who receives the legislative information and when, rather than have all of them get it? Exactly! I guess those three commissioners who voted to turn their back on their responsibilities hoped Good's highly-paid staff would at least create some crib sheets for them, explaining it all, so they could at least partially comprehend what's been written on the taxpayer's dime. As a well-informed citizen who knows a thing or two about both early American history and the ideas behind creating a separation of powers -even though this is, admittedly, not a perfect comparison- I was outraged that elected officials, even in the foolishly naive Hallandale Beach of Joy Cooper, would consciously mock themselves in ways I'd never consider: self-castration. Quick! Name another South Florida city, town or county where the elected representatives would willingly and publicly say that they don't want to read the valuable lobbying information, or, as was the specific case with Comm. Julian, actually say he's happy to have someone else read it instead of him. Here's an idea! Why don't you call or write those three individual HB city commissioners -and the mayor- and ask them whether or not they've actually read the legislative information from Book's firm since the legislature started their session a month ago that was paid for with taxpayer's dollars. Or, is the embarrassing reality for this city where three of the city commissioners would voluntarily castrate itself, the fact that Mike Good & Company have not yet shared it with them? H-m-m-m... The Florida legislative session is in about its fourth week, I think, so they should have an answer for you by now, shouldn't they? Given that its been a few weeks, if they were really paying attention, the mayor and those three commissioners ought to have been able to tell you by heart at least a few of the bill numbers associated with issues they're either for or against, before they went to Tallahassee, shouldn't they? But can they actually do that? What do you suppose the answer to that is? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Based on what the Palm Beach Post's Joel Engelhardt has written today, above, showing the kind of real verve and barely-contained anger that I rarely see when its really needed by the barrels in either the Miami Herald or the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, it definitely sounds like this lobbyist Tom DeRita is trying to finesse a matter that should actually be pretty black and white. Pregnant or not pregnant? Lobbyist or not a lobbyist? Yankee fan or Yankee hater? You can't be both! In some ways, it sounds to me like what DeRita is attempting to pull off is the same sort of intellectual self-deception that thousands upon thousands of people from non-profit organizations or trade assocations in Washington, D.C. tried to do for years in the 1990's. Though they engaged in what almost anyone who knows how Washington works would consider to be traditional lobbying activities, they kept making excuses for why they never complied with the federal lobbying and disclosure laws, and registered at the appropriate office at the House or the Senate, or both. Not surprisngly, the number one excuse was always, "It's okay, we're a non-profit." That conveniently ignored the fact that it was not a legitimate excuse and that some of the most highly-paid people/lobbyists in all of Washington work for non-profits, as the print copy of the most invaluable of all magazines regularly reminded us, The National Journal, http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/ (They still do that online, too, at http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/ as with this piece: LOBBYING & LAW K STREET SALARIES NO MATCH FOR WALL STREET CEO COMPENSATION AT 500 NONPROFITS WAS UP IN 2007-08, BUT STILL LAGS BEHIND THE PRIVATE SECTOR. Saturday, March 28, 2009 by Tavia Evans Gilchrist http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/ll_20090325_9981.php For most of my time in the D.C. area, I was actually friends with quite a lot of people who fit into this particular category, and the vast majority of them worked for educational groups of one sort or another in very nice digs along K Street, Connecticut Avenue or up around Dupont Circle. When I'd point out the intentional ethical murkiness of this at parties, get-togethers, ballgames or the Oscars party or whatever, and remind them that they were exactly the folks who most consistently clamored for increased transparency and more accountability in Washington, not less, they'd sagely nod their heads but say that if they didn't do what they did, things would really be bad for their particular cause or agenda. So they gamed the system even while protesting that they didn't really have a choice. Self-justification like that can eventually lead to becoming ensnared into all sorts of ethical knots and career dilemmas. Years later, many of these people acknowledged to me that they wished they'd done the right thing immediately, when they had the chance, because if they were ever up for an administration position, they'd have to acknowledge if asked that they (and their bosses) knew the lobbying registration laws and simply chose to look the other way, bite their tongue and hope nobody would ask questions. Me, I always thought that in a fair competition, spectators were best served by knowing who all the players were, on and off-the-field, regardlessof what side they were on. Clearly, not everyone in Washington shared that outlook, even other Democrats I knew and liked and who said all of the the right things. Yet they'd rise to outrage when others did the same thing they'd done for years, if it was some issue they had an intense interest in. Truth or Consequences?