Just days after the Florida Commission on Ethics decided that probable cause existed that Miami police chief John Timoney broke state ethics laws, a Miami legislator has filed a proposal to make sure it would never happen again.
Rep. Juan Zapata has filed an amendment to an ethics bill, HB 1113, scheduled to be heard on Friday that would require that the state commission dismiss any complaint if that person had also had their case dealt with by a county ethics commission. (Since Miami-Dade County is the only county with a full blown commission, it really only applies to them.)
The provision would not end Timoney's case. But if the law had been in place previously the state ethics commission could not proceed with the case against the chief. The Miami Herald previously reported that back in January the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust fined Timoney $500 -- plus $342.50 in administrative costs -- for the chief's failure
to disclose his 14-month extended "test drive" of a Lexus hybrid SUV.
In August 2007, WFOR-CBS 4 reported that Timoney ad driven the SUV free of charge for more than a year. The report prompted the chief to buy the vehicle at sticker price -- $54,269.11.
(UPDATE: The amendment was withdrawn by Rep. Julio Robaina on behalf of Zapata.)
How interesting that someone investigated by the Florida Commission on Ethics would propose a bill limiting their scope.
Posted by: | April 25, 2008 at 04:27 PM