Ethics-related forms tough to find

Want to find a financial disclosure form for your mayor? Trying to investigate whether your county commissioner has disclosed any recent conflicts of interest? Curious about whether a city commissioner has disclosed some pricey freebies from developers?

You better be ready to do some good old-fashioned telephone dialing and probably drive around to various government offices to check out the documents.

Although government agencies have vastly expanded what they put online -- lengthy budget documents, decades of minutes and in Coral Gables even a video showing residents how to drive through a traffic circle -- they have avoided putting documents online that are about elected officials' finances. Government agencies say they get too many and that it would be difficult to do, but is that just an excuse?

Read more here:

 

The lonely Senate Ethics and Elections Committee

The Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections is meeting over in the Knott right now and discussing public financing of campaigns. Emotional stuff.

Which raises one of the overlooked changes in the House this year. There is no longer an Ethics and Elections Committee. The change came under House Speaker Ray Sansom.

But that's not to say the House does not care about ethics or elections. Those issues now fall under the Governmental Affairs Policy Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami.

Bush pioneer says insider trading allegations "will be proven wrong"

Prominent Broward physician Zachariah P. Zachariah, facing allegations that he broke federal securities laws, denies he bought stock in two companies based on inside information that they were about to be acquired.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, in a civil lawsuit filed last month, alleges that Zachariah received at least $585,000 in profits on information unavailable to the public.

Zachariah, 59, director of cardiology at Fort Lauderdale's Holy Cross Hospital and president of the Fort Lauderdale Heart Institute, refuted many of the SEC's allegations in court papers filed Monday night in Fort Lauderdale federal court.

Zachariah, who has raised millions of dollars for Republican candidates, also declared his innocence in an e-mail Tuesday.

''I have spent my career devoted to medicine, to public service and to charitable work, and I am very disappointed that this civil lawsuit has been brought,'' he said. ``However, I have the greatest faith in our legal system, and I firmly believe that the allegations in this lawsuit will be proven wrong.'' More here.

New South Florida corruption case

For the third time in two years, scandal has rocked Opa-locka City Hall, with the arrest Wednesday of an influential city consultant accused of demanding more than $300,000 in kickbacks from a city contractor.

Investigators say Emmanuel Nwadike, a private engineer under contract to the city, has acted as Opa-locka's chief engineer for the past six years, scoping out public-works projects, drawing up bid proposals and recommending construction firms for city jobs.

Nwadike used his position to steer about $2.4 million in city contracts to one firm, Hard J Construction, whose owner, MacDonald Jumbo, paid Nwadike about $348,000 in 2005 and 2006, according to an arrest report. More here.

Miami police chief to settle ethics case

Miami Police Chief John Timoney has reached a tentative settlement with the Florida Commission on Ethics, an agreement calling for the chief to pay a $500 fine and admit wrongdoing in connection with his 14-month extended ''test drive'' of a Lexus hybrid SUV.

The chief enjoyed free use of that vehicle -- with no insurance payments either -- courtesy of the Lexus of Kendall dealership. But Timoney never declared the SUV as a gift in required government-disclosure forms.

The proposed settlement says Timoney ''recognizes'' that he violated state disclosure laws.

Timoney's office declined comment Wednesday, saying the settlement has not yet received final approval -- which could come when the state ethics panel meets June 6.

Zapata and the Ethics Commission

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.)

Gift ban and lobbyist fee lawsuit heads to state high court

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled Thursday that the state's high court needs to rule on whether or not the law that imposed a strict gift ban on all legislators and state elected officials is in fact constitutional. Lobbyists Ron Book and Guy Spearman were among those who challenged the 2005 law, which also required many lobbyists to finally disclose how much money they are paid by clients.

The federal court ruled that the law is not "vague or overbroad" and does not violate any U.S. constitutional provisions, including First Amendment protections raised by the lobbyists who filed a lawsuit against the law.

But the court did rule that other questions raised by the lawsuit, including whether the act was enacted using correct legislative procedures must be decided by Florida judges. (A bit of the history--the lawsuit started in state court but got bumped to federal court by the lawyer hired by then Senate President Tom Lee to defend the gift ban.)

"These questions are solely issues of state law that should be decided by the Florida Supreme Court,'' states the ruling. Read the ruling here: Download lobbyist_ruling.pdf

Said Book: "It's a significant step on our behalf. We can get our day in state court which is the place where it should have been decided."

Miami police chief may have broken state ethics law

The Florida Commission on Ethics has found probable cause that Miami police Chief John Timoney may have violated ethics laws when he failed to disclose his use of a Lexus dealership's SUV -- which he drove free of charge for more than a year.

The commission's findings, released Wednesday, set the stage for the state panel to decide whether Timoney did indeed violate the law and whether any penalties should be recommended.

The criticism over Timoney's acceptance of the luxury auto from Lexus of Kendall has mounted since August, following a WFOR-CBS 4 report that Timoney had driven the SUV free of charge for more than a year.

The preliminary findings by the state panel comes on the heels of a scathing rebuke by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust earlier this year. More here.

Lobbyist could get hit with sanctions by House

House Speaker Marco Rubio on Thursday appointed a special select committee to investigate lobbyist Bill Barrett, who stands accused of failing to properly register as a lobbyist. Rep. Dennis Ross, a Lakeland Republican, was named chairman of the committee, which will have the power to investigate the case further and make recommendations of punishment to the full House, which could include sanctions, including a prohibition on lobbying the Legislature.

Interestingly enough Rubio's actions come on the heels of Barrett losing his contract to lobby for the city of Palm Bay to Aventura lobbyist Ron Book, according to this recent story in Florida Today.

Bennett beats the rap over charges he killed bill to hurt developer

Sen. Mike Bennett, a Republican from Bradenton, has been cleared by the Florida Commission on Ethics on charges that he used his position to try to force a developer to work out a deal with another developer. The dispute stems from a battle during the 2007 session when Bennett killed a local bill that would have created a special taxing district for approximately 5,700 acres in North Port in Sarasota County.

The lead prosecutor on the case concluded that while it was true that Bennett did kill the local bill there is not evidence that Bennett "misused" his position. However, the investigative report contains serious allegations, including that Bennett went to bat for former State Sen. Pat Neal, who owned property adjacent to the land targeted for the taxing district, and that Neal demanded $20 million from  the developer of the property in exchange for dropping opposition to the project.

Here's the investigative report: Download bennett_investigation.pdf
Here's the recommendation on what actions should be taken against Bennett: Download bennett_recommendation.pdf