Ordinance 2010-349 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I. INTRODUCTION During the past decade, Miami-Dade County has made substantial commitments to ethics education and ethics enforcement, primarily by supporting the work of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. Local government officials and employees are subject to the State Ethics Code, Florida Statutes Chapter 112. However, in 1996 the voters of Miami-Dade County approved a ballot question directing the County Commission to adopt a local ethics ordinance and create an independent local ethics commission. The Commission on Ethics derives its powers from an enabling ordinance, amended on several occasions since the Ethics Commission's inception. I Some of the amendments have been quite dramatic, such as granting the Ethics Commission the authority to self-initiate complaints, whereas other changes were much more pedestrian. Although no scientific study was ever undertaken, media accounts tend to indicate that public sentiment appears to hold that the Ethics Commission lacks the tools to restore public confidence and trust in local government officials and institutions; a responsibility entrusted to the Ethics Commission when it was created. Although it is doubtful that anyone agency no matter how powerful could ever achieve this lofty goal, the Ethics Commission's effectiveness in part is limited because of two distinct factors: 1) a countywide ethics ordinance ladened with loopholes and 2) sanctions that can only be described as inadequate to effectively punish offenders or deter potential wrongdoers. Another factor which seems to lend to the perception that the Ethics Commission is not sufficiently and effectively deterring wrongdoing is a lack of understanding of the Commission's role in the process of government oversight. 4