Broward County Commissioners won't sue over ethics code

Broward County Commissioners won’t sue the three cities which now have a new Ethics Code that differs from the Broward County Codes of Ethics for municipalities. But the Commission did agree to assist any resident of those cities wishing to challenge the ballot measure approved by voters in Wilton Manors, the Village of Sea Ranch Lakes and Hillsboro Beach on January 31.

The ballot question asked voters if elected city officials should be considered “part-time” and allowed to “engage in outside/concurrent employment consistent with Florida law.’’ Florida law is more lenient than Broward County’s Code of Ethics. The newly passed city code will allow elected officials in those cities to work as lobbyists, a direct contradiction to the County Ethics Code that also governs cities and was approved by voters in 2010.

“It's my belief that the voters were very definitely tricked. And I am pretty mad about it, to be honest. That these cities would go to such extremes to try to get out of County ordinances,” said Mayor John Rodstrom. “I think this is a sad day. I don't think the voters knew what they were voting on because it wasn't in the title and it wasn't in the description.”

But the majority of Commissioners agreed that it should be a resident choosing to sue the city they live in, not the County suing another governmental entity. They even took it one step further, agreeing that if a resident in one of those three cities wanted to file a lawsuit, the County would intervene, consolidate the lawsuit and provide free legal representation.

“There are elements (of the County Ethics Code) that don't make sense. I can't fault the cities for taking issue with some elements. But I would not want to be a County Commission suing individual cities. I don't think it puts us in a good relationship with our cities when you are trying to negotiate land use and many other challenges that are coming before us,” said Vice Mayor Kristin Jacobs.

“It’s the voters who put the County Ethics Code in our charter to govern cities, by close to 80 percent,” said Commissioner Ilene Lieberman. “I just have this hesitation about us being the complainant versus a member of the public.”

“I am going to defer to those cities to represent their residents under their home rule authority the way we would if we were in the same position. It was a bad choice, but the voters spoke,” said Commissioner Stacy Ritter.

“We run the County and the people had the opportunity to read the paper, listen to the editorial writers and opine. It’s miscommunication; it wasn't exactly what it read. But when is it ever? When is anything ever exactly as it is on a ballot? Small classroom, Amendment 4, everything sounds good when you read it in the paragraph. I also can't support this,” said Commissioner Chip LaMarca.

“People don't always vote for what's right all the time, but over time they usually get it right. And I believe that if they find out that they were duped, they will deal with those who they elect at each election cycle,” said Commissioner Dale Holness.

“I have a real hard time trying to figure out how we are going to enforce the County Ethics Code, and I understand why the cities went out and did this. I do believe it was a little deceptive, but I wasn't going to come in here and stop them from doing that,” said Commissioner Barbara Sharief.

The vote against the County pursuing its own lawsuit was 5-4. Commissioners in favor of a County lawsuit thought city voters were misled by the ballot question. They also noted that 80 percent of those who went to the polls in 2010, voted in favor of the County Ethics Code governing all of Broward’s 31 cities.

“The language that each one of these cities used was deceptive. It didn't really explain it. It said would you prefer that the cities adopt the state ethics code. And nobody understood that the state ethics code was much more lenient than the County ethics code,” argued Commissioner Sue Gunzburger.

“The more I read the ballot language, the more one would never know what you were asked to do or how different it was from what the intent was. And that, for me, is something that really needs to be addressed. And the place to address it is through challenging it legally,” said Commissioner Lois Wexler.

Mayor John E. Rodstrom, Jr., Commissioners Dale Holness, Barbara Sharief and Chip LaMarca voted against the final motion as proposed.       Vice-Mayor Kristin Jacobs, Commissioners Sue Gunzburger, Ilene Lieberman, Lois Wexler, and Stacy Ritter voted in favor of the motion which allows county legal intervention should a resident from one of the three cities choose to bring a lawsuit forward, a Broward County Commission representative said.