Hoping that the resignation of former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll provides an opportunity to press their cause, a coalition of groups from across the political spectrum called Monday for lawmakers to strengthen pending ethics legislation.
The groups spoke ahead of a meeting Tuesday where a House subcommittee is set to hear its version of ethics reform, a bill that the organizations said strengthens some provisions of the Senate bill but also weakens other key aspects.
Even before Carroll’s resignation last week over her past consulting work for an entity at the center of a multistate gambling investigation, House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, and Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, had signaled they intended to make ethics legislation a major priority.
“We feel this is an historic opportunity and a critical opportunity to see meaningful ethics reform, and we really want to make sure that that happens this time around,” said Damien Filer, political director of Progress Florida, a liberal organization.
Filer spoke alongside Catherine Baer, chairwoman of The Tea Party Network, which cast stronger ethics legislation as a way to reach her group’s goal of increasing citizen’s involvement in their government. Baer said ethical lapses by elected officials were one reason voters were tuning out.
“The Legislature can invite them back to the table by enacting meaningful ethics legislation,” she said. “This legislation that’s presented from the Senate and House doesn’t go far enough.”
The event Monday was technically called to discuss the shortcomings in Senate Bill 2, which passed the upper chamber unanimously, and a House counterpart (PCB EES 13-02).
The groups applauded some of the House changes, including adding some safeguards to a law laying out how public officials can set up blind trusts.
The House bill, though, would also trim back some of the Senate changes. For example, the Senate proposes to bar lawmakers from lobbying before government agencies for two years after they leave office and would try to keep legislators from taking quasi-lobbying jobs with firms trying to influence the Legislature. Under the House bill, however, those provisions would apply only to the Senate president and the House speaker.
But Carroll’s departure loomed over the event, with her name being thrown out as an example of what’s gone wrong with Florida’s ethics laws. Dan Krassner, the executive director of Integrity Florida, pointed to shortcomings in Carroll’s personal disclosure forms when she was a legislator.
The new legislation would allow public officials to correct small errors on their disclosure forms by Sept. 1, even if a complaint has already been filed.
According to copies of her disclosures on the Integrity Florida website, Carroll appears to have overstated her net worth by $200 million one year, before amending her filing, and listing mortgages in her liabilities without claiming any real estate assets in some years.
“Questions should have been asked long ago,” Krassner said. “That’s why we need to have stronger financial disclosure requirements and a stronger ethics commission. And unfortunately, at present, our state legislators are going the wrong direction.”
by Brandon Larrabee
