William Patrick
Watchdog.org
Florida is no stranger to public corruption.
Currently, 12-term U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown stands accused of soliciting more than $800,000 in donations for a bogus scholarship organization that she allegedly used as a personal slush fund, according to a 24-count federal indictment.
The FBI recently began charging Opa-Locka city officials after a three-year investigation centering on allegations of widespread public bribery schemes.
Last week, a Kissimmee city commissioner was arrested on fraud charges for allegedly using a dead person’s identity to obtain free utilities.
Call it an unfortunate tradition.
Averaging more than one conviction a week for at least 15 years, the state government is finally upping the ante on the longstanding problem.
A new anti-corruption law took effect Saturday, Oct. 1, and is intended to help crack down on public abuse and restore Florida’s reputation after mostly abdicating such matters to federal law enforcement.
The reform passed the legislature earlier this year, and expands existing laws to include officers and employees of any Florida public entity. It also redefines public contractors as any person, or employee of a person, who enters into a government contract, and makes them all eligible for prosecution.
Most importantly, the criminal burden of proof has been lowered from acting “corruptly” or “with corrupt intent,” to acting “knowingly and intentionally.”
The combined effect is expected to make it easier for state prosecutors to pursue instances of bribery, unlawful compensation, official misconduct and bid-rigging.
'Notoriously weak'
But 2016 wasn't the first time lawmakers became aware of the needed reforms. A widely circulated public corruption report recommended the changes nearly six years ago.
“We have repeatedly heard from law enforcement and prosecutors that the use of the word ‘corruptly’ or ‘with corrupt intent’ makes charging violations more difficult than other criminal statutes and may require additional evidence such as testimony from one of the actors involved,” the 19th Statewide Grand Jury report stated in 2010.
The report was issued after a dubious first-place honor.
From 2000 through 2010, Florida led the nation in federal public corruption convictions at the local, state and federal level, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. During the period, federal prosecutors lodged 674 convictions against Sunshine State public officials, or 67 a year on average.
The lack of state criminal prosecutions wasn't lost on government watchdogs.
Florida’s state corruption law was “notoriously weak,” the nonpartisan group Integrity Florida noted in its 2016 corruption report.
"Florida went too long neglecting public corruption and ethical abuses and its citizens have paid a real price for corrupt government practices that have cost taxpayers’ public funds and damaged the state’s reputation," according to the report.
The recent changes are a step in the right direction, the group has since said, and build off incremental ethics reforms that were already making a difference. After a decade of leading the pack, Florida, the third largest state, now has the third-most federal convictions, behind Texas and California.
Matthew Casey, a former assistant state attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit in Tallahassee, wouldn’t speculate on the motivation behind the previous criminal burden of proof, saying only that it was “vague” and that he found it “very odd.”
“When states see federal success with respect to crime, they usually create laws to mirror it,” he said in an interview.
Florida law has two ways of fighting public corruption; The Code of Ethics, which applies administrative and civil penalties to government actors; and state law, which applies criminal penalties.
The new criminal law will bring Florida closer to stricter federal laws. A state prosecutor will no longer have to prove a defendant “acted” dishonestly for an illegal purpose, but instead only needs to show that a defendant “knows” he’s accepting a bribe or unlawful compensation.
Public corruption at any level is automatically a federal crime, and federal law enforcement officials are usually independent from any local conflicts of interest.
But that's no excuse for a lack of state action. The state attorney general's office can pursue state and local corruption through it's multi-jurisdictional statewide prosecution bureau. Until Saturday, it didn't have the prosecutorial advantages to do so as effectively.
According to Casey, federal prosecutors also will turn down potential cases if they decide against spending the needed resources. These cases are still within the jurisdiction of state attorneys.
Both state and federal law defines public corruption as any breach of public trust by government officials who use their office to obtain personal gain.