Broward commission moves inspector general job to charter; sends to voters
Voters will get to decide whether Broward County will have an office of inspector general (IG) who will be charged with investigating misconduct and mismanagement by county and city elected officials, their employees and any service providers who work with them.
The resolutions passed on August 17 for the IG position are different from those presented by the ethics commission. Last week, Broward County commissioners passed a code of ethics (Click to read Broward’s code of ethics) that included the IG position and will be placed in the code of ordinances without a general vote. However, Broward commissioners rewrote the IG language and passed a proposed amendment Tuesday to place it in the charter. Click here to see proposed changes and amendments. This initiative will be on the ballot in November to be decided by the voters.
During the meeting, commissioners slid in multiple amendments to the proposed resolution that removed the county auditor from being overseen by the IG, and instead left, as described during the meeting, “on demand at times for the commission.”
The code of ethics presented will be modified to apply to staff, and the inspector general will also oversee complaints on city officials, staff and vendors with municipalities likely to eventually be charged for a portion of the cost of the office.
The IG will be allowed to initiate his own investigations as well as accept signed, sworn complaints only. Commissioners increase the IG Selection Oversight Committee to five members to include an appointee from the Office of U.S. Attorney and the Broward League of Cities and prohibit elected officials from sitting on the selection committee. The Public Defender and State Attorney will also appoint a designee. Those four members will choose a fifth member.
Mayor Ken Keechl and Vice-Mayor Sue Gunzburger voted against the proposal preferring to follow the recommendations of the Ethics Commission as outlined in the Ethics Code. The proposed referendum, if approved by voters, would be included in the County Charter and supersede the OIG office in the Ethics Code.
Related posts:
- Broward commission to consider inspector general position
- First Inspector General Hired in Broward County
- County ethics commission discusses gifts, working as lobbyist in public hearing on ethics code
- Broward commission rejects proposed 2011 budget; asks for more cuts to keep same tax rate
- Wasserman-Rubin resigns from Broward commission
Short URL: https://browardnetonline.com/?p=9109
Posted by Andrea Freygang on Aug 18 2010. Filed under Broward County, Elections, Ethics in Broward, Fort Lauderdale, Local news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
All one has to do is go to the Miami_Dade OIG website to see that an Inspectors General’s office pays for itself over and over. That Nothing should Supercede the OIG’s office and its powers, what would be the point? The OIG’s office does what a commission cannot do. It has police powers that investigate, fine, arrest and recoup monies illegally obtained. They have the ability to go into any large project that is taxpayer funded and make sure the monies are on the up and up..with a $328 million dollar courthouse in the wind..we need all the oversight we can get. Parks and Recreation Departments and their subs are out of control as with most every other department Broward has. The People of Broward County should have the ultimate say so in this not any elected official.
[...] Broward County commissioners have been forced by the voters to enact an ethics code as well as a county-wide inspector general to be a watchdog for corruption in this county. The Broward School Board itself recently issued a press release on how it was updating its ethics [...]