Now that Tallahassee voters have passed an ethics reform amendment, the measure could cost the city’s new ethics officer her job. A volunteer ethics advisory panel must also be convened within three months.
The measure requires ethics panel appointments be made by specific community members, including the presidents of FSU and FAMU. City spokeswoman Michelle Bono says the panel they assemble will decide how to proceed with hiring an ethics officer. But she says there’s a wrinkle because city ethics officer Julie Meadows-Keefe has been on the job for just more than a month.
Bono says, “The new recommendation is that the ethics board will appoint this person, so presumably then she would serve until the point that that new person is appointed. She could certainly be a candidate for that new position as well.”
She says it’s possible the public will be able to apply for spots on the new ethics commission through the same process the city’s used to convene other panels. The City Commission will discuss first steps November 12.
Longterm, the volunteer panel will advise the City Commission on all things ethical.
“Some of those things, actually a lot of them, are already in place: things like having an ethics hotline, having mandatory ethics training, so they’ll certainly have the opportunity to review what the city’s doing now, and if they have any recommendations for improvements," Bono says.
Other items in the amendment are new for the city. Among them is a $250 cap on campaign contributions to city candidates and a program giving political campaign donations back to donors who request refunds from the city. But there is a bit of time to sort out logistics; the next city election is in 2016.
