Inspector General's Office - Palm Beach County

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There is a lot of controversy regarding the Inspector General's Office. Are they doing the job for which it was  intended?  Are municipalities paying too much or being doubled billed?  I can't ascertain if all the brouhaha is because they have half the staff it needs (23 instead of 40) or if they have become political or both. The very reason the voters wanted this department was to end the corruption in this County. To date, Lake Worth is committed to paying $149,554 but has only paid $34,159.  Sharon Bock's office has been holding up the funds and suspended collections from the 24 municipalities that did not join the law suit because of the 14 cities that are suing.

The OIG will be forced to begin employee layoffs next month unless the County acts to provide interim funding. The lack of funding, Sheryl Steckler, says, "is the most serious threat to confront the office since the cities, led by West Palm Beach, began their move to thwart the will of the voters and escape legal oversight. If allowed to happen, it will be a major setback for ethics reform in 'corruption county' and recovery will be difficult."

So far, we haven't seen any evidence that there has been any ethics reform and we are not privy to the cases they have acted upon assuming that any cases were fully investigated instead of a quick phone call to a municipality's  city attorney for their version of the story. Were most complaints thrown out on their ears or did some citizens complaints actually have merit in their eyes?

One thing she has done is to recommend that county officials take "appropriate personnel action" when they bypass competitive bidding or circumvent procurement policies. This occasionally happens in Lake Worth when we don't go out on an RFP and hear that there is "no other firm in the world that can do this type of work."

Semi Annual Report
"The IG Committee expressed frustration with workload and funding details while at the same time expressing concern that it was significant part of the IG report.

• Commissioner Gallo expressed a desire for more cost/benefit analysis, cost avoidance

• In the context of comparing Palm Beach County OIG funding versus that of the $5 million budget in Miami-Dade, Commissioner Farach stated that the Miami-Dade Clerk had given Comptroller functions to their OIG. This was an incorrect statement and IG Steckler will be sending the IG Committee a clarification: “We contacted Miami OIG regarding the Clerk’s duties. As far as they knew, the Miami Clerk still has all the duties set out in the Constitution which includes auditor and comptroller. Miami Clerk jointly with the Mayor appoints the County’s Finance Director (see Section 5.03 of the Miami-Dade County Home

• Rule Charter). The Clerk has recently agreed to conduct an audit of the County’s Health Insurance Reserve. Read Miami Herald article There is also an internal auditor (under the purview of the Mayor).

• There is the Commission Auditor (under purview of the BCC). And there is the OIG.”

• (PBCEDA’s editorial comment would also be that if one was to compare that the PBC BCC has an internal audit department, the Clerk and Comptroller is comparable, and PBC does not have a separately elected Mayor so does not have a Mayor’s auditor. Miami-Dade IG also does not cover municipalities.) Public Comments were made by Mr. Lozman who was extremely dissatisfied with how his complaint about the Riviera Beach Tiki Bar was investigated, the quality of the OIG report and how he was personally treated. Charlot Taylor spoke in support of the OIG funding, and Iris Scheibl clarifying the funding base of .25% of contracts as a limiting factor in the staffing or size of the OIG.

The office is under-staffed and can not or will not devote the required amount of time to complaints. We, the voters, told them we wanted this office. Now the county needs to fund it and get it staffed, something that we the people deserve...not brush offs and not answering or ignoring complaints and sending out standard replies formulated and perceived to be decided by a quick phone call to the very government that the complaint is about. As someone on the Lake Worth dais said the other night, "perception is reality."