The Miami City Commission voted this week to create an independent Office of Inspector General in response to a series of recent scandals at City Hall.
The Miami City Commission delivered on its promise this week to create a new watchdog at City Hall – an independent Office of Inspector General – to perform audits and conduct investigations to ferret out fraud, waste, and abuse in city government.
The commission voted 4-to-1 on Tuesday to establish the new office after beating back an attempt by Commissioner Joe Carollo to limit the inspector general’s ability to initiate investigations. Carollo cast the lone “no” vote after his proposed change was rebuffed.
Miami residents voted overwhelmingly in August to change the city’s charter to create an Office of Inspector General. The charter change, supported by 79% of voters, followed a spate of scandals at City Hall involving the mayor, the city manager, the former city attorney, and two of the city’s five commissioners, including Carollo.
The City Commission took the next step on Tuesday, enacting an ordinance that delineates the duties, powers and authority of the inspector general, and establishes a framework for how the new office will be staffed and funded.
A selection committee of five people – Miami-Dade County’s state attorney and public defender, the chairman of its Commission on Ethics, the president of the Miami-Dade Police Chief’s Association, and a local representative of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement – will choose a candidate for the job of inspector general.
The City Commission can accept or reject the candidate, however. If the commission votes to reject the candidate, the process repeats. Once hired, the inspector general can also be fired by the commission, with a four-fifths vote.
The City Commission will control the purse strings as well.
The inspector general will have the power to hire and fire staff, but only within the budget limits set by the commission. That provision led one commissioner to question whether the new watchdog will truly be independent.
“You don’t see the problem here?” District 1 Commissioner Miguel Gabela asked during Tuesday’s discussion. “I’m going to vote for this, but I will tell you this, if that’s the case, and we control the budget, this to me, you’re really not achieving anything.”
Carollo foresaw another problem. The commissioner, a lightning rod for criticism during his long career at City Hall, wondered aloud whether his opponents would seek to leverage the powers of the new office to chase him from office.
“I can see what is going to potentially happen here,” he said.
When Carollo asked to amend the ordinance to prevent the inspector general from initiating an investigation based on allegations aired in the media, City Attorney George Wysong floated new language to address that concern.
Wysong suggested the commission could require that any investigation be “based upon an independent finding of probable cause.”
Carollo’s fellow commissioners stiff-armed the suggestion.
“It is an independent office. Why are we putting limits?” District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo asked.
The commission then voted to adopt the ordinance as written, with Carollo voting no.
“Let it be very clear why I voted no,” Carollo said.
Here’s the ballot language that Miami voters approved in August:
“Shall the City Charter be amended to create an Independent Office of Inspector General who shall, at a minimum, be empowered to perform investigations, audits, reviews and oversight of all City officials, employees, and departments, City funded contracts, programs, and projects for abuse, waste and mismanagement, issue subpoenas, and provide services to other City agencies and authorities, with such office’s term, powers, duties and responsibilities to be further established by ordinance.”