Executive Summary Florida led the U.S. in federal public corruption convictions from 2000 - 2010i, according to U.S.

Department of Justice data. Corruption was a top ten factor Forbes magazineii pointed to in 2012 when it named three Florida cities to its list of Americas Most Miserable Cities: #1 Miami, #4 West Palm Beach and #7 Fort Lauderdale. Florida also received a failing grade for ethics enforcement agencies on the Florida Corruption Risk Report Cardiii released in 2012 by State Integrity Investigation. Florida faces a corruption crisis that threatens the states reputation, its economy and its ability to attract new jobs and capital. While implementing the ethics reform solutions presented in this report may not decrease the number of corruption convictions in Florida, it would certainly help the state move towards an A grade on the Corruption Risk Report Card and begin to improve the states reputation at a time when there is significant competition for jobs. Major recommendations that would advance government ethics in Florida and the public's overall confidence in state and local government if adopted by the Florida Legislature 1. Self-initiate investigations: As the state ethics law enforcement agency, the Florida Commission on Ethics should be granted the authority to begin its own investigations. 2. Launch a report corruption hotline: Report corruption hotline to be managed either by the Florida Attorney General or the Florida Commission on Ethics. 3. Expand the ethics code to follow the money: Appropriate aspects of Floridas state ethics code should apply to all who touch public money, including vendors. 4. Require top officials to disclose major transactions: Require all cabinet officials, state legislators, state agency heads and local elected officials to disclose details of all major financial transactions over $1,000 within the previous year, including stock trades, property transactions and changes in business ownership. 5. Create an online filing system: Financial disclosure forms should be filed electronically and made publicly available online in a searchable, updatable and downloadable format. Recommendations the Florida Legislature could adopt that would improve the current state of the ethics laws without major changes to the system 1. Raise the standard for awarding attorney's fees against complainants. 2. Change the burden of proving a violation from "clear and convincing evidence" to a "preponderance of the evidence". 3. Require ethics training for public officials, government vendors and lobbyists. 4. Increase penalties for ethics law violations. 5. Improve collections process for fines owed due to ethics law violations. 6. Post all core Ethics Commission documents into an online, searchable database. 7. Build an online, searchable database of financial disclosure information. 8. Require annual audit of a random sample of financial disclosure forms.

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

The public corruption conviction data included in this report is from a time period prior to Governor Rick Scott taking office. Governor Scott issued an executive orderiv on his first day in office declaring that "a commitment to ethics and integrity in government is essential to maintaining a public trust. In the same executive order, Scott directed his Special Counsel, in conjunction with his Chief Ethics Officer, to review the Statewide Grand Jury's December 29, 2010 First Interim Report addressing public corruption in Florida and recommend a plan for implementing all or certain of, as advisable, these recommendations either through executive action, or through legislative proposals seeking necessary statutory modifications. Integrity Florida has provided three separate research briefings to senior-level Scott Administration officials about Floridas Corruption Risk Report Card produced by State Integrity Investigation. Integrity Florida also shared the State Integrity Investigation results with senior staff of the Florida Commission on Ethics. As a result of these meetings, Integrity Florida is hopeful about the likelihood of seeing ethics reform on the Governors 2013 legislative agenda. Integrity Florida was recognized publicly on May 4, 2012 by Florida Commission on Ethics Executive Director Virlindia Doss as "a research group that has taken a strong interest in issues of public integrity, public corruption, public transparency and all of those related issues." Doss noted that Integrity Florida will be attending all of the state ethics commission meetings and issuing research papers promoting legislative ideas for ethics reform. The Florida Commission on Ethics sets its 2013 legislative priorities on June 15, 2012 and Integrity Florida encourages the Commission to consider the research recommendations in this report. Analysis In February 2012, the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Political Science and the Illinois Integrity Initiative of the University of Illinois Institute for Government and Public Affairs released the report Chicago and Illinois, Leading the Pack in Corruptionv. While that publication indicated that Florida was the fourth most corrupt state in the nation, the U.S. Department of Justice data examined was from 1976-2010. In the modern era (2000-2010), there has been an upward trend towards more federal public corruption convictions in Florida. Florida was the top state for federal public corruption convictions five times since 1999 (1999, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2006)vi. The states rapid rise to the top position in the nation in five of the last twelve years of available data provides new evidence that reforms are needed to reduce corruption in the Sunshine State. The only states that came close to Floridas record during the modern era were Texas and California (Texas in 2008, 2009 and 2010; California in 2003, 2005 and 2007)vii. 2010 is the most recent data set of federal public corruption convictions from the U.S. Department of Justice. Since 1976, Floridas federal courts have convicted 1,762 individuals for public corruptionviii. That's an average of 50 public corruption convictions a year, or about one a week for the last 35 years. From 2000 - 2010, the average number of federal public corruption convictions per year increased to 71 in Florida, indicating an upward trend in the modern eraix.

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

Florida statistics versus all U.S. states and territories for federal public corruption convictions include: Ranked #1 state in federal public corruption convictions - five times (1999, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2006) in last 12 years of available data (1999 2010), according to U.S. Department of Justice data.x Ranked as a top five state for federal public corruption convictions in 18 of the last 22 years of available data (1989-2010) from the U.S. Department of Justice.xi Ranked as a top 10 state for federal public corruption convictions since 1987 (19872010), according to available U.S. Department of Justice data.xii While Robert Wechsler, Director of Research, City Ethics wisely notes that there are no simple correlations in government ethicsxiii, the range of reports and statistics cited in this report clearly demonstrate that Florida is the national leader for public corruption. The worlds leading employers regularly evaluate the corruption risk of a marketplace before making investments in jobs and capital. With more than 800,000 out-of-work Floridians seeking jobs, is now not the time for policymakers to modernize state ethics laws, which are essentially frozen in time since the 1970s? Since it has been 36 years since Florida passed comprehensive ethics reform, is now not the time to do so again in order to reduce the corruption risk in Florida government and the marketplace? Policymakers in Florida already have three significant reports in the modern era containing extensive details about the problem of public corruption in Florida and recommended ethics reform solutions: The Public Corruption Study Commission report published in 2000 following Executive Order 99-237 by Governor Jeb Bush. The 2009 report of the Palm Beach County grand jury investigation of Palm Beach County governance and public corruption issues. The 2010 report of the nineteenth statewide grand jury called by Governor Charlie Crist. Unfortunately, the Florida Legislature has failed to act on virtually all of the proposed solutions to the problem of corruption identified in these reports. Florida received an overall C-minus grade for corruption risk on State Integrity Investigations Corruption Risk Report Cardxiv. The Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International collaborated with experienced journalists in each state to produce the State Integrity Investigation research. The State Integrity Investigation was an unprecedented, datadriven analysis of each states laws and practices that deter corruption and promote accountability and openness. Journalists graded each state government on its corruption risk using 330 specific measures. The Investigation ranked every state from one to 50. Each state received a report card with letter grades in 14 categories, including campaign finance, ethics laws, lobbying regulations, and management of state pension funds. Integrity Florida is using State Integrity Investigation results as a roadmap to focus our state-level research projects and as a scorecard to measure policy results

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

States that had a strong or very strong overall performance on the State Integrity Investigation Corruption Risk Report Card on ethics enforcement all have ethics commissions with the power to independently initiate investigationsxv: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. New Jersey 92 (very strong) Connecticut 90 (very strong) Iowa 88 (strong) California 84 (strong) West Virginia 83 (strong) Wisconsin 83 (strong) Washington 82 (strong)

Integrity Florida recommends the following policy changes as a roadmap for Florida to go from an 'F' grade to an 'A' on the State Integrity Investigation Corruption Risk Report Card for Florida in the category of Ethics Enforcement Agencies: Summary of Integrity Florida recommendations to reduce corruption risk in state ethics laws Major recommendations that would advance government ethics in Florida and the public's overall confidence in their state and local governments 1. Self-initiate investigations: The states ethics law enforcement agency needs this important tool to effectively enforce the law. With the bi-partisan Ethics Commission providing oversight and authorization, staff should be able to join the 30 other states that already have ethics enforcement agencies that can begin an ethics investigation on their own. This would be the single, most effective change in the ethics laws that could be made, both in terms of actually enforcing the law and in terms of popular confidence in government. The counter-argument is that this power could be misused by a politicized, "witchhunting" Ethics Commission. However, this possibility could be eliminated by requiring more than a majority vote of the Commission members to proceed, which would require members of the minority party to join the majority party on the Commission and would require legislative appointees to join with the Governor's appointees. It likely will require additional resources for the Ethics Commission. This would be a major achievement for the people of Florida. 2. Report corruption hotline: Report corruption hotline to be managed either by the Florida Attorney General or the Florida Commission on Ethics. This allows for better enforcement of the ethics laws. Ethics Commission staff hear from many people who are upset about possible ethics violations (and about other matters,
Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws 5

too), but end up unwilling to file a complaint. This means that ethics violations go unreported and uncorrected. In order to proceed, the Ethics Commission will need actual witnesses and evidence to even establish "probable cause" to proceed to make a case, so there are safeguards against any anonymous trouble-makers. It likely will require additional resources for the Ethics Commission or the Attorney General. This is important and would have to be adopted as part of recommendation #1 (you cannot have a hotline and still require a sworn complaint in order to start an investigation). 3. Ethics code should follow the money: Appropriate aspects of Floridas state ethics code should apply to all who touch public money, including vendors. Ethics laws address the temptation of public officials to compromise their public duties out of consideration for their private interests. That temptation can be initiated by the public official (in an extortionate manner) or by the private entity that stands to gain or lose from the public official's action. To be effective, the ethics laws should apply to both sources of temptation. We have applied some ethics standards to private sector individuals doing business with government (gift prohibitions and reporting, for example) to lobbyists and their principals, and we have applied some standards to private sector people who exercise governmental powers (e.g., city and county attorneys in Sec. 112.313(16) and privatized City Managers (and managers of other political subdivisions) in Sec. 112.3136. No significant problems have been reported in those areas. So there is good precedent to apply appropriate government ethics standards in this way. 4. Require top officials to disclose major transactions: Require all cabinet officials, state legislators, state agency heads and local elected officials to disclose details of all major financial transactions over $1,000 within the previous year, including stock trades, property transactions, changes in business ownership, etc. This will make financial disclosure more effective, and serve as a check on any public official who thinks that he or she may be able to get away with a conflict of interest. The financial disclosure laws have too many loopholes. They were written in the 1970's and need to be re-written to take into account nearly 40 years of experience. At the same time, disclosure could be handled online, over the Internet. This would be a major accomplishment for Florida, even if a different balance of detail reported is reached and each financial transaction isn't reported. 5. Create an online financial disclosure filing system: Create an online, publicly accessible filing system for financial disclosure statements by all state and local officials.

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

This is the way of the future. Also, as part of a revision of the disclosure laws it will result in greater transparency and better compliance with the conflict of interest laws, since the more that people understand what will have to be disclosed, the less likely they are to engage in behavior they don't want to disclose. This will take significantly more up-front funding than the current system. Besides the cost of designing the software and purchasing the hardware, there will also be an ongoing cost for technical support (for the filers who will need help). Recommendations that would improve the current state of the ethics laws without major changes to the system 1. Raise the standard for awarding attorney's fees against complainants: As a way in which to address the perceived "chilling effect" on potential complainants, created by the 1st District Court of Appeal's decision in Brown v. State, Comm'n on Ethics 969 So. 2d 553 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007), the Commission has previously recommended legislatively overturning the case. This would restore the law on recovery of attorney fees to the way it had been construed by the Commissionthat Complainants are held to the same standard applicable to media publications regarding public figures. Right now, a reasonable citizen - who has no personal motivation other than a desire for good government - has to weigh the personal financial consequences of filing a complaint against the potential good to the public of having unethical conduct exposed. Many ask why they should stick their neck out why not let somebody else do it? And they do not file complaints this has been true since the District Court changed the law. People with strong political or personal motivations still file complaints, but normal, reasonable people who read or hear about possible unethical conduct do not. Under the former standard, the Ethics Commission awarded attorney's fees only against the most egregious complainants. 2. Change the burden of proving a violation from "clear and convincing evidence" to a "preponderance of the evidence": Another way to make the ethics laws more enforceable would be to change the burden of proving a violation from "clear and convincing evidence" to a "preponderance of the evidence." The preponderance standard was used by the Commission from 1974 until the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled in Latham v. Florida Comm'n on Ethics, 694 So. 2d 83 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997) that it should be the "clear and convincing" standard. Currently, the "clear and convincing" standard has been applied by some judges as strictly as if it were the criminal burden of proof (beyond a reasonable doubt). The preponderance of the evidence standard should be sufficient since the consequences of an ethics violation are far from criminal. 3. Require ethics training: Mandate 20 hours of ethics, Sunshine Law and public records training for all state and local elected and appointed officials through an annual seminar, which could also be recorded and offered as a free online course to be developed by the
Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws 7

Ethics Commission. Offer a shorter course for government vendors and lobbyists focused on the ethics portion of the training. Ethics awareness will increase ethical conduct through the organization. Requiring a reasonable amount of time and attention to these standards also will improve compliance with the standards, as people become better acquainted with those standards. 4. Increase penalties: Increase the maximum civil penalty for violations of ethics laws from $10,000 to $25,000. If the consensus is that the ethics laws lack "teeth," then one approach would be to increase the range of penalties that could be assessed. The public believes that $10,000 is not enough of a sanction to discourage unethical conduct. More importantly, the Ethics Commission reserves the maximum fine for the worst conduct, and most violations don't entail the worst conduct, so the fines tend to group around $1,000. That truly isn't viewed as a significant penalty. Expanding the maximum would give the Commission a greater range of penalty, enabling it to make better distinctions between degrees of culpability. 5. Improve fine collections: The problem of officials who fail to pay the automatic fines they receive for failing to make financial disclosure is well-documented. Last year, the Commission proposed amending the law to allow it to record its final orders in these matters as liens on the debtor's real property. This year, the Commission may want to consider expanding its proposal to include putting liens on personal property, and/or requiring the Department of Financial Services to assign the cases to a collection attorney (as opposed to a collection agency) who could reduce the fines to a judgment. This should apply only to the automatic fines of up to $1,500 for late-filing or non-filing financial disclosure forms. Other fines (where a complaint was filed and a violation was found) are collected by the Attorney General's office through the courts if necessary. That means there already can be a lien on real property or the basis for a garnishment. This would improve people's confidence in government and enable the Ethics Commission to achieve its goal of 100-percent financial disclosure compliance. There should also be a mechanism to allow the automatic fines to be withheld from the government wages (or government contract payments) of someone who currently is in office or employment or otherwise is being paid by Florida governments. Liens on personal property would mean a lien could be applied to automobiles or other significant assets. 6. Post all core Ethics Commission documents into an online, searchable database: This recommendation would ensure online public access to all core public records currently available from the Florida Commission on Ethics. Each opinion rendered by the Commission is published on its website and the Constitution (Art. II, Sec. 8) requires the Ethics Commission to issue a public report on each complaint it receives. Today,
Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws 8

going public means making something available on the Internet, so all findings, opinions and related materials should be available online. 7. Build an online data archive: Put online all financial disclosure data from all public officials for all available years, 1974 to present. This recommendation would increase transparency and provide easier public access to information that already is a public record. 8. Require annual audit: Require an annual audit of all financial disclosure forms. This recommendation would help to ensure the accuracy of financial disclosure statements. Start with a limited audit of a random sampling of 1% of financial disclosure filings (370 audits) and define what would be "audited" in the statute. The Governors Chief Inspector General or the Florida Division of Financial Services would both be logical managers of this process.

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

Additional Questions for Policymakers to Consider 1. Should disclosure of voting conflicts occur before votes or after votes? Presently, policymakers have up to 15 days after votes to declare conflicts of interest. An upcoming Integrity Florida research report will examine this question. 2. Should state official voting conflict disclosures be housed in an online, searchable database? 3. Where should the conflict of interest line be drawn for state legislators? Presently, state legislators are allowed to receive income from lobbying firms or organizations with state government lobbyists. An upcoming Integrity Florida research report will examine this question. 4. Should the legislature be the final judge of legislators who violate state ethics laws? Perhaps the voters could be offered a constitutional amendment to provide more independence to the Florida Commission on Ethics by enabling that agency to impose penalties? 5. If the state legislature adopts this reports recommendations to allow the Ethics Commission to begin its own investigations and/or establish a report corruption hotline, should anonymous tips from the public be allowed?

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

10

Conclusion The Florida Commission on Ethics staff does a great job with the tools available to them and their Commissioners have demonstrated a high level of fairness and integrity since 1974. With the bi-partisan Ethics Commission providing oversight, Ethics Commission staff should be able to join the 30 other states than can begin an ethics investigation on their own, especially when they learn about a clear ethics law violation through a media report or another public source. That scenario occurs regularly but the Ethics Commission presently must wait for a citizen to file a legally sufficient complaint in order to begin an investigation. Imagine a law enforcement officer seeing a crime in progress and not being able to pursue the suspect until a citizen calls 911 and files a report. That is essentially how we are doing state ethics law enforcement in Florida and the legislature needs to change this process to allow selfinitiation of investigations by the Ethics Commission. There is hope that ethics reform can be accomplished based on recent local-level initiatives. Following a successful 2010 ethics reform effort, Palm Beach County might be considered the capital of Florida ethics reform. The Countys corruption problem escalated following several Palm Beach County commissioners going to prison and Time magazine giving the County the dubious title of "the capital of Florida corruption". Much has changed in Palm Beach for the better since the Time article. Palm Beach County voters implemented several ethics reform measures in 2010, including a stronger code of ethics for public officials than the state code. The county put in place an ethics commission with the power to initiate investigations on its own without having to wait for public complaints. Voters also created an independent inspector general in Palm Beach with secure funding to uncover corruption in local government. These sweeping ethics reforms have earned Palm Beach County a National Association of Counties award and the region is now a national model for how to achieve ethics reform. Palm Beach County was successful because the community came together through a diverse coalition that left the partisanship out of the room. The leader of the reform effort was Marty Rogol, an Integrity Florida board member, who served as chair of Leadership Palm Beach County at the time. Rogol brought together the League of Women Voters, tea party groups, Republicans, Democrats and independents to all agree that corruption was a problem facing their community and ethics reform was the solution. Integrity Florida has built a similar coalition on its board of directors and is serving as a research resource for local and state groups seeking to replicate the successful Palm Beach County ethics reform model. Integrity Florida research reports offer state and local Florida policymakers a roadmap for how to reduce corruption risk. If all Floridians come together to agree that the state has a corruption problem, then the environment will be right for a constructive discussion about the most effective solutions for making government in Florida the most ethical, open, responsive and accountable in the world.

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

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Table 1 Total Federal Public Corruption Convictions by State 2000 2010

State Florida California Texas New York Pennsylvania Ohio Illinois New Jersey Virginia Louisiana D.C. Kentucky Alabama Puerto Rico Tennessee Michigan Georgia Maryland Massachusetts Mississippi Missouri North Carolina Arizona Indiana Oklahoma Wisconsin Connecticut Washington Colorado Arkansas Guam West Virginia Montana Minnesota South Carolina Alaska 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Total 107 96 52 55 90 42 83 69 66 69 52 781 74 66 64 75 77 85 65 76 58 69 44 753 44 62 49 71 60 69 49 55 112 99 71 741 81 68 82 63 76 82 51 44 48 38 37 670 51 61 72 74 41 56 67 40 36 41 54 593 56 51 50 37 58 49 43 49 37 56 65 551 59 30 30 60 42 74 38 42 56 58 52 541 28 28 28 41 44 39 47 62 49 44 47 457 29 25 30 11 37 25 51 36 74 62 62 442 23 32 30 25 30 38 49 42 39 44 55 407 46 43 44 20 33 15 25 22 66 28 41 383 25 17 27 26 28 14 27 39 28 41 34 306 12 26 28 14 13 26 51 52 20 28 15 285 10 9 101 24 31 6 20 2 37 28 17 285 11 15 21 25 30 36 35 42 12 21 21 269 11 27 24 24 30 22 25 12 33 18 30 256 2 24 33 21 13 32 9 8 24 25 37 228 8 8 6 12 28 17 36 21 39 32 21 228 6 15 8 22 17 15 28 29 19 28 27 214 23 24 20 27 14 5 7 25 17 15 24 201 12 10 13 10 10 21 20 20 31 24 25 196 9 13 19 20 25 13 24 26 17 9 18 193 8 1 4 10 9 48 16 32 20 19 16 183 11 6 6 20 17 14 9 24 14 18 12 151 9 12 7 4 4 21 18 9 22 22 14 142 12 13 10 11 13 20 16 12 6 9 4 126 8 14 3 12 8 24 11 17 5 2 4 108 17 10 6 3 18 13 2 9 12 3 8 101 3 22 16 7 8 11 4 3 4 14 6 98 8 0 3 19 18 4 10 8 5 3 17 95 19 19 13 16 9 5 2 0 3 6 3 95 6 3 4 8 10 17 9 2 6 4 9 78 16 3 13 2 7 1 8 0 8 7 10 75 4 8 8 3 9 3 6 3 7 13 6 70 13 8 5 8 8 0 3 4 8 7 2 66 16 6 5 0 0 1 3 15 8 1 9 64
12

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

South Dakota North Dakota Iowa New Mexico Delaware Hawaii Kansas Virgin Islands Nevada Oregon Utah Maine Idaho Rhode Island Nebraska New Hampshire Vermont Wyoming

2 2 0 7 1 3 8 6 6 4 2 5 5 5 0 2 2 1

2 2 0 2 8 2 5 4 5 3 2 2 4 2 0 0 2 0

4 5 3 2 7 10 6 6 6 1 8 0 7 6 1 5 0 0

3 16 9 2 3 4 0 2 6 3 5 5 4 0 2 3 3 2

2 5 2 5 5 14 5 2 0 0 0 2 3 2 2 0 0 1

3 9 4 3 2 4 3 2 0 4 6 3 1 4 4 2 2 8

13 2 2 6 7 5 0 8 3 6 1 4 1 2 3 0 0 0

4 6 9 3 5 1 2 3 4 11 7 4 1 1 0 0 1 1

11 4 9 6 7 2 5 2 0 3 5 8 1 2 8 4 5 1

8 0 4 9 1 1 4 0 7 5 3 5 1 1 2 1 0 2

9 6 11 7 1 0 5 7 4 1 1 1 0 3 4 1 2 1

61 57 53 52 47 46 43 42 41 41 40 39 28 28 26 18 17 17

Source: USDOJ Public Integrity Section Reports to Congress 2000-2010

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

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Table 2 Forbes: America's Most Miserable Cities, February 2012 Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 City Miami, Fla. Detroit, Mich. Flint, Mich. West Palm Beach, Fla. Sacramento, Calif. Chicago, Ill. Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Toledo, Ohio Rockford, Ill. Warren, Mich.

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

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Table 3 USDOJ Federal Public Corruption Convictions (1976-2010)

Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

State New York California Illinois Florida Pennsylvania Texas Ohio D.C. New Jersey Louisiana Virginia Tennessee Georgia Alabama Michigan Kentucky Massachusetts Mississippi Missouri Maryland Oklahoma North Carolina Indiana Puerto Rico South Carolina Arizona Wisconsin Connecticut West Virginia Guam

USDOJ Federal Public Corruption Convictions (19762010) 2522 2345 1828 1762 1563 1542 1405 1005 909 906 896 843 807 657 655 577 562 560 507 499 472 461 419 405 401 329 292 277 208 204

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

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31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 T-48 T-48 50 51

Arkansas Washington Minnesota Colorado Kansas Iowa South Dakota New Mexico Montana Alaska North Dakota Hawaii Maine Nevada Oregon Virgin Islands Utah Nebraska Rhode Island Delaware Idaho New 52 Hampshire 53 Wyoming 54 Vermont

201 200 190 189 152 148 144 139 136 130 118 114 105 100 91 87 86 83 83 80 78 46 45 30

Source: USDOJ Public Integrity Section Reports to Congress 1978-2010

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

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Table 4 USDOJ Federal Public Corruption Convictions (1976-2010) Alphabetical

Rank 14 40 26 31 2 34 28 8 50 4 13 30 42 51 3 23 36 35 16 10 43 20 17 15 33 18 19 39 T-48 44

State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut D.C. Delaware Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada

USDOJ Federal Public Corruption Convictions (19762010) 657 130 329 201 2345 189 277 1005 80 1762 807 204 114 78 1828 419 148 152 577 906 105 499 562 655 190 560 507 136 83 100

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

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52 9 38 1 22 41 7 21 45 5 24 T-48 25 37 12 6 47 54 46 11 32 29 27 53

New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

46 909 139 2522 461 118 1405 472 91 1563 405 83 401 144 843 1542 86 30 87 896 200 208 292 45

Source: USDOJ Public Integrity Section Reports to Congress 1978-2010

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

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Table 5 USDOJ Federal Public Corruption Convictions in Florida & Florida Commission on Ethics Complaints 1976-2011

Year 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

USDOJ Federal Public Corruption Convictions (Florida) 5 1 8 1 18 10 5 22 37 16 18 38 43 81 70 48 48 43 56 69 60 54 96 134 107 96 52 55 90 42 83 69

Florida Commission on Ethics Complaints 55 69 80 77 63 74 116 112 98 328 145 95 145 163 271 188 227 191 177 170 245 199 210 184 295 186 187 209 243 190 288 256
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Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

2008 2009 2010 2011

66 69 52 N/A

167 176 190 169

Source: USDOJ Public Integrity Section Reports to Congress 1978-2010 and data provided by the Florida Commission on Ethics through public records request

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

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Table 6 Total Federal Public Corruption Convictions by State 1999

State Florida California New York Illinois D.C. Mississippi Pennsylvania Ohio Texas New Jersey Michigan Missouri Virginia Alabama Kentucky Louisiana Tennessee Massachusetts North Carolina Puerto Rico Oklahoma Georgia Virgin Islands South Carolina Washington Indiana Nevada Connecticut Minnesota Maryland Arizona Guam West Virginia Kansas Arkansas Montana
Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

1999 134 88 67 60 60 59 57 54 53 43 26 26 25 25 25 24 22 21 14 13 12 11 11 11 11 9 9 8 8 7 7 7 6 6 5 5
21

Idaho Utah Wisconsin Alaska Oregon Rhode Island Delaware Hawaii Iowa Vermont South Dakota Colorado Wyoming New Hampshire Maine Nebraska North Dakota New Mexico

5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 N/A

Source: USDOJ Public Integrity Section Reports to Congress 1978-2010

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

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Table 7 Total Federal Public Corruption Convictions by State 2000

State Florida New York California Illinois Ohio Pennsylvania D.C. Texas Virginia New Jersey Kentucky Mississippi Louisiana Guam Washington Montana Alaska South Carolina Missouri Alabama Wisconsin Michigan Tennessee Indiana Puerto Rico North Carolina Oklahoma Connecticut Maryland Arizona Kansas Arkansas New Mexico Massachusetts Virgin Islands Nevada
Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

2000 107 81 74 59 56 51 46 44 29 28 25 23 23 19 17 16 16 13 12 12 12 11 11 11 10 9 9 8 8 8 8 8 7 6 6 6
23

West Virginia Idaho Rhode Island Maine Minnesota Oregon Hawaii Colorado Georgia Utah Vermont South Dakota New Hampshire North Dakota Delaware Wyoming Iowa Nebraska

6 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 0

Source: USDOJ Public Integrity Section Reports to Congress 1978-2010

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

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Table 8 Total Federal Public Corruption Convictions by State 2001

State Florida New York California Texas Pennsylvania Ohio D.C. Louisiana Illinois New Jersey Michigan Alabama Virginia Mississippi Georgia Colorado Guam Kentucky Tennessee Massachusetts Connecticut Wisconsin North Carolina Oklahoma Washington Missouri Puerto Rico South Carolina Maryland Minnesota Delaware Alaska Indiana Kansas Nevada Virgin Islands
Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

2001 96 68 66 62 61 51 43 32 30 28 27 26 25 24 24 22 19 17 15 15 14 13 13 12 10 10 9 8 8 8 8 6 6 5 5 4
25

Idaho Montana West Virginia Oregon New Mexico Rhode Island Maine Hawaii Utah Vermont South Dakota North Dakota Arizona Arkansas New Hampshire Wyoming Iowa Nebraska

4 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0

Source: USDOJ Public Integrity Section Reports to Congress 1978-2010

Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

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Table 9 Total Federal Public Corruption Convictions by State 2004

State Florida California New York Texas Ohio New Jersey Illinois Pennsylvania Virginia D.C. Puerto Rico Louisiana Michigan Tennessee Kentucky Maryland North Carolina Washington Arkansas Massachusetts Indiana Mississippi Hawaii Alabama Georgia Wisconsin Missouri West Virginia Guam Minnesota Arizona Colorado Connecticut South Carolina Montana Delaware
Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

2004 90 77 76 60 58 44 42 41 37 33 31 30 30 30 28 28 25 18 18 17 17 14 14 13 13 13 10 10 9 9 9 8 8 8 7 5
27

Kansas New Mexico North Dakota Oklahoma Idaho Virgin Islands Rhode Island Maine South Dakota Iowa Nebraska Wyoming Alaska Nevada Oregon Utah Vermont New Hampshire

5 5 5 4 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

Source: USDOJ Public Integrity Section Reports to Congress 1978-2010

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Table 10 Total Federal Public Corruption Convictions by State 2006

State Florida Pennsylvania California New York Virginia Alabama Texas Louisiana New Jersey Ohio Illinois Maryland Tennessee Massachusetts Kentucky D.C. Michigan North Carolina Puerto Rico Missouri Oklahoma Wisconsin Arizona South Dakota Connecticut Arkansas Indiana Georgia West Virginia Montana Virgin Islands Mississippi Delaware Minnesota New Mexico Oregon
Corruption Risk Report: Florida Ethics Laws

2006 83 67 65 51 51 51 49 49 47 43 38 36 35 28 27 25 25 24 20 20 18 16 16 13 11 10 9 9 9 8 8 7 7 6 6 6
29

Hawaii Colorado Maine South Carolina Nebraska Alaska Nevada Washington Guam North Dakota Rhode Island Iowa Idaho Utah Kansas Wyoming Vermont New Hampshire

5 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 0

Source: USDOJ Public Integrity Section Reports to Congress 1978-2010

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Notes
i

U.S. Department of Justice Reports to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity Section for 1978-2010. Available at http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pin/. ii http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2012/02/02/americas-most-miserable-cities/ iii State Integrity Investigation, Florida Corruption Risk Report Card, 19 March 2012, Available at www.stateintegrity.org/florida. iv #2011-03-Executive Order that adopts a revised Code of Ethics and re-establishes the Office of Open Government. v University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Political Science and the Illinois Integrity Initiative of the University of Illinois Institute for Government and Public Affairs Chicago and Illinois, Leading the Pack in Corruption. Available at http://www.uic.edu/depts/pols/ChicagoPolitics/leadingthepack.pdf vi U.S. Department of Justice Reports to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity Section for 1978-2010. Available at http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pin/. vii U.S. Department of Justice Reports to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity Section for 1978-2010. Available at http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pin/. viii U.S. Department of Justice Reports to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity Section for 1978-2010. Available at http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pin/. ix U.S. Department of Justice Reports to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity Section for 1978-2010. Available at http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pin/ x U.S. Department of Justice Reports to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity Section for 1978-2010. Available at http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pin/ xi U.S. Department of Justice Reports to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity Section for 1978-2010. Available at http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pin/ xii U.S. Department of Justice Reports to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity Section for 1978-2010. Available at http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pin/ xiii http://www.cityethics.org/content/problems-new-report-chicagos-level-corruption xiv State Integrity Investigation, Florida Corruption Risk Report Card, 19 March 2012, available at www.stateintegrity.org/florida. xv Data provided directly from Global Integrity

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