JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A new state law signed into effect Friday has the Jacksonville Ethics Commission sounding the alarm.
The commission acts as a watchdog for city government and investigates complaints against local officials and its chair said the stricter reporting requirements will dramatically impair anti-corruption efforts at the local government level.
The law limits how local ethics investigations can begin, and it requires more from those who do decide to come forward. Proponents said the change will curb political persecution, but the Jacksonville Ethics Commission Chair Juanita Dixon said she thinks it will have a chilling effect.
“It’s definitely going to, in my opinion, hinder our ability to handle complaints,” Dixon said.
Dixon is concerned about a new state law that requires complaints to the commission to be based on personal knowledge and signed by the person blowing the whistle.
“When you are requiring people to sign their names and swear a complaint against potentially their boss, or you know, someone that’s powerful in the community, you know, someone that’s an agency head, you really are putting them in a position where, in some people’s minds, they’re putting their livelihood on the line, they’re putting their jobs on the line,” she said.
The law also prevents a local ethics commission from initiating an investigation on its own, although Dixon said that’s only happened twice in the past decade or so in Jacksonville.
The city’s ethics commission is composed of 10 members. Seven are appointed by local officials, including the mayor, sheriff, and public defender. Three members are appointed by the commission.
At City Hall on Monday, the Commission guided local officials through hours of ethics training on things like navigating gift offers and the Florida Sunshine Law.
Proponents of the ethics investigation changes, such as Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, have said they will help prevent complaints from being used to bludgeon political opponents.
“I just think that the level of weaponization among parties that would seek to use this justifies now a higher standard,” Renner said.
But Dixon said the investigative process includes due process and weeds out baseless claims.
“You have to trust the process, you know, and let it you know, let those who do their job do their job. And then in the end, you know, the true It always prevails,” Dixon said.
The Jacksonville Ethics Commission’s annual report last year shows out of the 15 cases they investigated nine were dismissed, and only one was referred to the Office of the Inspector General for further action. The other cases remained under investigation into 2024.
Several watchdog groups, including the Jacksonville Ethics Commission, had urged Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto the bill.
Dixon said hopes people will pressure the legislature to take another look at the changes in the next session.