Lobbyist Complains about Ethics Dept. Non-Enforcement of Lobbyist Rules. By Geniusofdespair

When Lobbyists start complaining about other lobbyists you know that the Ethics Department is NOT NOT doing its job. Why should a lobbyist have to point this out?

In an Op Ed in today's Miami Herald, Dusty Melton - Lobbyist, said:

The Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust is an embarrassment. How else to describe an agency that repeatedly turns a blind eye when lobbyists try to manipulate local government in violation of the County Code?

His complaint is about Donald Trump Lobbying the County and Ethics doing nothing:

Trump’s two letters, Trump’s proposal and Trump’s check were not casual chatter. Everything had become very formalized, in writing, and with real money invested. The first letter was serious. The second letter and proposal were way more so, driven by the County Code. Everything was a strategic and ongoing initiative by a consequential person who was beseeching the county’s mayor and senior administrators to make a decision that he, Donald Trump, very much desired.

That’s the textbook definition of lobbying, and hereabouts there is a legal requirement to register with the clerk of the County Commission before any lobbying occurs. Trump failed to do that.

A local blogger, Al Crespo, filed a complaint at the Ethics Commission against Trump for his failure to register. The written evidence strongly supports Crespo’s complaint.

Remarkably, the Ethics Commission recently dismissed the complaint. Even though it had copies of both Trump letters, Trump’s formal proposal and Trump’s big check — all four of them bearing his signature — the commission and its staff put them aside, focusing instead only on Trump’s playtime with the mayor.

Despite the documentation of Trump’s repeated, ongoing lobbying efforts, this was stated during the commission’s closed-to-the-public discussion of Crespo’s complaint: “The conclusion was that Mr. Trump was not required to be registered as a lobbyist because he wasn’t lobbying on the golf course.”

Thanks Dusty and fellow blogger Al Crespo for bringing this to our attention.