Former Palm Beach County commissioner Mary McCarty, serving time for a felony federal honest services fraud conviction, sat with a Palm Beach Post reporter last week for an exclusive interview at the minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas.

She talked about feeling “entitled” to play by her own set of rules when she was a commissioner, about her daily routine at the prison camp, about former colleagues/felons Tony Masilotti and Warren Newell, about the recent Supreme Court decision that narrowed the honest services fraud law and about the questions that arise among her fellow inmates when they see the avalanche of mail McCarty gets.

Read the article here.

Palm Beach County wouldn’t seem to be Kendrick Meek’s favorite place.

It gave him Jeff Greene, a Palm Beacher who became his primary opponent in the U.S. Senate race.  And then, after Meek in August handily dispatched the multimillionaire, it gave him a group of Democrats who asked him to get out of the race and/or endorsed one of his opponents, independent candidate Charlie Crist.

But, Meek said tonight, there are no hard feelings.

A little more than 12 hours before he is to face Crist and GOP candidate Marco Rubio in a 9 a.m debate in Tampa, Meek showed up at the Palm Beach County Democratic Party’s annual party at the convention center in West Palm Beach.

“You’ve been the battleground of my entire candidacy for the United States Senate,” he told a cheering crowd of roughly 350 who gathered for the black tie event. “And we know that there are a number of folks amongst our ranks in this general election who decided to do something else, that they figured out that they had the right kind of math even though the person who they are looking to support is not a person who upholds the principles of our party or what we believe in.”

His not-so-veiled references to endorsements Crist received from leading county Democrats, including Palm Beach County Commissioners Burt Aaronson and Shelley Vana, former U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler and state Senator-elect Maria Sachs spurred boos from the audience.

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“It’s an underhanded political tactic. He is a third-party weak candidate and the only chance he has is to spread rumors about me. We’re in the race til Nov. 2. Our surveys show this is going to be a very close race and we have an excellent chance to win.”

The above quote is not from Democratic Senate nominee Kendrick Meek accusing indie Charlie Crist of trying to undermine his campaign. It comes instead from Republican Palm Beach County commission nominee John Carroll, who says he’s had to bat down rumors he might drop his challenge of Democratic incumbent Jess Santamaria.

Carroll says the rumors are false, and he accuses no-party candidate Andrew “Andy” Schaller of spreading them.

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Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek canceled tomorrow’s meeting with Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson, saying it would be a waste of time because he believed the influential Democratic had already decided to endorse no-party candidate Gov. Charlie Crist in the U.S. Senate race.

The cancellation capped a day that started with news that a Palm Beach County political action committee had voted to ask Aaronson to urge Meek to get out of the race and continued with a largely incoherent telephone press conference that featured Democratic leaders insisting Meek wouldn’t pull out.

“I certainly understand his feelings,” Aaronson said of Meek’s decision not to meet with him alone or with a group he planned to put together.

A statement from Meek’s campaign showed the congressman was steamed by the entire chain of events.

“Unfortunately, it’s clear that this process is a charade and I don’t make it a habit to attend Charlie Crist campaign events,” his campaign said of the aborted Aaronson confab. “I’m going to spend my time talking to Democrats and undecided voters and not with those willing to stand with conservative Republicans.”

“I don’t need to attend an event with a small group of Crist supports trying to hijack the Democratic process,” the statement continued. “They have never been with my campaign.” 

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Check out this picture of the Palm Beach County commission from 2003. Three commissioners (Tony Masilotti, front right; Warren Newell, front left; Mary McCarty, back left) have gone to federal prison on corruption charges.

A fourth, Jeff Koons (back row, second from left) was booked into the Palm Beach County jail early this morning and is expected to appear before a judge today on charges of extortion, perjury and violating Florida’s open-meetings law.

Click here to see the sheriff’s booking information on Koons, who checked into the Gun Club Road jail at 3:41 a.m.

Palm Beach County Commission Chairman Burt Aaronson asked Gov. Charlie Crist to keep the lid on his veto pen regarding $175,000 in the state budget for the county’s juvenile assessment center.

Crist, who has until Friday to use his line-item veto on the $70 billion budget, is expected to axe tens of millions of dollars in local projects tucked into the state spending plan. His office is finishing up work on the budget today and is likely to release the final product tomorrow.

The $175,000 is part of a $25.3 million project to design and build a new complex that will house both the county juvenile assessment center and the juvenile detention center and was recommended by state Department of Juvenile Justice.

“We believe housing these two facilities together will enable the Department to provide wraparound services to at-risk families and will lead to increased efficiency in meeting the needs of these children,” Aaronson wrote in a letter to Crist sent yesterday.

The funding is a county priority, Aaronson wrote, to replace the current assessment center shared by the school district, DJJ, the county, the state attorney and others.

DJJ currently leases space from the airport and subleases it to the other agencies, but the lease is scheduled to expire soon.

The Senate gave final approval to a measure pushed by the Palm Beach County Commission that would allow counties and cities to go beyond current state law in fines and jail time for county officials and staff who violate local ethics ordinances or financial disclosure requirements.

The measure now heads to Gov. Charlie Crist.

Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat running for attorney general, said he sponsored the bill (SB 1980) on behalf of county officials after “three of the seven county commissioners ended up in jail” on public corruption charges.

Under the measure, counties like Palm Beach could double the current fine from $500 to $1,000 and extend jail time from 60 days to one year for corrupt officials.

The House refused to pass a harsher public corruption measure (SB 902) pushed by Palm Beach County’s State Attorney Michael McAuliffe.

His anti-corruption proposals, sponsored by former federal prosecutor and Aronberg primary opponent Sen. Dan Gelber, would have made it a crime for any public official to knowingly withhold information about a financial interest in something on they vote or cause to take place. It would would also have required disclosure of financial interests that could benefit a family member.

Another would enhance penalties for crimes, such as official misconduct, that public officials commit in their official capacity.

UPDATE: The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee unanimously approved (SB 902) a tougher measure than the House’s version.

The Florida House approved a measure that would allow counties and cities to go beyond current state law in fines and jail time for county officials and staff who violate local ethics ordinances or financial disclosure requirements.

Under the measure, counties like Palm Beach could double the current fine from $500 to $1,000 and extend jail time from 60 days to one year for corrupt officials.

The House approved the bill (HB 1301) – one of Palm Beach County’s top priorities this session – by a 111-1 vote today, but the Senate is taking a different approach.

The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee is about to combine the ethics proposal with two measures that would impose much harsher penalties on corrupt officials pushed by Palm Beach State Attorney Michael McAuliffe.

Both anti-corruption proposals are being blended with a measure (SB 902) that would increase the legislature’s oversight over state agencies’ contracting, a priority for powerful Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, chairman of the committee.

One of the harsher measures would make it a crime for any public official to knowingly withhold information about a financial interest in something on they vote or cause to take place. It would would also require disclosure of financial interests that could benefit a family member.

Another would enhance penalties for crimes, such as official misconduct, that public officials commit in their official capacity.

The two stricter measures are sponsored by Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in corruption cases. The PBC-backed proposal is sponsored by Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres. The two colleagues are running against each other in a Democratic primary for attorney general.

McAuliffe said the changes in the law would make it possible for the state rather than federal officials to prosecute officials like the three former Palm Beach County commissioners and two city commissioners who went to prison on federal corruption charges.

Palm Beach County officials said those bills aren’t a priority and aren’t working to make sure those bills (SB 1076, 734) pass.

Ending one of the longest drumrolls in Palm Beach County political history, County Commissioner Jess Santamaria announced he’s running for a second term this year.

The 72-year-old Democrat said he originally intended to serve only one term, but was besieged by requests from “complete strangers” to run again. Santamaria ally Michael E. Jackson, who opened a campaign for the seat last week believing Santamaria wouldn’t run, said he’s “surprised.”

Only a few weeks ago, Santamaria said he was torn over whether to run again, describing his job as half rewarding and half “waste of time.”

A “Corruption County”-inspired bill that would beef up penalties for county officials who violate ethics ordinances moved forward in a House committee this afternoon.

The changes that would allow counties to go beyond current state law in fines and jail time for county officials and staff who violate local ethics ordinances or financial disclosure requirements.

Under the measure, counties like Palm Beach could double the current fine from $500 to $1,000 and extend jail time from 60 days to one year for corrupt officials.

The House Public Safety and Domestic Security Policy Committee unanimously approved Rep. Kevin Rader’s bill (HB 1301) today.

Rader, D-Delray Beach, and fellow Palm Beacher Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, sponsored the proposals at the request of Palm Beach County officials.

A $1,000 fine may not seem like much of a price to pay for politicos who’ve been convicted of taken thousands of dollars in bribes, steering hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts to their buddies or voting on multi-million dollar deals in which they have a financial stake.

But, Rader said, the fine “and a year in jail is a step in the right direction.”

Palm Beach County recently established an ethics panel in an effort to shed its “Corruption County” image. In the past four years, three former county commissioners and two West Palm Beach city commissioners were sent to prison on corruption charges.

Michael E. Jackson, the runner-up to eventual Palm Beach County Commissioner Jess Santamaria in a 2006 Democratic primary, said today he’s planning to run for Santamaria’s District 6 seat this year whether or not the incumbent decides to seek reelection.

Jackson, 44, is a former South Bay commissioner and city manager and former regional service director for the South Florida Water Management District. Now a consultant, he was tapped by Santamaria as a “liaison” between the county government and Glades and received $184,485 from the county over three years for his services.

Santamaria has described himself as torn over whether to seek a second term. He says he loves half his job, but “the other 50 percent is a total waste of time on a lot of nonsense, minutia, insignificant issues, having to listen to people who love to (hear) themselves talk during meetings, too many social events, ribbon cuttings, etc., etc., etc.”

Indian Trail Improvement District President Michelle Damone, also a Democrat, appears to be leaning toward a run as well. Democrat Elissa Pearl opened a campaign for the seat last year but hasn’t been visible on the campaign trail and has said she won’t run if Santamaria does.

Santamaria won a four-candidate Democratic primary in 2006 with 42.1 percent. Jackson got 24.9 percent to finish second. Santamaria then won the general election with 58.5 percent over Republican John Carroll and no-party candidate Penny “The Acreage’ Riccio.

Jackson said he picked up candidate papers today and plans to file them Monday.

With Palm Beach “Corruption” County in mind, lawmakers are moving toward stiffening local ordinances combating ethics violations.

Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, is backing a bill that allow counties to increase the current penalties for violations of county ordinances imposing ethical standards and financial disclosure requirements from 60 days in jail to one year in jail and double the fine from $500 to $1,000 per occurance.

The Senate Community Affairs Committee signed off on Aronberg’s proposal (SB 1980) this afternoon with a 9-1 vote.

Aronberg sponsored the bill at the behest of the scandal-plagued Palm Beach County Commission, which recently established an ethics panel in the wake of a federal corruption probe that landed three former county commissioners in prison. Palm Beach County Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Boynton Beach, is the House bill (HB 1301) sponsor.

Aronberg said the measure, which would apply to all counties if it becomes law, puts teeth into local ordinances.

“Living in Palm Beach County, I’m well aware this has become a priority for the voters in my district,” Aronberg, who is running in a statewide Democratic primary for attorney general against Senate colleague Dan Gelber. “Hopefully, this will help remove our reputation as ‘Corruption County.’”

If Palm Beach County Commissioner Jess Santamaria decides to run for reelection despite his complaints that half his job is a “waste of time,” he could face a Democratic primary challenge from Indian Trail Improvement District President Michelle Damone.

Damone was among the elected officials who attended last week’s Tallahassee meeting on cancer concerns in The Acreage — a meeting Santamaria skipped because it didn’t include face time with Gov. Charlie Crist.

“He should have been here. It was disappointing,” Damone said of Santamaria.

Read more in this week’s Politics column.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Jess Santamaria, wrestling with a decision on whether to seek reelection this year, says half his job is interesting and rewarding, but the other half is “a total waste of time.”

Santamaria, who represents western-county District 6, came into office saying he was focused only on a single term. But he never unequivocally ruled out seeking reelection, and Santamaria now says he and his wife are “seriously discussing my serving a second term.”

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The Senate quietly approved a measure designed to clean up the Public Service Commission with a 39-1 vote this afternoon.

The bill (SB 1034) would make public all communications between the utilities the panel regulates and the commissioners or their advisory staff.

It would also bar commissioners or high-level staff from going to work or lobbying for the utilities for four years after they leave the PSC, double the current two-year limitation, aimed at stopping the “revolving door” between the commission and the utilities they make billion-dollar decisions about.

The bill will make certain that former commissioners and staff “will not be able to continue what they’ve done in the past and for a change our consumers will be represented,” the bill’s sponsor Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, argued.

The changes come from a 1992 grand jury report that lawmakers largely ignored designed to keep regulators and utility representatives at arm’s length.

This year’s proposal came about in the wake of reports that PSC staff and a Florida Power & Light Co. lawyer were swapping secret BlackBerry messages. Other details about questionable relationships between FPL and the commission were revealed during Juno Beach-based FPL’s proposed $1.2 billion rate hike hearing.

On the opening day of FPL’s rate increase hearing last year, Commissioner Nathan Skop revealed that the PSC’s lobbyist, Ryder Rudd, had attended a Kentucky Derby party at the Palm Beach Gardens home of FPL Vice President Ed Tancer. Rudd later quit.

Since then, the agency has struggled through investigations into BlackBerry messages exchanged between the PSC and an FPL attorney, a myriad of ethics complaints and allegations of interference from political leaders, including Gov. Charlie Crist, who threatened to not reappoint any commissioners who voted in favor of the rate hike.

The bill would also require that the commissioners behave more like judges by applying the canons of judicial conduct, including refraining from inappropriate political activity and avoiding the appearance of impropriety.

Public Service Chairwoman Nancy Argenziano is backing the proposed changes.

Recognizing Palm Beach County day today, PBC home-boy Sen. Dave Aronberg recited some facts about the state’s largest county before giving a shout-out to some county officials watching the Senate session from the East Gallery.

Aronberg, D-Greenacres, introduced PBC Commissioner Burt Aaronson as “The Godfather of Palm Beach County.”

Aaronson was first elected to the commission in 1992.

Aronberg’s intro may be considered a dubious distinction, considering that three of Aaronson’s former county commission colleagues are in prison for corruption charges.

A new Palm Beach County Ethics Commission, created by county commissioners last year in response to the corruption convictions of five local elected officials between 2006 and 2009, holds its first meeting Tuesday in West Palm Beach.

Among the first orders of business for the five-member commission will be choosing a chairman and vice-chairman.

The ethics panel, plus representatives from the State Attorney and Public Defender offices, will sit as the selection committee for a new inspector general position. The inspector general post, modeled after one in Miami-Dade County, is the centerpiece of reforms approved Dec. 1. Applications for the inspector general’s job and for a new executive director for the ethics commission are due Friday.

The ethics panelists were chosen by a variety of groups outside county government. Read about them after the jump…..

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Boca Raton attorney Robert Weinroth is considering a challenge of Republican Palm Beach County Commissioner Steven Abrams and spent $5,000 on a poll with questions linking Abrams to Fort Lauderdale Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein, whose imploded law firm employed Abrams in its Boca office.

Read about it this week’s Politics column.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Jeff Koons asked utility regulators to approve Florida Power & Light Co.’s $1.2 billion rate hike, saying the utility is the county’s largest employer and needed the extra money to help the state go green.

The Public Service Commission yesterday instead slashed FPL’s rate hike to just $75 million and limited the amount of profit the Juno Beach-based utility can earn to 10 percent, far less than the 12.5 percent return on equity it sought.

“While no one – especially in the current economy – looks forward to higher electric bills, FPL’s proposed rate increase is necessary in order to make a greater investment in green technology, energy sources that will ultimately protect the consumer from uncertainties and bill fluctuations in the future,” Koons wrote in a letter to commissioners on Jan. 5 expressing his personal opinion on the rate case.

FPL President Armando Olivera said the company will immediately halt modernization projects at its Riviera Beach and Cape Canaveral power plants and cease moving forward with most of its efforts to build two new nuclear reactors at its Turkey Point facility.

He said the projects could have brought 20,000 new jobs to Florida over the next five years.

Our Jennifer Sorentrue reports that Palm Beach County commissioners this morning approved a one-year moratorium on approving new pain-management clinics amid concerns that drugs are being dispensed with insufficient controls.

A recent Palm Beach Post investigation found that more than 30 such clinics have opened in the county since 2007. Among the people running pain businesses are convicted drug dealers, serial criminals and former addicts, according to a review of county, state and federal records.

Libertarian commission candidate Karl Dickey blasted this morning’s 6-0 vote, saying commissioners are “punishing the many for the actions of a few. Whereas we understand some pain-management clinics have abused the system, it is outrageous for the county government to ban the ability of legitimate clinics from opening.”

Dickey is the only announced challenger to Republican Commissioner Steven Abrams.

Read Dickey’s entire statement after the jump…..

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